A forthcoming event in Glasgow will examine one of the most urgent rehabilitation questions facing the international health community: how can Gaza recover rehabilitation services for people living with trauma-induced disability after the scale of injury, amputation and service collapse experienced since October 2023?
“Trauma-induced disability in Gaza: Supporting Rehabilitation Service Recovery” will take place on Saturday 13 June 2026, from 1:00 pm to 4:30 pm, at the James McCune Smith Learning Hub, University of Glasgow, with attendance available in person or via Zoom. The event has been promoted by the National Centre for Prosthetics and Orthotics, University of Strathclyde, with the hashtag #ScottishPalestinianHealthPartnership.
For the orthotics, prosthetics and rehabilitation community, the subject could not be more urgent. Gaza is facing a long-term disability crisis driven by blast injuries, amputations, traumatic brain injury, spinal cord injury, burns, fractures, infection, malnutrition, displacement and the collapse of routine healthcare access. A May 2026 update on trauma rehabilitation needs in Gaza reported that nearly 14,000 patients had registered for limb reconstruction services between July 2025 and May 2026, and that almost half of those assessed so far had complex limb injuries.
The rehabilitation burden is especially visible in amputee care. The May 2026 trauma rehabilitation update recorded 2,277 amputees evaluated between September 2024 and May 2026, with only 502 prosthetics fitted. It also reported that 18% of evaluated amputees were children and 76% had lower-limb amputations.
This is not only a matter of emergency surgery. Amputation creates a lifelong rehabilitation pathway involving wound care, residual limb management, pain treatment, prosthetic assessment, socket fitting, gait training, psychological support, repairs, replacement components and long-term follow-up. In Gaza, those pathways have been severely disrupted by damage to health facilities, shortages of prosthetic materials, restrictions on medical supplies and the displacement of patients and clinicians.
The World Health Organization has warned that Gaza’s injured population will need rehabilitation care and support for years to come. WHO has also noted that despite the scale of amputations, Gaza has had only eight prosthetists available to manufacture and fit artificial limbs, demonstrating the extraordinary gap between clinical need and available workforce capacity.
Humanitarian agencies have raised similar concerns. OCHA reported that more than 6,600 amputees, including many children, need prosthetic and rehabilitation care, while only a very small number of prosthetic technicians are available to respond. Humanity & Inclusion has also warned that the lack of rehabilitation services in Gaza risks leaving a generation of people with permanent disabilities, with severe limb injuries, spinal cord injuries, traumatic brain injuries and major burns driving long-term rehabilitation need.
The Glasgow event is therefore important because it moves the discussion from emergency response toward service recovery. Rehabilitation service recovery means more than reopening clinics. It requires rebuilding the full system that allows injured people to move from survival to function, independence and participation.
For Gaza, this recovery agenda should include:
For IMEA CPO readers, the meeting also highlights the role of academic and professional partnerships. The involvement of the National Centre for Prosthetics and Orthotics at the University of Strathclyde is notable because Strathclyde has a long history in prosthetics and orthotics education, including BSc and MSc programmes and ISPO-accredited training. Such institutions can support Gaza not only through advocacy, but also through training, technical exchange, curriculum support, tele-mentoring, research and workforce development.
The event’s hybrid format is also significant. By offering participation in person and via Zoom, the organisers can reach clinicians, academics, students, humanitarian workers and diaspora health professionals beyond Glasgow. That wider participation matters because Gaza’s rehabilitation recovery will require international collaboration across surgery, prosthetics and orthotics, physiotherapy, occupational therapy, psychology, assistive technology, disability rights and humanitarian logistics.
The title of the event — “Trauma-induced disability in Gaza” — is also important. It recognises that Gaza’s injuries are not isolated medical cases. They are producing a large-scale disability crisis. Many survivors will live with permanent impairment, chronic pain, reduced mobility, psychological trauma and social exclusion unless rehabilitation is built into recovery planning from the beginning.
This framing should matter to donors and policymakers. Rehabilitation is often treated as a later-stage service, after emergency medicine, shelter, food and water. But the Gaza crisis shows why that hierarchy is incomplete. Without rehabilitation, injured people may survive but remain unnecessarily dependent, isolated or unable to return to education, work and family life. For children, delays in rehabilitation can affect growth, mobility, development and future participation.
The event also provides an opportunity to discuss how to build realistic rehabilitation models under severe constraints. Gaza’s recovery will not be solved by sending devices alone. Prosthetic limbs, orthoses and wheelchairs require trained professionals, maintenance, user education, replacement planning and safe follow-up. A prosthesis delivered without fitting capacity, socket adjustment or gait training is not a complete rehabilitation solution.
For the O&P community, Gaza raises practical questions that need urgent answers:
The Glasgow event can help turn these questions into an agenda for action. It should encourage the rehabilitation sector to think beyond short-term missions and toward long-term service rebuilding. Gaza needs emergency support now, but it also needs a sustainable rehabilitation workforce, functioning prosthetic and orthotic services, assistive technology supply chains and community-based follow-up.
For IMEA CPO, the message is clear: Gaza’s rehabilitation crisis is one of the defining O&P and assistive technology challenges of this generation. The scale of trauma-induced disability requires international attention, but the response must be grounded in local capacity, dignity, continuity and long-term recovery.
The June 2026 Glasgow event offers a timely forum for clinicians, educators, researchers and humanitarian partners to ask what rehabilitation service recovery should look like in practice — and how the global rehabilitation community can support Gaza’s injured survivors not only to survive, but to regain movement, independence and participation.
Event: Trauma-induced disability in Gaza: Supporting Rehabilitation Service Recovery
Date: Saturday 13 June 2026
Time: 1:00 pm to 4:30 pm
Venue: James McCune Smith Learning Hub, University of Glasgow
Format: In person or via Zoom