Providing Free Medical Care to Palestinians in the West Bank

Twice a week, a team of doctors joins NIF-grantee Physicians for Human Rights Israel’s (PHRI) mobile clinic in a minibus packed with specialized equipment and medications. Together they travel to provide primary medical care to Palestinian communities across the occupied West Bank that have little or no access to health facilities.

This past weekend, NIF’s photographer joined a team of 13 volunteer doctors—all Palestinian citizens of Israel—who gathered in the morning near the Israeli Arab town of Taibeh to head to Tubas, located in the northern West Bank. Shortly after passing through a military checkpoint in Israel’s separation barrier, they were joined by a team of Palestinian doctors from the West Bank.

After meeting briefly with the mayor of Tubas, local government officials, and NGO representatives, the team, led by PHRI’s Dr. Salah Haj Yahya, unpacked their equipment in a local school. The doctors set up intake and exam rooms in a half dozen classrooms, providing specialization in pediatrics, diabetes, ophthalmology, nephrology, hematology, internal, and family medicine. The school’s hallways, lined with plastic chairs, served as waiting rooms and Dr. Haj Yahya managed the mobile clinic’s makeshift pharmacy, which provided free medications to those who received on-the-spot prescriptions from PHRI’s doctors. Throughout the day, the team was able to provide medical services to hundreds of patients.

After the last patient had been seen, the doctors gathered for a hearty lunch of chicken mansaf, salad, and baklawa back at Tubas city hall before boarding the bus once again. 

As the sun began to set, they retraced their route back along winding narrow West Bank roads. On the way, the doctors were forced to wait in long lines at two checkpoints near the city of Nablus. Masked Israeli troops stopped them at one point, boarding their minibus to conduct a visual inspection of the passengers. Finally, the group crossed Israel’s separation barrier and made their way home. 

Launched in 1988, PHRI works to alter discriminatory and abusive policies against Palestinian communities in the West Bank and Gaza, as well as prisoners, migrant workers, refugees, undocumented residents, and Israelis. The mobile clinic is just one of the ways PHRI promotes equal access to healthcare for all people.

(Photos by Mati Milstein)