Palestinian doctors from St. John’s Hospital in Israel’s capital Jerusalem have performed around 60 corneal transplant surgeries in Gaza since the beginning of 2017.
The Israeli-trained Palestinian doctors travel to the Gaza every two months to perform the corneal transplants and provide other services to patients, according to Israel’s Coordination of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT).
A new branch of the St. John’s Hospital was opened in Gaza at the end of 2016.
Dalia Bassa, the Health Coordinator of the Israeli Civil Administration, together with the Gaza Coordination and Liaison Administration, coordinate the entry of doctors to the Gaza Strip and their return to the hospital in Jerusalem.
Bassa said: “We bring medical care to Gazans and save them the aggravation of leaving home and going to a distant hospital in Judea and Samaria [West Bank]. When patients leave Gaza, they need to be accompanied and have a place to sleep, which they have near their homes in the Gaza Strip and not in Jerusalem”.
