Gaza watchdog warns US Rafah hospital may advance Israeli interests
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The Gaza Center for Human Rights warns that a planned US-run hospital in Rafah, coordinated with "Israel", could serve political aims instead of offering neutral medical aid.
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Palestinians walk through the rubble caused by the Israeli air and ground offensive in Rafah, southern Gaza Strip, Monday, Jan. 20, 2025 (AP, File)
The Gaza Center for Human Rights (GCCHR) has voiced alarm over reports that the US-based humanitarian organization Samaritan’s Purse is setting up a field hospital in Rafah, within an area under full Israeli military occupation.
In a statement issued Monday, the GCCHR said it was “deeply concerned” about the lack of transparency surrounding the hospital’s objectives, oversight, and sources of funding. The planned 80-bed facility is reportedly to be staffed by medical professionals from the United States, Canada, and Europe, with ongoing efforts to recruit Palestinian doctors from within Gaza in exchange for salaries and secure housing.
According to the center, the hospital’s equipment is expected to arrive by mid-October, as part of what it described as “direct American-Israeli coordination.”
'A tool for political and humanitarian blackmail'
The rights group warned that the facility could be used “as a tool for political and humanitarian blackmail,” enabling control over Palestinian patients rather than providing impartial care. It drew comparisons with past initiatives such as the so-called Gaza Humanitarian Organization, which it asserted had functioned as a front for targeting starved Palestinians and enforcing policies that deepened hunger and deprivation.
GCCHR stressed that any medical facility established under full Israeli authority “cannot be separated from the system of domination imposed by the occupying power.” It cautioned that linking humanitarian assistance to political or security conditions risks turning essential services into instruments of coercion, in direct violation of international humanitarian and human rights law.
Wider context
Rafah, Gaza’s southernmost city, has endured months of devastation following repeated Israeli assaults and the mass displacement of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians from northern and central areas of the Strip. Since the Israeli occupation of the Rafah crossing in May 2024, humanitarian access has been severely restricted, leaving most hospitals non-operational and forcing patients to depend on a handful of field clinics for urgent care.
Aid organizations warn that the tight Israeli control over entry points and relief operations has effectively placed Gaza’s healthcare system under siege. While "Israel" claims that foreign-run field hospitals are meant to bridge the medical gap, Palestinian groups and human rights advocates argue that such facilities risk entrenching Israeli dominance over humanitarian aid and undermining the independence of Gaza’s medical institutions.
