Government pledges 'full support' to doctor working to get mobile children's hospital into Gaza

THE IRISH GOVERNMENT has pledged its “full support” to a doctor who is working to get a mobile children’s hospital into Gaza. 

Yesterday, Dr Mohammed Mustafa, who recently spent time working as an emergency medical doctor in Gaza, visited Leinster House and appealed to the Irish government to help lead the charge to get mobile hospitals into the besieged territory. 

Today, Dr Mo, as he is known, met with Junior Minister with responsibility for international development Neale Richmond.

In a statement issued after the meeting, Richmond said he was grateful to meet with Dr Mo, whom he assured of Ireland’s “full support for his work”. 

“The humanitarian blockade imposed on the people of Gaza is outrageous. It was heart-breaking to hear from Dr. Mustafa about the suffering people, including babies and children, are experiencing.

“Denying people access to food and medicine is inhumane and immoral. Ireland has been resolute in its calls for an immediate end to the blockade. I assured Dr. Mustafa of our full support for his work,” Richmond said. 

The Journal understands Richmond is now set to make enquiries with other countries that may be willing to partner on the initiative.

While the Irish government is eager to do what it can to get much-needed aid into Gaza, it’s understood there is a concern around how support for this project might work in practice, given the current refusal of the Israeli government to allow aid at the required scale into Gaza.

For the last two weeks, two trucks of aid sent by Ireland have been stuck in Jordan, unpermitted to enter.

It is expected that the Irish government will liaise with Spain and Slovenia on this specific project. 

Ireland’s humanitarian response in Gaza is channelled through UN partners and the Red Cross/Red Crescent societies.

Ireland has provided over €88 million in support to the people of Palestine since January 2023, including €21.9 million so far in 2025. 

Dr Mo’s project does not require any funding from the Irish government, instead, he said what is needed is the legitimacy that government support would provide. 

According to the World Health Organisation, 94% of all hospitals in the Gaza Strip have been damaged or destroyed.

As of last month, the World Health Organisation has recorded 697 attacks on health care in Gaza since October 2023.

Since leaving Gaza, Dr Mo has been campaigning across the globe to get governments to back plans to get mobile hospitals into Gaza. 

The mobile hospitals are solar-powered modular buildings with operating theatres, a pharmacy, a cafeteria and a kitchen. In particular, Dr Mo is campaigning to get a 100-bed children’s hospital in, as well as a maternity and neonatal hospital.

“This needs to be a government-led initiative. It cannot be an NGO initiative,” Dr Mo said yesterday.

“With NGOs, NGOs get bombed.

“NGOs don’t have the leverage to break the siege, but governments do.”

According to the Gaza health ministry, more than 56,000 people, mostly civilians, have been killed in Gaza by Israel since the 7 October 2023 Hamas-led attack on southern Israel, in which militants killed about 1,200 people and took about 250 hostages.