Exhausted doctors in last standing hospitals in Gaza treat patients in corridors as thousands flee south from Israeli bombardments. Image credit: CNN
(The Post News) –The few remaining central and southern Gaza clinics and hospitals are being overwhelmed by what doctors have called a “tsunami” of sick and injured patients fleeing Israel’s latest military offensive in the north of the country. The crisis is overwhelming health facilities that are on the verge of collapse with too much, medics claim.
In Khan Younis’s Nasser Medical Complex, Gaza’s biggest hospital, still functioning, and field hospitals in the Israeli-claimed “humanitarian zone” on the coast at al-Muwasi, exhausted staff are treating hundreds a day with supplies rapidly dwindling.
We are receiving increasingly more people every day from the north with gunshot and blast injuries, with dirty, filthy, infected wounds that are old,” said British trauma surgeon Dr. Martin Griffiths, who is volunteering at al-Muwasi. “Everyone is hungry, malnourished, lost their home and family, and everyone is scared. We don’t have enough of anything.”.
Griffiths said that the emergency room in his 90-bed field hospital received 160 injured people in one night, and that its outpatient clinic saw more than 600 patients. With roads clogged and cars scarce, many patients present with untreated wounds that are days old.
Children Treated in Corridors
At Nasser, children’s wards are overcrowded with kids being treated in hospital corridors. “We are at full capacity. Everyone is burnt out and we are running low on supplies of essentials,” said Mohamed Saqr, the hospital’s director of nursing.
The UN puts the number of evacuees from Gaza City at 320,000 since Israel’s invasion began. Israel has told relief groups that only hospitals would be granted “protected” status, and humanitarian facilities elsewhere are to clear out. The Jordanian field hospital at Tal al-Hawa was told to clear on Monday as Israeli troops moved in nearby.
The Gaza health ministry confirmed al-Rantisi children’s hospital and Eye hospital shut down due to bombardment and unsafe access. Al-Rantisi is reported to remain partially operational by medics, who state they have two nurses and one doctor on duty during continuous shelling.
Fuel shortages threatened the last functioning hospitals. Babies’ oxygen supplies are nearly exhausted at Gaza City’s al-Sahaba medical centre. “We consume about 250 litres of fuel daily. We have no idea what we will do in two days’ time,” said Abed al-Hayek of Medical Aid for Palestinians.
The Red Cross recently sent 500 body bags, dressing kits, and medication to al-Shifa hospital, but aid groups point out these deliveries are still far short of “astronomical” needs.
Conditions at al-Shifa hospital within Gaza City are described as catastrophic. It was once the largest medical complex in Gaza, but it is currently destroyed. Each day is a mass-casualty event, according to doctors.
“It’s just a mass killing, an assassination, a torture, a nightmare,” said Australian emergency physician Dr. Nada Abu Alrub. She recalled operating on severely injured patients with no or little anaesthesia.
Her colleague anaesthetist Dr. Saya Aziz reported amputations were continuing: “There are a few amputation cases every two hours. It’s a question of life or limb, literally. And you go in and you’re trying to anaesthetise them while they’re swatting flies in theatre.”
The two doctors claimed they had received threatening messages indicating they would be arrested, following the reported movement of Israeli tanks within 500 meters of al-Shifa.
Humanitarian Collapse
Nearly one million residents of Gaza City lived there before Israel’s attack last month. The UN estimates over 320,000 have relocated to the south, but Israel puts the figure at 640,000 who have fled. Those left behind can’t afford to flee.
“The tanks are a few metres from my home, but I can’t afford to pay to escape,” Sultan Nassar, 62, said. “Death is all around, in the north and in the south.”
The al-Muwasi tent camps are dangerous and overcrowded, and hospitals in southern Gaza are operating at several times their intended capacity.
Israel’s action, it asserts, is to incapacitate Hamas, liberate hostages, and prevent Gaza from emerging as a threat to Israel. The offensive follows Hamas 7 October 2023 attacks that resulted in 1,200 being killed and 251 hostages being taken.
Gaza’s health ministry says that more than 65,000 Palestinians have been killed and more than 160,000 have been wounded since the start of Israel’s operation.
Dr. Aziz, who is still volunteering at al-Shifa, said: “It’s not a war, it’s a killing field. But it is not too late to save Gaza. People must speak up, demand action, and let aid in.”
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