AMMAN: Forty trucks laden with medical supplies arrived at the Rafah crossing on Monday for the second field hospital Jordan said will set up in the Gaza Strip.

The government-owned Al-Mamlakah TV said on Monday that the new Jordanian field hospital would be set up in Khan Yunis, in the southern half of Gaza, where tens of thousands of people have been reported to be displaced in schools and tents, escaping the heavy bombardment of the besieged strip’s north.

The facility is expected to be ready in 48 hours, and around 50 doctors are expected to arrive in Khan Yunis within two days to operate the hospital.

Since 2009, Jordan has been operating a field hospital in Gaza, which was established following the Israel-Hamas war in 2008.  

Seven staff members of the Jordanian field hospital in Gaza were injured in an Israeli attack near the hospital last Wednesday, the Jordanian army said, during their attempt to transport injured Palestinians for treatment.

Jordanian King Abdullah held a phone call on Sunday with the director of the field hospital in Gaza to check on the staff, including personnel who were injured in the attack, according to the royal court.

King Abdullah described the attack on the hospital’s medical staff as a “heinous crime,” saying that all necessary measures would be taken to deal with it.

The Jordanian army said that Royal Air Force planes have twice air-dropped medical supplies to the field hospital in Gaza using parachutes to address the shortages owing to delays in assistance delivery through the Rafah border crossing.

Since 2009, the Jordanian field hospital in Gaza has dealt with a total of 3,373,000 cases, the army said.

The Jordanian army said last Thursday it had set up a field hospital in Nablus, in the occupied West Bank, to provide medical assistance to patients. It also said Jordan has two surgical stations in Ramallah and Jenin, also in the West Bank.