Staff at the Medical Aid for Palestinians (MAP) outpatients clinic at Shifa Hospital discuss an x-ray.

On 7 July 2014, Israeli forces launched a large-scale military operation ('Pillar of Defense') in the Gaza Strip). The operation lasted 51 days and resulted in 2,145 deaths and 11,231 injuries among the Palestinian population. The vast majority of the serious casualties have complex orthopaedic injuries that the Palestinian Ministry of Health is ill-equiped to manage. DFID/UK Aid is funding NHS Doctors, deployed through the UK's Rapid Response Facility's funding, to work alongside MAP in providing post conflict surgery at Gaza's Shifa Hospital. The NHS doctors (through the charity Ideals) volunteer to visit Gaza in their spare time and work alongside their Palestinian colleagues.