Inside al-Shifa hospital in Gaza, where corpses litter the streets during the Israeli-Palestinian war, a Palestinian doctor treats a child who was killed or wounded in an Israeli air strike on October 11, 2023, amid fear and confusion.
In the Gaza Strip, besieged by Israeli air raids, the number of body bags continued to grow despite the best efforts of wounded Palestinians to save their lives. New casualties arrived at the Dar al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza, which was devastated and its corridors dimly lit. Moans and cries of pain echoed throughout the hospital's emergency room as the casualties were treated on the floor by medical personnel. Amidst the strong smell of chlorine, hospital medical personnel took mops to clean the bloodstained tiles of the casualties.
Even on October 15, about nine days after air strikes began on the besieged Gaza Strip by Israeli forces, the devastation was so great that the hospital reached its war-weary limits. Debris from an Israeli airstrike hit the arm of Salem's 21-year-old brother, who had fled his home and severed a tendon. The hospital's operating room was flooded with hundreds of critical surgeries.
More than a week after Palestinian Hamas fighters broke through the Israeli army's fortified separation barrier, killing some 1,300 more Israelis, the Israeli army's first attack on Gaza in more than a week. For the first time in nearly a decade, Israeli forces prepared for a ground invasion of Gaza. A ground assault on Gaza would increase the Palestinian death toll. In the besieged enclave, casualties have already surpassed those of the previous four wars. Inadequate supplies to Gaza hospitals and the Israeli military's decision to cut off food, fuel, water, and electricity to the Gaza enclave, which has a population of over 2 million. The number of civilian deaths is likely to skyrocket.
Rights advocates warned that the decision to completely encircle Gaza, in addition to the siege of the Gaza Strip since 2007, is a collective punishment and a violation of international law. Shifa Hospital staff frantically conserved the diesel left in the spare generator and turned off all non-essential departments. Shifa Hospital did not have enough beds for the injured, and medical personnel treated casualties on site. There were also no basic necessities, such as water for toilets. Operating rooms and medical personnel worked around the clock in harsh conditions and slept for only a few hours.On October 12, the Israeli military ordered the approximately 1.1 million Palestinians living in northern Gaza to evacuate to the south, giving no guarantee of return. Many of the Palestinians who later evacuated were not freed from the Israeli bombardment. Israeli warplanes attacked convoys and escape roads.
On October 12, amid heavy airstrikes, the Al Dura Children's Hospital was flooded with new patients, including bruised and bandaged infants and toddlers with blood on their faces. Israeli airstrikes killed at least about 250 people on the morning of October 12, including 44 members of the same family in Jabalia. The Gaza Health Ministry said that Durah Hospital was not spared from shelling and was targeted by white phosphorus shells. It was then forced to evacuate. Human Rights Watch said Israeli forces used white phosphorus shells illegally in the Gaza Strip.
Several hospitals reported that they have been unable to turn away paramedical patients since Israeli forces ordered Palestinians to leave northern Gaza. Al-Awda Hospital said on October 14 that it could not turn away or close its doors to Palestinians who had been killed or wounded. The wards were full of casualties. It appealed to humanitarian partners around the world to put pressure on Israeli forces.
The Gaza Health Ministry accused Israeli forces of violating international rules on war crimes by intentionally bombing ambulances. The Palestine Red Crescent Society condemned the deaths of four paramedics in about 30 minutes on October 15. Shifa Hospital began overflowing a few days ago when the morgue reached its capacity. Bodies were placed in three stacks outside the walk-in cooler and dozens of bodies were placed side by side in the parking lot.
Warning: Palestinian medics tend to children wounded by Israeli air strikes at al-Shifa hospital in Gaza City on 11 October 2023 (AFP)
No comments:
Post a Comment