Two years after the start of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Mehad launches a new training programme for carers in the West Bank
Paris, 03 October 2025
Faced with a silent crisis that is intensifying in the West Bank, the NGO Mehad is launching a new emergency ultrasound training programme that will be rolled out throughout the country in October. In partnership with the World Health Organisation, the aim of the programme is to train medical staff in emergency ultrasound, which enables the injured to be treated quickly and effectively.
In the West Bank, the humanitarian crisis is worsening in the shadows. Since the beginning of 2025, more than 178 people have been killed and nearly 2,500 injured, including nearly 450 children, according to the United Nations. In addition to this violence, there has been massive forced displacement – almost 40,000 people in 18 months – and crippling restrictions on movement. Military blockades and the fragmentation of the territory are seriously hampering access to healthcare, while health centres themselves are under repeated attack. In such a context, there is a twofold urgency: to provide treatment, but also to strengthen local medical response capacities on a long-term basis.
Faced with this situation, the international health and solidarity NGO Mehad is launching a new programme in the West Bank this autumn, following an initial training mission in 2024. The aim is to improve the rapid treatment of injured people using emergency ultrasound, a simple and effective technique that can determine the nature and location of an injury in less than three minutes, even in very difficult field conditions.
The programme, run in partnership with the WHO, will be implemented in three stages:
train local instructors in the practice of emergency ultrasound ;
enable these instructors to train 144 carers themselves in various West Bank establishments, thereby ensuring that knowledge is disseminated and appropriated at local level;
Equipping medical teams with portable ultrasound scanners, so that these skills can be translated immediately into life-saving measures.
A total of 18 instructors and 144 carers will be trained during this first phase. This initiative goes beyond the emergency phase and is designed to build sustainability and resilience by strengthening the capacity of Palestinian healthcare systems to respond to crises.
This action comes against a backdrop of escalating violence in the West Bank. According to the OCHA, there have already been almost 7,500 Israeli army raids since the start of the year, a 37% increase compared with 2024. Settler attacks are also on the increase: in the last week of September alone, 27 incidents were recorded, resulting in one death, 17 injuries and further forced displacements. This violence, combined with punitive house demolitions and threats of eviction, is plunging communities into permanent insecurity and exacerbating the need for emergency care.
“In an area where every journey is an obstacle and where access to care can be compromised in a matter of minutes, emergency ultrasound is a vital tool”, explains Mehdi El Melali, humanitarian doctor and medical coordinator for Mehad, “Training Palestinian health workers in this practice gives them the means to save lives despite adversity.
For Mehad, this intervention in the West Bank marks a decisive step: by consolidating a network of trainers and equipping the teams with essential tools, the NGO is also preparing the ground for a future extension of the programme to the Gaza Strip, where the need for trauma and emergency care is even greater.
