Despite occupation-related adversity, Palestinian engineers build medical ventilator

The Palestinian Al-Quds University, near al-Quds, unveiled the ventilator on Thursday a day after it was certified for use in Palestinian hospitals, AFP reported.

According to the head of the university’s faculty of medicine, Hani Abdeen, Palestinian territories, including the besieged Gaza, had only 180-200 ventilators. Many more such machines will be required if the outbreak escalates within the Palestinian territories, which are home to about five million Palestinians.

Palestinian engineers decided to design their own ventilators given the global peak in demand for the device and difficulties in importing large numbers of them.

“This proves the perennial fact that under duress you excel,” Abdeen said, pointing to the difficult political situation of Palestinians under Israeli occupation. “We have to rely on the knowledge, the expertise, and the innovative ability of Palestinian intellectuals, scientists, and medics in order to help our community.”

Earlier, Saeb Erekat, the secretary general of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), said Palestine had requested cooperation from Israel to combat the COVID-19 epidemic but instead received incursions, killings, and demolitions from the occupying regime.

Abdeen added that Palestinian engineers improvised solutions to counter a shortage of needed supplies.

The ventilator is less advanced than larger models available on the market but can be quickly produced with a fraction of the cost of the advanced models.

The Palestinian engineers aim to produce 500 ventilators for local hospitals and possibly export additional machines beyond the territories.