Gaza Healthcare System

Simon Opher Excerpts

Tuesday 24th February 2026 Westminster Hall

[Dr Simon Opher (Stroud) (Lab)]

I beg to move,

That this House has considered Government support for the healthcare system in Gaza.

It is a privilege to serve under your chairmanship, Sir Jeremy, and I thank the Minister for attending. I also thank the Backbench Business Committee and the co-signatories of my application for the debate. I place on the record my thanks to Médecins Sans Frontières UK and Professor Ramzi Khamis for their assistance in my preparations.

This debate could not have come at a more crucial time for healthcare in Gaza: in about a week’s time, many aid agencies that provide medical care will be barred from operating there. I believe there might be an urgent question to the Foreign Secretary about this very situation today, so it is a live debate. I thank all those who have asked to speak about this crucial issue.

In June last year, when preparing to go to the main Chamber for Foreign Office oral questions, I received a phone call from my colleague, Dr Rebecca Inglis, who works for Healthcare Workers Watch. She told me that, just hours before, a GP in Gaza was killed by an Israeli soldier, shot in the head. I do not know why—perhaps because I am also a GP—but that really hit home about the situation in Gaza. More than 1,000 healthcare workers have now been murdered in Gaza, while countless others remain detained.

As well as the healthcare system in Gaza, I would like to talk about healthocide as a concept. The deliberate targeting of healthcare workers is becoming an instrument of war, not just in Gaza but in other places in the world. Healthcare workers do not have sides and are not partisan; the only side they are on is the side of humanity. We must stop this developing situation in the world. In addition, the healthcare system in Gaza is near to total collapse after such targeting. As I said, in a week’s time many aid agencies—over 30 of them—will be barred from working in Gaza. I will, then, discuss both those issues.

The targeting of healthcare workers in Gaza has been widespread and well documented. Since October 2023, 1,700 healthcare workers have been killed, hospitals have been bombed and raided, and senior doctors have been detained. I talked to one healthcare worker in Gaza who said that they could not leave the hospital in scrubs because they would be identified as a healthcare worker and arrested. Later this evening, I will host a launch event for the investigation of the Gaza aid-worker massacre on 23 March last year, when 15 emergency workers were massacred by Israeli forces.

I could not come to this debate without mentioning the tragic case of Hind Rajab, a five-year-old Palestinian girl who was murdered by Israeli forces alongside six of her family members. Crucially, two paramedics who were coming to save her life were also killed. Her voice will continue to haunt the world. I hope to meet her mother later today, and I want to be able to look her in the eye and say that this Government are doing all they can to prevent another such situation as happened to her daughter.

Healthocide is becoming a new phenomenon in war. More than 13 years ago in Syria, for example, healthcare workers were systematically targeted by the then Syrian Government and Russian forces. The same is happening in Sudan now. There is, then, a bigger point, and we must stop this happening. This country should campaign on healthocide in the world.

The situation in Gaza is grim for healthcare: not a single hospital is fully functional in the Gaza strip, while 50% of them are partially functional; only 1.5% of primary healthcare centres, or three out of 200, are fully functional; and not a single hospital is operating in northern Gaza or Rafah. Healthcare workers conduct more than 100 consultations a day; in British general practice, I am not allowed to do more than 25, so that gives a feeling of how much work these people are doing. That is putting an enormous strain on the healthcare system.

An interim rapid damage and needs assessment conducted jointly by the United Nations, the EU and the World Bank found that more than $1.47 billion-worth of damages had been inflicted on the health sector, and that reconstruction will cost about $8 billion. There is a massive need to rebuild the healthcare facilities in Gaza.

Two weeks ago, I heard direct testimony from a British doctor who had just returned from Gaza. She witnessed the wilful destruction of medical equipment—for example, cutting off the ends of all the ultrasound machines—and the systematic destruction of medical data. She described seeing patients arriving with sniper wounds that were so precise they were clearly made to cause lifelong disabilities and therefore harm young people in Gaza.

[Claire Hazelgrove (Filton and Bradley Stoke) (Lab)]

Like me, many residents across the Filton and Bradley Stoke constituency have been horrified to see the scale of human suffering on the ground in Gaza. It is right that our Government have been doing what they can to bring children who are in urgent medical need to the UK for treatment. Does my hon. Friend agree that it is vital that our Government continue to do all they can to help vulnerable children in Gaza?

[Dr Opher]

Indeed, and many of us have campaigned on the medical evacuation of young people. The Minister has delivered on that, although there have been some problems recently, which he may address. A key issue in Gaza to which I will return is that currently the medical evacuation of anyone to East Jerusalem, which is still in the occupied territories, is not allowed. East Jerusalem has some well-functioning hospitals with capacity, and that is one of the issues we need to address.

[Wendy Chamberlain (North East Fife) (LD)]

The hon. Member is talking passionately about the impact of physical injuries on young people, but we also know that trauma recovery for children and young people will have to be a vital part of the long-term solution for Gaza. The International Centre for Child Trauma Prevention and Recovery has pioneered a capacity-building model of training to put as many counsellors on the ground as possible. I engaged with the ICCTPR’s co-director at a fundraising event in Ceres in my constituency. Does the hon. Member agree that when the UK Government are looking at providing funding and support, they also need to look at trauma recovery?

[Dr Opher]

I absolutely agree. War is traumatic on so many different levels, and mental health is a key part of holistic care and must be covered in any rebuilding of the healthcare system. We also need to start to look at training people in the Gaza strip and the occupied territories, because it is better to train them than to import them.

[Paul Waugh (Rochdale) (Lab/Co-op)]

My hon. Friend rightly makes a passionate case for why we should be doing more to help the healthcare system in Gaza. It is quite clear that the 50 severely ill children from Gaza who were evacuated by the Government and treated in NHS hospitals were well cared for. Indeed, the Prince of Wales visited some of them in hospital and afterwards said explicitly that they had faced

“experiences no child should ever face.”

Does my hon. Friend agree that the next step the Government should take is to treat children in the region? Plenty of British medics are willing to go out there and help; the Government should be encouraging them to use their NHS expertise to treat children in the region and to train medics in the specialisms that are desperately needed.

[Dr Opher]

My hon. Friend is spot on. Rather than evacuating children to the NHS, which was the right thing to do while war was raging, it is better to build up facilities in the area and start training doctors and other health professionals to look after people there. We are training some Gazan medical students—I have met some of them—but the future lies in building up medical training in the area.

[Rachael Maskell (York Central) (Lab/Co-op)]

I am grateful to my hon. Friend for securing the debate and for the pertinent points he is making. Does he agree that the Minister should work with the Health Secretary to ensure that clinicians of all kinds can get the release they need to spend the appropriate amount of time in the region to provide training and clinical support?

[Dr Opher]

I thank my hon. Friend for that timely intervention—I know she uses her professional skills in Parliament. It is important that we support the healthcare system in Gaza, and I know the Foreign Office is keen to do that.

[Andrew George (St Ives) (LD)]

I strongly support the points the hon. Gentleman is making in advancing his case. I am slightly worried about the expression “in the region”. We need to get medical workers into Gaza to make sure they can safely deploy their skills in the area. We are long past the time when the Israeli regime could justify its actions in terms of self-defence. The best way to achieve safe passage for medical aid workers in the area is to get the IDF out and get international peacekeepers in.

--- Later in debate ---

[Dr Opher]

The hon. Gentleman is spot on. The most important thing is peace, so that we can build a healthcare system. Although there has been a ceasefire, a lot of Palestinians are still dying. We first need to make a stable environment, and we need to be pragmatic. While there are functioning hospitals in East Jerusalem, we should be able to take people out of Gaza and get them treated there. As I have outlined, the healthcare facilities in Gaza have been severely damaged. I will come later to the possibility of bringing in mobile units on a short-term basis, but in the long term we need to build up the hospital sector.

[Baggy Shanker (Derby South) (Lab/Co-op)]

I thank my hon. Friend for securing the debate. I have read that Gaza is now home to the largest number of child amputees but, according to Save the Children, the prosthetic centres there are not functioning. Does my hon. Friend agree that Israel needs to lift all restrictions on aid getting into Gaza, so that young people can get the vital prosthetic limbs they need for day-to-day life?

[Dr Opher]

I thank my hon. Friend for a point well made. It is even more basic than that: we need to allow medicines into Gaza, which are not currently being transported. Other items such as prosthetic limbs are also very important, so the border needs to open up. Humanitarian aid, not just medical aid, is needed in Gaza. We need to open the borders and allow relief in.

In a sinister development, snipers seem to be targeting specific areas of the body, such as the brachial plexus, damage to which causes long-term disability, and the sciatic nerve in the leg, damage to which causes permanent paralysis. I know that war is evil in many aspects, but we should call out that cynical approach.

Public health is incredibly important for people in the Gaza strip: 89% of water, sanitation and hygiene infrastructure has been destroyed or damaged. One of the most important things is to get clean water to people. There are about 250,000 cases of acute malnutrition in children this year, as well as 37,000 cases in pregnant and breastfeeding women.

Violence against women and the effects on reproductive health have led to a 41% fall in births in Gaza, as well as a high number of maternal deaths, miscarriages and newborn mortality. We have seen strikes on maternity wards and the destruction of Gaza’s largest in vitro fertilisation clinic, wiping out 5,000 embryos. Premature births have also sharply increased, with one in five newborns requiring intensive neonatal care. Respiratory infections, acute watery diarrhoea and skin infections are widespread. This is a particularly horrifying statistic: 11 children have reportedly died from hypothermia this winter, including a two-month-old baby and one-year-old child.

There are many serious problems, among which I would like to pinpoint Guillain-Barré syndrome, which is very rare—as a doctor, I have seen it only once—and it leads to increasing paralysis and often requires ventilation. The causes are often difficult to identify, but there seems to be a Guillain-Barré syndrome epidemic in Gaza. It may be triggered by infections or other, possibly sinister, causes. Doctors in Gaza have tried to take away soil samples but have been restricted. I do not know what is causing it but Guillain-Barré is an acute problem with serious repercussions.

On top of all that, we now face an even more alarming development: 37 international non-governmental organisations, including Médecins Sans Frontières, face deregistration on 1 March—next week. If that proceeds, they will no longer be able legally to operate in Gaza, the west bank or East Jerusalem. MSF alone supports one in five hospital beds in Gaza and assists in one in three births. In 2025, it performed 22,000 surgical operations, handled more than 100,000 trauma cases and carried out more than 800,000 out-patient consultations. If these organisations are forced out, the consequences will be catastrophic.

Will my hon. Friend the Minister urge Israeli officials to reopen the humanitarian medical corridor, allowing critically ill patients to travel to East Jerusalem and the west bank for treatment? The World Health Organisation holds a list of approximately 18,000 urgent cases, yet permission to travel that short distance for care—including urgent cancer care—has been routinely denied. Will he use any possible leverage we have to ensure that the Israeli Government immediately pause the deregistration of international humanitarian aid organisations and negotiate their continued presence in Gaza?

As my hon. Friend the Member for Derby South (Baggy Shanker) mentioned, we need to establish a medical supply chain that allows medicine and equipment into Gaza immediately, and we need to find rapid alternatives to destroyed facilities. For example, mobile operating theatres could be in Gaza within 48 hours. They are about the size of articulated lorries and could be driven in, and they are self-maintaining. We could be operating with them almost immediately. We must push to allow them into Gaza. Also, we need to start rebuilding hospitals and build up field hospitals as well. There is a lot to do, but we must start on this process.

Will the Minister work with our allies to ensure that attacks on healthcare are investigated and documented wherever they occur, and that perpetrators are prosecuted? Healthocide must become recognised and exposed and we must deter it in the world. I was refused entry into the west bank last year. I realise that it is very difficult to get any leverage over the Israeli Government to influence their decisions—I respect that—and I understand that the Foreign Office tries to do what it can, but is it time to impose proper, full sanctions on Israel if it does not resolve this itself? I would like to hear the Minister’s opinion on that.

Healthcare workers in Gaza are performing the most difficult and courageous work imaginable, often literally under fire. They deserve protection and their patients deserve care. We cannot simply look away. We need action now.

[Several hon. Members rose—]

--- Later in debate ---

[Dr Opher]

I thank all the speakers who have contributed to what has been a very passionate debate. I have spoken to many British doctors who have worked in Gaza, and what we are presenting here—the sabotage of the healthcare system—is real. It is going on now, and we must deal with it rather than brushing it under the carpet and blaming Hamas.

[Melanie Ward]

Does my hon. Friend agree with me on the need for justice and accountability for horrific acts that have taken place in hospitals, including a massacre in the grounds of al-Shifa hospital, and a situation in Nasser hospital where many babies were left to die following Israeli military action?

[Dr Opher]

I absolutely agree. We must get to the bottom of those things because they must not be allowed to happen again. I propose that the Minister talks to Ministers in the Department of Health and Social Care about us, as a nation, providing healthcare to people in Gaza as much as we can. That is something that I have discussed with that Minister. We must be positive here and try to relieve the suffering of Gazans, because everything I have heard has been appalling.

I thank all Members and the Minister.

Question put and agreed to.

Resolved,

That this House has considered Government support for the healthcare system in Gaza.