Addressing urgent injury care and multi-disciplinary rehabilitation needs of the casualties of border clashes (“March of Return”) in the Gaza strip Since 30 March 2018, the mass demonstrations along Israel’s perimeter fence, as part of the “Great March of Return” have resulted in a significant number of Palestinian casualties in the Gaza Strip. As of 8th June, more than 127 Palestinians have been killed, and 14601 injured by the Israeli forces. Of these, almost 7885 have been hospitalized (sources: WHO/Palestinian Ministry of Health). Even though the demonstrations have seemingly ended, thousands remain risk of suffering severe injury related complications including but not limited to infections that that could easily lead to amputations and other disabilities. With a dire funding situation that the Strip finds itself in and a blockade that prevents the inflow of medical materials, not only is the medical system in a dire state, and the personnel stretched beyond their means, there is hardly any follow up to those injured but in need of nursing and related post-operative care, rehabilitation and psychosocial support to improve their physical and mental well-being This is not helped by the precarious economic situation which limits access to and in this case accessibility and affordability of services necessary for the recuperation of survivors

Building on its current action supported by CDC (French Centre de Crise)  that  targets 1500 beneficiaries, the proposed project therefore seeks to contribute to scaling up the enhancement of  the trauma pathway, by specifically responding to the urgent care and rehabilitation needs of injured children and adults in such a way as to reach more beneficiaries and more diverse needs. This will include 2000 injured persons through multidisciplinary post-operative care and rehabilitation. Meanwhile 4000 caretakers -2 for each of the injured- will be targeted with training on rehabilitation exercises to support those they take care of and psychosocial support to deal with the stress that presents with the demands of care. The scale up will ensure beneficiaries receive better services through provision of more requisite multidisciplinary rehabilitation support including assistive devices and much needed wound dressing materials to address the immediate and increasing needs of injured persons whose numbers have since grown due to the recent escalation of demonstration . The proposed action will enable HI to extend it actions for a longer period of time (9 months) hence enabling teams to address both short terms and mainly long terms needs of injured persons particularly those with severe tibial injuries knowing that many of them have been discharged prematurely from hospitals due to the lack of capacity to address their needs. This will help them achieve proper recovery and where possible prevent the onset of disabilities due to injuries. 

In so doing, HI has already deployed already trained professional outreach teams through local partners, to provide comprehensive home-based, post-operative and multi-disciplinary care and rehabilitation services for injured children and adults within the 5 governorates of the Gaza Strip. Our partners : Baitona for Community Development (North Gaza), Palestine Avenir for Childhood Foundation (PACF, Gaza), National Society for Rehabilitation (NSR, Middle Area and Khan-Younis) and Society of Physically Handicapped People (SPHP, Rafah), will all be working with Humanity amp Inclusion’s technical support to complement the existing action. HI will deploy 10 partner outreach teams (two in each governorate) -NSR will cover two governorates-Middle Area and Khan Younis- -each comprising a physiotherapist, an occupational therapist, a psychologist, nurse and a social worker.