Surveying began this month for the erection of a 43,000-square-foot field hospital for Gaza Strip residents next to the Erez border crossing into Israel. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had approved the preliminary work as part of understandings reached in Egyptian-mediated talks with Hamas.

The hospital, like almost every other new project in Gaza, will be funded by the Qatari government. It will rely on the infrastructure, expertise, experience and resources of Friend Ships, an American NGO staffed by volunteers who provide humanitarian assistance to people in war zones and victims of natural disasters.

Friend Ships had in recent years run the hospital in Syria. When fighting there abated, a decision was made to relocate the facility's giant tents, equipment and medical and paramedical staff from Syria to Gaza. The hospital will include 16 wards with advanced equipment and be run by an international medical and administrative team.

The new facility will not replace Gaza City’s main hospital, Shifa, or the smaller hospitals in Rafah and Khan Yunis. Like most hospitals, it will have a maternity ward and pediatric and internal medicine departments, but most of its work will focus on diagnosing patients with hereditary conditions or life-threatening diseases. Those found to be in need of additional care will be referred for life-saving treatment to Israeli hospitals or to East Jerusalem and West Bank facilities. The diagnostics and triage are expected to be far quicker and more efficient than those currently available, providing a needed boost to the crumbling health care system struggling to serve Gaza’s 2 million Palestinians.