Gaza’s Last Hospitals Overrun as Thousands Flee South
By Staff, Agencies
The few remaining hospitals and clinics in central and southern Gaza are being overwhelmed by a “tsunami” of injured and sick patients fleeing a new "Israeli" offensive in the north of the devastated territory, medics say.
At both Nasser medical complex, in the southern city of Khan Yunis, and field hospitals in al-Muwasi, the coastal “humanitarian zone” designated by "Israel", staff are struggling to cope with large numbers of new arrivals forced out of Gaza City in the north of the devastated Palestinian territory.
“We are seeing more people every day from the north with blast and bullet injuries, with old, dirty and infected wounds,” said Dr Martin Griffiths, a consultant trauma surgeon at Barts NHS health trust in London who arrived as a volunteer in Gaza two weeks ago.
“Everyone is hungry, malnourished, has lost their home and loved ones, and everyone is scared. We have not got enough of anything.”
Griffiths said the emergency department of the 90-bed field hospital where he was working in al-Muwasi had received 160 injured in a single night, with 600 people seeking treatment from its small primary health care clinic.
Approximately 320,000 people have already complied with "Israeli" evacuation orders and fled Gaza City, according to the latest figures from the UN. Many are sick, injured or malnourished.
The crisis has been made worse by the closure of a series of medical facilities in northern Gaza in recent days as "Israel" presses its offensive there.
“People have been referred from the [hospitals in Gaza City] or are just making their own way. There is a huge number of kids, some very small, and a lot of younger men, [but] the blasts effect everyone. We are seeing this tsunami coming towards us, with more and more injuries and less and less [supplies to treat them],” Griffiths told the Guardian.
With vehicles rare, roads clogged and many displaced people making the journey on foot, some patients were arriving with week-old injuries.
“Even if you have a vehicle, it can take a day or two at least. If the bullets or bombs don’t get them, then infection will. My message is just: please, we just need to stop the fighting.”
At Nasser, the only large-scale facility still functioning in Gaza, new arrivals in the pediatric wards are being treated in corridors because all beds for children are full.
“We are really just hanging on here. It is really bad. We are at our absolute limit. All the staff are exhausted and we are low on stores of essentials,” said Mohamed Saqr, the director of nursing at Nasser.
In private messages seen by the Guardian, the IOF has told aid workers that only hospitals would be considered “protected” and that all other humanitarian sites in Gaza City must evacuate.
The Jordanian field hospital in Gaza City’s south-western neighborhood of Tal al-Hawa received orders to evacuate on Monday morning, according to a senior health official.
Dr Munir al-Bursh, director general of Gaza’s health ministry, said the hospital had at least 300 patients, as well as medical staff. The order came as residents reported that "Israeli" troops were approaching the facility, with dozens of families trapped in their homes and shelters around the hospital.
The Gaza health ministry said services had been suspended at two other Gaza City hospitals: al-Rantisi children’s hospital, which was badly damaged a few days ago by an "Israeli" bombardment, and the Eye hospital.
“None of the facilities or hospitals have safe access routes that allow patients and the wounded to reach them,” the ministry said.
Medics in Gaza City said al-Rantisi remained partly open as a first aid point, staffed by two nurses and a single doctor, though continuous shelling and shooting has made it impossible for people to access the hospital.
Approximately half of patients requiring dialysis in Gaza City have been forced to leave, according to Medical Aid for Palestinians [MAP], an NGO working in Gaza, which also said that its rehabilitation unit in the central town in Deir al-Balah has reported a doubling of patient numbers in recent days.
Abed al-Hayek, an MAP project manager, said on Tuesday that oxygen and fuel stocks at the al-Sahaba medical complex in Gaza City, which offers intensive care for newborns, were nearly depleted.
“The situation remains extremely difficult and fuel is essential for providing the medical services we offer. Yesterday, we received 1,000 liters of fuel, which is only enough for four days, as we consume around 250 liters per day. We don’t know what will happen in just two days’ time,” al-Hayek said.
