Aid groups say Israel blocking entry of life-saving maternity units into Gaza as clinics wait near Cairo

Eight units await clearance

Eight mobile medical units are prepared to enter Gaza and provide care, aid groups say. They were funded by organisations including Medics Worldwide, Palestine Aid UK and Palestine Aid Ireland, as well as Irish lorry driver John Hurson.

The groups raised around £650,000, but the units remain near Cairo. Aid organisers say they cannot guarantee that more units will be used, so they have stopped fundraising for additional ones.

Clinics designed for maternal care

Palestine Aid UK says the clinics can offer antenatal and postnatal care, support for safe deliveries, emergency obstetric triage and referrals, newborn checks, maternal consultations and reproductive health services. A kidney dialysis unit cost £150,000, while a general clinic is valued at £65,000.

Save the Children UK estimates that about 130 children are born in Gaza each day. The article says Gaza’s hospitals have been partially damaged or destroyed amid Israeli attacks.

Rising maternal health concerns

Hurson said he saw the clinics as a way to help mothers and give children a safer start. He also called on Britain’s foreign secretary, Ed Miliband, to act on his support for Palestinians.

Dispute over border approvals

Medics Worldwide says it repeatedly sought authorisations and arrangements to bring its units into Gaza and have them received by the Palestinian Ministry of Health. The charity says it encountered no objection from Egypt and that the refusal came from Israel’s Coordination of Government Activities in the Territories, or COGAT.

Israel disputes that account, saying it facilitates mobile-clinic entry into Gaza. It says dozens of mobile clinics have entered during the war and that three more for the International Medical Corps were approved in recent weeks.