Newly-released security camera footage shows the moment last month’s magnitude 6.8 quake shook Kumamoto General Hospital in Japan.

Four surgeries were under way at the time. Footage from a camera in an operating room where an abdominal surgery was being performed shows medical staff shielding the patient with their bodies as equipment swayed violently, and a nurse opening a door to secure an evacuation route.

According to the hospital, all four operations were successfully completed.

Kumamoto General Hospital resumed normal outpatient services on 5 August , after suspending them following the earthquake on 28 July.

The elderly man sits in a wheelchair mounted on a donkey-drawn cart, with an oxygen cylinder and a small fan beside him as he makes his way from his tent in the Al-Mawasi area to the dialysis centre.

“Since January 2024 until now, I have been undergoing dialysis sessions three times a week,” he said. “I suffer a lot because of transportation as I travel in a cart pulled by a donkey under the scorching sun, and thank God, what can we do? I have no other choice.”

Near-daily ordeal

Access to the hospital has become part of his daily struggle, given the destruction of infrastructure, the lack of transportation and the continued difficult humanitarian conditions in the Strip since the Israel-Hamas war erupted in 2023.

Even with the October 2025 ceasefire, Gaza’s health system is still operating at limited capacity, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).

Israeli attacks and widespread damage to health facilities, along with restrictions on the entry of medical supplies, continue to impede the provision of healthcare at a time when patients with chronic diseases need regular, uninterrupted treatment, WHO said.

Mr. Hajji’s suffering reflects the reality for hundreds of kidney failure patients in the Gaza Strip, where obstacles facing health facilities have increased pressure on dialysis services, according to WHO and other UN agencies.

Harsh test of survival

For Mr. Hajji, challenges remain travelling to and from the centre, where the treatment itself becomes a harsh test of survival.

During the journey, his grandson, Saif, has to stop repeatedly to re-attach the wheelchair to the trolley due to the unpaved roads.

“There is great suffering along the way due to the heat of the sun and the rough roads,” his grandson said. “We have to stop every fifty metres to adjust the position of my grandfather’s wheelchair, and we arrive at the hospital exhausted and in immediate need of oxygen.”

Limited resources

After a difficult trip, his grandson helps him transfer from his wheelchair to a bed at the dialysis centre in the Nasser Medical Complex, where patients line up waiting their turn at the available machines while the medical staff try to cope with increasing numbers and limited resources.

The elder Mr. Hajji then begins his dialysis session as a health worker monitors his condition during the treatment, which lasts between three and five hours. 

“It is very difficult, especially with the high temperatures, so I had to bring a fan with me, and I also need to fill the oxygen cylinder daily,” Mr. Hajji explained.

Lack of equipment

The lack of equipment exacerbates the suffering of patients, said Hamza Abu Raya, one of the centre’s employees.

“We are under a lot of pressure on the dialysis machines, many of which are worn out,” he said. “We also suffer from a shortage of treatment supplies, including bicarbonate, in addition to the unavailability of the drug Eprex for a long time, which increases the suffering of patients.”

Shortages of fuel, spare parts and medical supplies are common, according to the latest reports from the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA). They are compounded by reports warning of the continued spread of infectious diseases and the increasing pressure on existing health facilities.

Meanwhile, health partners continue to operate services to the maximum extent possible.

Another journey home

After the treatment session, Mr. Hajji is returned to his wheelchair.

He then waits outside the hospital gate.

He will take the same donkey-led cart back to his tent, in preparation for yet another journey that is repeated three times every week.

A humanitarian worker in the Democratic Republic of Congo has been medically evacuated to the UK after a potential healthcare‑related exposure to Ebola.

The UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) said the individual, who is a UK resident and has not been named, has no symptoms, and the move is purely precautionary.

The individual remains well but is being assessed and monitored at a London hospital, the statement from UKHSA said.

The hospital has not been named but the Royal Free in north London has a high level isolation unit and is the primary national centre for high consequence infectious diseases.

The incubation period of Ebola ranges from two to 21 days and the humanitarian worker will be required to isolate throughout.

The individual had been working with a humanitarian organisation supporting the Ebola outbreak response.

Ebola is a highly dangerous pathogen. Unlike flu or Covid, it is not airborne and spreads through direct contact with bodily fluids.

Symptoms come on suddenly and start like the flu or malaria, with fever, headache and tiredness. As the disease progresses, vomiting and diarrhoea develop and it can lead to organ failure. Some, but not all, patients develop internal and external bleeding.

Richard Pebody, director of epidemic and emerging infections at UKHSA, said: “The risk to the general public remains low.

“This individual has been transferred out of an abundance of caution, and we’re pleased they remain well.”

There are currently no confirmed cases of Ebola in the UK, the agency said.

A new hospital-style training ward has opened to give aspiring healthcare workers the chance to learn in a setting which feels like the real thing.

Exeter College has launched Bakers Ward at its Hele Road campus, complete with eight beds, lifelike patient mannequins and hospital-grade equipment.

The ward was to be used by adult learners, apprentices and students on T-level and higher education courses, alongside two new life sciences labs where students could carry out practical work, course bosses said.

It has been developed with the Royal Devon University Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust and the University of Exeter.

According to initial information from the Lebanese authorities, at least 86 people, including healthcare workers, have been injured in the strikes on Jabal Amel Hospital. 

The attacks “caused significant damage…to the emergency department and intensive care unit”, said World Health Organization (WHO) representative in Lebanon, Dr Abdinasir Abubakar.

Speaking from Beirut on Tuesday, Dr Abubakar explained that Jabal Amel is one of the few hospitals currently operating in the south.

Deadly pattern 

In just three months, WHO has verified almost 190 attacks on healthcare, which have killed 128 healthcare workers and injured 332 others. The past week alone has seen 11 attacks.

“These attacks kill and maim, they also deprive people of the health services they need,” the WHO representative said.  

Healthcare in Tyre district has suffered the worst impacts of hostilities between Hezbollah fighters and Israel in the last few days; two out of three hospitals, Jabal Amel and Hiram – which was attacked last Sunday – are damaged, while the third hospital is “overwhelmed as it’s dealing with the influx of increased numbers of injured patients”, Dr Abubakar said. 

Access to essential services is “critically constrained,” he insisted, especially in southern Lebanon, where patients face up to 48-hour delays to reach the nearest referral facilities. 

A matter of life and death 

“Six hospitals have not yet resumed maternity delivery services and are currently providing only emergency room care,” Dr Abubakar stressed. “For pregnant women and newborns, delays in care can mean the difference between life and death.”

The WHO representative also flagged the challenging health situation in shelters, hosting some 130,000 people who have fled the fighting. Displacement is on the rise following the most recent Israeli evacuation orders. The escalating violence and warnings of Israeli strikes on Beirut’s southern suburbs, home to hundreds of thousands of civilians, prompted a Security Council meeting on Monday.

The UN health agency has been monitoring infectious diseases within shelters and host communities, reporting “an increased trend of acute watery diarrhoea”. 

“We are in the summer season and now the risk of cholera may be increasing,” Dr Abubakar warned.

With humanitarian needs outpacing the response, the WHO representative insisted on the need to sustain funding for essential health services.

“We also need the attacks on healthcare to stop, and we need active protection for healthcare,” he said, reiterating calls for a sustained ceasefire and durable peace.

Since the start of the current escalation in fighting between Israel and Hezbollah fighters on 2 March, more than almost 3,400 people have been killed in Lebanon and nearly 10,400 people have been injured, most of them civilians. 

“These have been among the deadliest months for Lebanon since the start of the conflict in October 2023,” Dr Abubakar insisted.

A US-brokered ceasefire between Lebanon and Israel took effect on 17 April but has never been fully observed by either side. It was nominally extended twice, most recently on 16 May for a 45-day period.