The Take: Facing ‘total collapse,’ Gaza doctors fight to remain a lifeline

Gaza’s hospitals are under immense stress as patients and doctors grapple with the unprecedented Israeli order for 1.1 million people to leave Northern Gaza – all during enormous bombardment. The scale of carnage would put any health system in the world under stress but the situation is more dire for Gaza’s hospitals, which have been deprived for more than a decade of basic supplies, staff and maintenance due to an Israeli blockade. Now, with the electricity grid shut down and fuel and water supplies dwindling, hospitals are on the verge of total collapse.

In this episode: 

• Meinie Nicolai, director general of Doctors Without Borders (Medecins Sans Frontieres, or MSF) (@MSF)
• Ghassan Abu Sittah (@GhassanAbuSitt1), surgeon at Al Shifa Hospital
• Belal Aldabbour (@Belalmd12), neurologist
• Mahmoud Shalabi, Medical Aid for Palestinians programme manager in Gaza (@MedicalAidPal)

Episode credits:

This episode was produced by Khaled Soltan, Miranda Lin, Sari el Khalili and Sonia Bhagat, with our host Malika Bilal.

Our sound designer is Alex Roldan. Our lead of audience development and engagement is Aya Elmileik and Adam Abou-Gad is our engagement producer.

Alexandra Locke is The Take’s executive producer and Ney Alvarez is Al Jazeera’s head of audio.

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