Nasser Medical Complex in the Gaza Strip has resumed cochlear implant surgeries for children with hearing loss, marking the first return of the service to the territory’s hospitals since the war began. The operations are being carried out in cooperation between the Ministry of Health, partner organisations and a specialised Russian medical delegation, as medical teams seek to restart specialist services disrupted by the destruction of health facilities.
Targeting 50 children and completing 10 successful operations
A Ministry of Health official said resuming the operations represented the re-establishment of the specialist cochlear implant service in the ministry’s hospitals, after damage to health facilities during the war forced it to stop. The official said children were the main target group, while some cases involving older age groups could also be included.
The official added that the programme aims to restore hope to children who have lost their hearing, help them integrate into society and enable them to continue their lives normally alongside their peers. Cochlear implant surgeries were available in the Gaza Strip before the war, but stopped after hospitals were destroyed and several specialist medical services were disrupted. The ministry is currently working to reactivate and expand them in the coming phases.
Ministry of Health records about 200 cases of deafness
The Ministry of Health estimates that about 200 people in the Gaza Strip have profound deafness. The figure includes children born with hearing loss, as well as people who later became deaf because of illness or exposure to extremely loud noises, explosions and war-related injuries.
According to the ministry official, the current phase includes cochlear implants for 50 children, while plans are being made to operate on about 100 more cases in a subsequent phase. Expanding the programme would enable the service to reach children who were deprived of it during the years of war, amid the disruption of specialist testing and treatment and difficulties accessing medical facilities. Medical teams have recently recorded an increase in the number of children born with congenital problems and hearing loss.
This coincided with the decline in health services and a shortage of medical equipment, making it more difficult to detect some cases at an early stage and delaying affected children’s access to appropriate medical intervention. The Gaza Strip suffered a severe shortage of hearing-screening equipment for about two years, particularly devices used to test auditory brainstem responses.
Newborn hearing screening resumes
For a period, only one device was available across the territory, hindering essential tests for newborns and limiting medical teams’ ability to diagnose hearing loss early. With several screening devices now available, medical teams have begun resuming hearing tests for children from birth to check for hearing loss and identify cases requiring intervention.
The step aims to prevent delayed diagnosis, after some children reached older ages before their condition was discovered because of difficulties accessing tests during the war or because their families did not notice the hearing problem early enough.
Doctors said a number of hearing-loss cases could be linked to the conditions Gaza’s residents experienced during the war, including malnutrition, extremely loud noises, explosions and injuries. Cochlear implant surgeries are aimed particularly at children under 10, including those who lost their hearing as a result of the war’s effects, as well as children born deaf.
The teams working at Nasser Medical Complex said the operations were being carried out despite an acute shortage of medical resources and supplies and the damage inflicted on the health system by the war and blockade. The operating theatre department is working intensively to ensure the success of the Russian delegation’s mission, which plans to perform cochlear implant surgeries on more than 50 children within a short period, while Palestinian teams are trying to provide what is needed to keep the programme running.
Widespread damage affects health-sector facilities
The return of the service comes amid widespread damage to Gaza’s health sector. According to official figures, the Israeli army carried out at least 445 attacks on health facilities, damaging 155 of them. Only 47% of the territory’s hospitals are operating, all of them partially, while more than 22,000 injured and ill people need treatment outside Gaza.
