Lying bedridden in her room at the recently reopened Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis in Gaza, Alaa Abu Ahmed is relieved that she can finally restart her medical treatment.

Displacement because of fighting between Israeli forces and Hamas in the Palestinian territory interrupted Abu Ahmed’s treatment for a chronic condition.

Now hallways are filled with still-wrapped boxes of equipment, and some semblance of order is returning to the facility.

While air strikes, bombardment and fighting continue to rock other areas of Gaza, in Nasser the beds have been straightened, the debris cleared and white coats bearing Doctors Without Borders (MSF) logos mix with the blue uniforms of local medics.

The international NGO has just resumed work at the hospital, the most important in the southern Gaza Strip.

“Thank God MSF was able to start working again at Nasser Hospital and I returned for treatment,” Abu Ahmed said.

“My condition has improved, but I did spend some time afraid that what happened at Al-Shifa hospital would repeat itself,” she added of the territory’s largest hospital, in Gaza City.

According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), Al-Shifa has been reduced to an “empty shell” by fighting.