Doctors in Gaza City overwhelmed by casualties

Doctors at one of Gaza City’s remaining operating hospitals have said they are struggling to cope with casualties due to Israeli strikes, the BBC reported on September 23rd.

Dr Nada Abu Alrub, an emergency specialist from Australia volunteering at al-Shifa hospital said operations are being carried out with “minimal to hardly no anaesthesia.”

“It’s just a mass murder, a killing, a torture, a nightmare,” Alrub said. “No painkillers as well, with their limbs hanging with a piece of skin and the tendon. Brain matter out. Organs are out. It’s horrific.”

She went to describe an incident in which an emergency caesarean had to be performed on a nine-month pregnant woman whose head had been blown off, in order to be able to save her daughter.

Casualties have increased since Israel has expanded its ground offensive to occupy Gaza City which they have described as Hamas’s “main stronghold.” The offensive has forced thousands to flee the city and has been met with international condemnation.

Countries such as the UK and France have now formally recognised a Palestinian State in response to Israel’s plans to occupy Gaza. In the UK, five MPs have urged Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper to pursue a UN-led military intervention to stop the military campaign in Gaza. 

This recognition of Palestine has received a backlash, however, from both the Israeli government and settlers in the West Bank.

Israeli forces are now only 500m away from al-Shifa hospital, with witnesses saying tanks are being deployed to the city centre from the South and North West. The Israeli military have said the offensive is necessary to defeat Hamas and free the remaining hostages.

Al-Shifa hospital used to be the largest medical complex in Gaza but is now in ruins with burnt out wards and bullet holes. Much of the beds do not have mattresses and medicines are running short. 

Israeli air and artillery strikes, attacks by quadcopter drones and explosions of remotely driven vehicles laden with explosives mean casualties at the hospital are endless.

Australian anaesthetist, Dr Saya Aziz, said: “Every couple of hours there are multiple amputation cases with massive resuscitation. It’s life or limb, literally.”

“And you go in and you’re trying to anaesthetise them [while] they’re swatting flies in theatre,” she added. “There’s blood over the beds. There’s no equipment. There’s no replacements. And you can see the sorrow and the sadness of the healthcare workers.”

The Israeli military has told people to travel south for their safety to a “humanitarian area” in al-Mawasi, where they have said medical treatment, water and food will be given. However, the United Nations has said the tent camps in al-Mawasi are overcrowded and unsafe and that southern hospitals are active at a level that is beyond their capacity. 

On September 22nd, Gaza’s health ministry said the Israeli advance had left al-Rantisi children’s hospital and St John Eye hospital in the northern Nasr neighbourhood with no choice but to close. 

The Jordanian armed forces have also decided to shut their field hospital in Tal al-Hawa and move it to south Gaza, with the BBC reporting that Jordan’s state news agency had said, that shelling and explosions in the area damaged the facility and medical apparatus. 

The World Health Organisation has said the Palestinian Medical Relief Society’s main healthcare facility in Gaza City was destroyed by an Israeli air strike which was providing blood services, trauma treatment, cancer medicines, and chronic disease care.

According to the health ministry of Gaza, Israel’s military campaign has killed at least 65,382 Palestinians following the Hamas attacks of October 7th 2023.

BBC, Maghrebi.org