Region | Palestinian Territories
Main hospital in Gaza fighting a desperate battle
Doctors driven to exhaustion in life-saving zeal as staff remain cut off by the fighting.
- By Sudarsan Raghavan and Reyham Abdul Kareem, Los Angeles Times-Washington Post
- Published: 23:58 January 6, 2009
- Palestinian medics carry a wounded girl who was hurt in an Israeli strike into Al Shifa hospital in Gaza City yesterday. Israeli forces pounded Gaza Strip houses, mosques and smuggling tunnels on Monday from the air, land and sea, killing at least seven children.
- Image Credit: AP
Occupied Jerusalem: Mohammad Alwan applied pressure to the wounds of the young man in a corridor of Gaza City's Al Shifa Hospital on Monday. The surgeon's gloved hands quickly turned crimson.
"Khalas," a voice said.
The doctor refused to give up. He pumped the man's chest, hoping to resuscitate him. A few minutes later, the man died.
"What can I say?" he said in a fatigued voice. "I have seen this scene many times. I've been here four days straight and I've yet to go home."
As Israeli tanks and infantry push deeper into Gaza, an already dire humanitarian situation has worsened. The Israeli government has imposed what Palestinians call a siege on the coastal strip - restricting deliveries of food, medicine and other staples - since Hamas took Gaza by force from the rival Fatah party in June 2007. On Monday, Israel's military strategy of dividing the strip in two further hampered Gazans ability to reach hospitals and get emergency assistance.
The air assaults and ground clashes have paralysed much of what makes the strip of 1.5 million people work - hospitals, water and power systems, markets and roads.
Overwhelmed
Palestinian health officials estimate that many of the victims of the Israeli bombardment - between 24 and 30 per cent - are women and children. Most are at Shifa, Gaza's largest hospital.
Doctors there are working day and night on floors soaked with blood to help the rapidly mounting numbers of wounded.
"The numbers of the dead and wounded are rising. Every minute we have a bombardment," said Hassan Khalaf, the director of Shifa Hospital. "The number of cases is overwhelming us. No hospital in the world can handle this."
It's become too dangerous for Khalaf's staff to even retrieve victims. Eleven members of his medical staff have been killed since the offensive began. "They were in ambulances," Khalaf said.
For over three days, there has been no electricity. The hospital's emergency generators have been working around the clock. Even before then, when electricity supply was sporadic, the generators were working 16-hour-days. The hospital, he said, has just about two days of fuel left.
"Electricity and communications are down over much of the strip both on account of lack of fuel and damage to critical infrastructure," said Maxwell Gaylard, the United Nations humanitarian coordinator for the Palestinian areas. "Over a million people are currently without power, and over a quarter million without running water, some for up to six days."
Khalaf said there are also shortages of medicines, medical tools, nitrogen for anaesthesia, monitors - nearly every item imaginable. Many essential staff members, especially nurses, have been unable to come to work, cut off by the fighting, Israeli tank positions and fear.
"Those in the middle of Gaza Strip could not come to work because the Israeli tanks have cut the strip into two pieces," he said.
Fazwi Nabulsia, the head of the hospital's intensive care unit, said he hadn't been able to get to work since the ground invasion began on Saturday. He lives south of Gaza City near the former Israeli colony of Nitzarim. Israeli forces are now in the area, blocking the road between his house and Gaza City, Nabulsia said. "Maybe you can speak with the Israelis and ask them to allow me to go to hospital," he said over the telephone, his voice tinged with desperation.
Khalaf said hospital staffers who live north of the city, where some of the heaviest fighting and attacks have unfolded, are too fearful to leave their homes. "Moving along Gaza's streets is dangerous."
Inside Shifa Hospital on Monday, its doctors struggled to cope. Imad Majdalawi had handled 20 operations in 24 hours. In virtually every case, he had to fix broken bones, treat burns and cuts, and stop bleeding. "The worse thing I saw was the burns," he said.
On Monday, he was treating Ghadeer, a 14-year-old girl whose hands were covered in gauze. Blood seeped through it. She was crying and shaking. Her mother and four brothers had been killed in an airstrike. She didn't know this. "I am cold. I can't move," she moaned.
Majdalawi soothed her. "Don't worry Ghadeer. Everything will be fine." But there was no anaesthesia or even the appropriate scissors and thread to help Ghadeer. "We are leaving patients in pain," Majdalawi said.
A neurosurgeon, Rami Al Sousi, was engaged in a delicate operation to pull shrapnel from 5-year-old Salim Al Ar's head. The boy would survive. Al Sousi has two small children but he hasn't seen much of them in over three days. "Yes, I'm tired. But I forget everything when I save lives," Al Sousi said.
Under fire: Even medics not spared
Israeli forces have been making phone calls to hospitals warning that they will be shelled, but doctors are in no position to evacuate the critically injurued.
Israeli warplanes bombed the offices of the Health Committees, about 400 metres from the premises of Shifa Hospital, the largest in the Gaza Strip.
Alberto Arce, a Spanish rights worker at the hospital, reported, "Two shells landed in the busy car park 15 metres from the entrance to the emergency room of the Al Awda Hospital. At the time of the shelling, ambulances were bringing in the injured. Medical teams and facilities are being targeted. No place is safe." At least three paramedics were killed by Israeli airstikes.
- Bilal Badwan, a freelance journalist based in Gaza
Do you know anyone who went to Palestine to help Gazans? Were they able to make a difference?
Your comments
This is insane! Reading news of this sort is hurting. The poor Palestinian children are suffering. They have no proper aid available at hospitals. What is the world doing? Where is the UN? Where are those American leaders who say they want peace in the world? I do not see peace anywhere!
Adeela
Dubai,UAE
Posted: January 07, 2009, 11:23
Nobody is able to go to Gaza, everybody would be there if the windows were open. We are tired of just watching the news. We want to be able to physically do something; evacuate the wounded, help in the hospitals, distribute aids, comfort the distressed, anything!
Ayham
Dubai,UAE
Posted: January 07, 2009, 10:35
In this holy month of Muharram, another tragedy is taking place in front of the so called international community!
Abu Maruf
Helsinki,Finland
Posted: January 07, 2009, 01:57
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