The International Committee of the Red Cross warned that a sharp rise in shootings and other violence around recently opened aid distribution points is overwhelming Gaza’s already depleted medical services. In a statement issued 8 July, the organisation said its 60-bed field hospital in Rafah has treated more than 2,200 weapon-wounded patients and recorded 200 deaths since late May—figures that exceed all mass-casualty admissions it handled during the previous year. ICRC staff report working at 160-190% occupancy, with physiotherapists, cleaners and midwives pressed into emergency roles as up to 40 operations are performed each day. The surge follows repeated incidents in which desperate residents were shot while queueing for food and basic supplies. United Nations data show that more than 500 people have been killed at such sites since they opened on 26 May. Gaza’s broader health system is near collapse. Nearly half of the territory’s 36 hospitals are out of service, and the remainder face chronic shortages of fuel, medicine and equipment after months of Israeli restrictions on imports. According to the Gaza Health Ministry, 33,000 children have been wounded during the 21-month war; around 5,000 require long-term rehabilitation. The plight of three-year-old Amr al-Hams underscores the crisis. The toddler, who has shrapnel lodged in his brain from an April air strike that killed his pregnant mother and siblings, lies immobile at Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis. Doctors say he needs specialised neurological care abroad, yet he is among roughly 10,000 patients—2,500 of them children—still awaiting permission to leave the enclave despite a World Health Organization-coordinated evacuation programme that has moved only 317 patients since March.