Doctors forced to reuse tools at Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital
I’m at one of Gaza’s few functioning hospitals [Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital].
It is struggling to keep its doors open amid devastating medical shortages. Doctors here have started to reuse basic tools and are treating shrapnel wounds and burns with the most limited resources.
Medical teams are exhausted, as the hospital continues to receive many casualties daily. Many wounded people are lying in the hospital’s crowded hallways, without beds.
Medical teams in southern Gaza hospital struggle amid dwindling supplies
Ahmed al-Farra, director of paediatrics and obstetrics at al-Tahreer Maternity Hospital, part of the Nasser Medical Complex in southern Gaza, says medical teams are facing dire conditions after repeated Israeli strikes forced the evacuation of patients from the European Hospital, also in southern Gaza.
“Nasser Medical Complex is very, very crowded, as the European Hospital is completely destroyed, and no one can be treated there,” he told Al Jazeera. “But we have to continue. We are obligated to continue. This is our duty.”
Treating critical patients, especially children, as resources dwindle has become increasingly challenging, he said.
“No medical supplies arrived at the hospital … Gaza needs nearly 500 trucks every day to solve the problem. We are talking about a lot of diseases due to severe malnutrition, because of lack of food, lack of milk, lack of medical supplies,” al-Farra stressed, adding that the situation was unsustainable and deadly for children in Gaza.
Doctors forced to prioritise amid Israeli attacks, blockade
Speaking from Nasser Hospital, Palestinian physician Ahmed al-Farra says medical staff at the health facility are consistently forced to choose which patient’s life to prioritise amid the ongoing Israeli attacks and lack of resources.
“My doctor in the paediatric ICU asked me what to do in this situation. I told her, please try to prioritise those with the best chance of survival,” he noted. “If someone can survive, we try to help them. For others, we simply can’t do anything.”
Al-Farra also condemned the use of hunger as the “worst weapon” against Palestinians. “When we are talking about malnutrition, we are talking about shutdown of the body’s mechanisms. Children will be unable to survive.”
Eight killed in Gaza City
An Israeli air attack has hit a parking area in Gaza City’s Jabalia neighbourhood, killing at least eight people, according to a Health Ministry update cited by our colleagues on the ground. Dozens more people are wounded.
