“The world has come together to eliminate us,” says Gaza doctor
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“The world has come together to eliminate us,” says Gaza doctor
Nora Barrows-Friedman Rights and Accountability 25 October 2023
“The situation is more than catastrophic. We are running out of services, we are running out of electricity. We are running out of medicines. We are running out of everything, we cannot deal with our patients.”
Those are the words of Dr. Nour al-Haydi, a physician at al-Shifa hospital, speaking to Al Jazeera in a short documentary the network published on Wednesday, “Gaza’s Al Shifa: A hospital on the brink.”
Al-Shifa is Gaza’s largest hospital and emergency medical center.
The 23-minute film documents the situation at al-Shifa as fuel, electricity, medication and basic supplies are running out while Israel continues to carpet bomb the Gaza Strip with the full backing and support of the West.
Heroic physicians, nurses and hospital staff are overwhelmed trying to treat the thousands of patients and their families – many who are chronically ill already – with scarce resources due to Israel’s relentless bombing and refusal to allow food, water and basic necessities into the coastal enclave.
At the same time, every hallway, room, stairway and corner of the hospital’s grounds is packed with families displaced from their homes by the incessant bombing, seeking shelter in a place they hope will be safe. They all need water, food, sanitation and access to medical care as well.
In al-Shifa’s neonatal department, dozens of premature infants are dependent on incubators and artificial respirators – powered by electricity – to survive.
Along with medicine, fuel for the hospital’s generators are running low. If there is a power outage, the head of the neonatal department says “a disaster will occur within five minutes.”
“[We have] 40 incubators, but today we have 65 babies,” says Dr. Nasser Bulbul, who explains that his staff are treating the tiny, fragile babies with extremely limited resources.
“We have exceeded our capacity. We’re suffering a shortage of basic medicines. We’ll run out of all medicines in this department in a day or two.”
Dr. Ghassan Abu Sitta, a plastic surgeon at al-Shifa, tells Al Jazeera that unless the international community intervenes, Palestinians in Gaza are heading toward “an absolute disaster.”
The Israelis “are trying to force a collapse of the health system,” he says.
“If the electricity runs out, then al-Shifa will become a mass grave.”
https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/nora-barrows-friedman/world-has-come-together-eliminate-us-says-gaza-doctor