Doctors say that the few hospitals and clinics still open in central and southern Gaza are being swamped by a "tsunami" of sick ...
Doctors say that the few hospitals and clinics still open in central and southern Gaza are being swamped by a "tsunami" of sick and injured people fleeing a new Israeli operation in the north of the devastated enclave.
Staff at both the Nasser medical complex in Khan Younis, a city in the south, and field hospitals in al-Muwasi, a coastal "humanitarian zone" set up by Israel, are having a hard time dealing with the large number of new arrivals who have been forced out of Gaza City in the north of the devastated Palestinian territory.
Dr. Martin Griffiths, a consultant trauma surgeon at Barts NHS health trust in London who came to Gaza as a volunteer two weeks ago, stated, "We are seeing more and more people from the north every day with blast and bullet injuries, as well as old, dirty, and infected wounds." "Everyone is hungry, underfed, has lost their home and loved ones, and is scared." We don't have enough of anything.
Griffiths reported that the emergency room of the 90-bed field hospital where he worked in al-Muwasi treated 160 injured individuals in one night, and 600 people went to its small primary health care clinic for help. The most recent numbers from the UN show that some 320,000 individuals have already followed Israeli military orders to leave Gaza City. A lot of them are sick, hurt, or not getting enough food.
The problem has gotten worse because a number of medical facilities in northern Gaza have closed in the last few days as Israel continues its attack there.
"People have been sent from the [hospitals in Gaza City] or are just finding their own way. There are a lot of kids, some of them quite small, and a lot of younger males, yet the blasts affect everyone. "More and more people are getting hurt and there are fewer and fewer supplies to treat them," Griffiths told the Guardian.
Because there weren't many cars on the roads and many people had to walk to get there, some patients came in with injuries that were a week old.
"Even if you have a car, it can still take a day or two." If the gunfire or bombs don't kill them, the disease will. All I want to say is, "Please, we need to stop fighting." At Nasser, the only large-scale facility still open in Gaza, new patients in the pediatric wards are being treated in the hallways because all the beds for kids are full.
"We're really just getting by here." It's very awful. We have reached our maximum. "We are low on supplies and all of our staff are tired," said Mohamed Saqr, the director of nursing at Nasser.
The Israeli military has warned relief workers in private messaging that only hospitals will be "protected" and that all other humanitarian sites in Gaza City must leave.
A senior health official said that the Jordanian field hospital in the southwestern neighborhood of Tal al-Hawa in Gaza City was told to leave on Monday morning.
Dr. Munir al-Bursh, the head of Gaza's health ministry, reported that the hospital had at least 300 patients and medical workers. The order came after neighbors said that soldiers were getting closer to the hospital, where scores of families were stuck in their houses and shelters.
The health ministry in Gaza claimed that services had stopped at two additional hospitals in Gaza City: the Eye hospital and the al-Rantisi children's hospital, which had been heavily damaged by an Israeli bombing a few days before. The ministry claimed, "None of the facilities or hospitals have safe access routes that let patients and the injured get to them."
Medics in Gaza City claimed that al-Rantisi was still partly operational as a first aid site, with two nurses and one doctor on duty. However, constant shelling and firing have made it hard for civilians to go to the hospital. Medical Aid for Palestinians (MAP), an NGO that works in Gaza, says that about half of the people who need dialysis in Gaza City have had to leave. They also say that their rehabilitation unit in Deir al-Balah, a central town, has seen its patient numbers double in the last few days.
Last week, Israel attacked Gaza City, which it calls Hamas's last stronghold.
Benjamin Netanyahu, the prime minister of Israel, stated on Monday that he was committed to fulfill his war goals in Gaza: getting rid of Hamas, freeing Israeli captives held there, and making sure that Gaza "will no longer pose a threat to Israel."
Israel controls all access to Gaza and insists it lets in enough food, aid, and other goods. Since September 12, the Zikim crossing has been closed, which has made it incredibly hard to get humanitarian aid to the north.
The conflict started when Hamas attacked Israel on October 7, 2023, killing 1,200 people, most of whom were civilians, and taking 251 people hostage. The Israeli military campaign that followed has killed more than 65,000 Palestinians, largely civilians, and hurt more than 160,000. It has also caused starvation, destroyed large areas of land, and forced most of the people to move, often more than once.
On Tuesday, Abed al-Hayek, a project manager for MAP, claimed that the al-Sahaba medical complex in Gaza City, which provides intensive care for babies, was almost out of oxygen and fuel.
"The situation is still very bad, and we need fuel to keep offering the medical services we do." We got 1,000 liters of fuel yesterday, but that's only enough for four days because we use about 250 liters every day. Al-Hayek added, "We don't know what will happen in just two days."
Some supplies have made it through. The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) sent fluid infusions, dressing kits, pharmaceuticals, and 500 body bags to the al-Shifa medical complex on Sunday. A spokeswoman claimed that Unicef also made it to Gaza City, where they gave out sanitary items. The ICRC said in a statement, "Much more is needed to adequately meet the astronomical levels of need that exist on the ground." They blamed continuous military activities and limited access for humanitarian workers for making it harder to distribute aid.
Griffiths, who went to Gaza with UK-Med, a charity that provides medical aid on the front lines, said that the clinic in al-Muwasi where he worked was "short of everything," including antibiotics and painkillers. He also talked about how he couldn't save a 14-year-old boy who had been shot in the head and neck.
"We could see that he was dying there in front of us. We couldn't do anything. Griffiths stated, "His dad was begging us to do something, but all we could do was find a quiet place for them both."
Griffiths, one of the best doctors in Britain for treating traumatic injuries, talked about doing several operations on a young kid who had damage to his head, legs, and chest.
"He is very, very hurt." He is broken emotionally. He has lost everything: his family, his parents, and everything else. He goes to the theater every day to get more shrapnel taken out. I sit next to him and grip his hand. I can help him get better physically, but I can't help him with the emotional damage. Griffiths remarked, "It's horrible."