Australian doctors in Gaza describe “slaughterhouse”

Two Australian doctors have recounted scenes of complete devastation and bloodshed in Gaza, according to Al-Monitor via AFP on October 5th.

Saya Aziz, an anaesthetist, and Nada Abu al-Rub completed a four-week period in Gaza; they left the territory on October 5th.

Speaking on October 4th about what she witnessed, Aziz said: “The things that you didn’t get through the video was the smell, the wailing, the distress of the parents crying, witnessing their children dying, suffering in pain.”

She added that Gaza was experiencing “mass casualty after mass casualty”.

“Torn, disintegrated bodies, blood, broken heads, broken arms, chopped limbs — not just chopped, like disintegrated,” she said. “You would never see such scenes in your life, blood everywhere… It’s like a slaughterhouse.”

Rub described how Israel has blocked essential supplies like baby formula and nutritional products from entering Gaza: “They [the Israeli government] basically threatened that any organisation that brings baby formula will be completely closed and no doctors from that organisation would be allowed to enter Gaza again.” Rub added: “What is scary about baby formula?”

Boats carrying essential supplies, like baby formula and medicine, have been repeatedly stopped from delivering aid to Gaza by Israeli authorities.

UN-backed experts declared that a “man-made” famine was happening in Gaza, and at least 66,000 children in Gaza are believed to be suffering from severe malnutrition as a result of Israel’s blockade of the Gaza Strip.

Rub described witnessing people “dying from explosions, their bodies shredded into pieces, whole families wiped out or having one survivor (left) with severe injuries.”

On September 25th, it was reported that doctors at one of the last operating hospitals in Gaza City said they were overwhelmed by the casualties from Israeli airstrikes.

The UN-sponsored Global Protection Cluster reported on July 15th that 10 children in Gaza were losing one or both of their limbs each day, with many undergoing surgery without anaesthesia.

Hospitals across the Gaza Strip have been repeatedly targeted by Israel’s military offensive, with many being attacked by airstrikes, while also being raided by Israeli forces, who allege the hospitals are used as military sites by Hamas.

What’s more, Al-Shifa Medical Complex in Gaza City, was forced to cancel dialysis services for patients suffering from kidney failure due to fuel shortages.

It was reported on February 25th that 95% of hospitals in Gaza were unable to function due to Israel’s military bombardment of civilian infrastructure in Gaza, with more than 290,000 homes also being completely or partly destroyed.

Al-Monitor via AFP, Maghrebi.org