Khan Younis, Gaza Strip – Ahmed Isleem needs he had been useless.
The 35-year-old’s spouse and daughter had been killed together with 10 different relations and neighbours in an Israeli assault on their dwelling. He lies on a mattress within the European Gaza Hospital within the southern metropolis of Khan Younis, surrounded by sounds of different sufferers moaning and crying out in ache.
Isleem was pulled out from beneath the rubble of his dwelling final month.
“I can not consider that I’m nonetheless alive,” he says. “Getting out from beneath the rubble was very tough. I wanted I had been martyred with my household as an alternative of the struggling and ache I’m experiencing now.”
Isleem suffered a number of shrapnel accidents on completely different components of his physique together with his stomach, and underwent surgical procedure on his digestive system and one other operation to insert platinum in his foot after it was damaged.
“There isn’t a security, no remedy, nothing,” he says. “I can not bear my ache and the screams of the opposite injured folks round me as nicely.”
As a result of lack of gas and medical provides and the Israeli focusing on of hospitals, the healthcare system within the Gaza Strip has all however collapsed. And as hospitals in northern Gaza and Gaza Metropolis have been rendered out of service, the burden on the few useful hospitals within the central and southern components of the enclave has elevated.
The European Gaza Hospital receives dozens of Palestinians killed and wounded every day, a few of them referrals from different overwhelmed hospitals. Additionally it is a spot of shelter for displaced folks, regardless of the shortage of provisions.
Khawla Abu Daqqa, 40, is from the jap Khan Younis space, close to the Israeli fence which has been focused incessantly by bombings and artillery shelling. She fled together with her 5 youngsters to the hospital, saying she had no alternative.
“The place will we go? We’ve got no shelter,” she says. “Every part is tough right here, from discovering meals, water and even sleep. I want I may sleep no less than 5 hours a day. I can not sleep or relaxation. I hope this battle will cease for everybody.”
‘Excessive fatigue’
In a dialog with Al Jazeera, the director of the European Gaza Hospital, Dr Youssef al-Aqqad, says that displaced folks – who come from all around the Gaza Strip – are having to seek out house wherever they will within the hospital: on the doorways of affected person rooms, within the corridors, on the steps, and within the hospital backyard.
“These displaced folks want providers, together with meals, water and electrical energy,” he says. “We additionally really feel very involved concerning the Israeli military focusing on hospitals. That is an irregular and terrifying factor for sufferers and displaced folks as nicely.”
Al-Aqqad says dozens of wounded folks arrive every day from the cities of Rafah and Khan Younis.
Consequently, the variety of infections is on the rise and has exceeded the capability that the hospital can deal with. Al-Aqqad says a area hospital has been arrange within the Ras Naqoura College, which is adjoining to the hospital’s jap wing and the place sufferers with reasonable or minor infections are handled.
“This isn’t a simple matter, however somewhat very sophisticated as a result of the faculties usually are not outfitted and appropriate to obtain contaminated folks and there’s no medical tools and gadgets there,” he says. “Moreover, our medical employees is already stretched skinny and should observe up right here and there, which had led to excessive fatigue.”
The hospital has 450 wounded sufferers. A few of them, he says, require a number of specialist docs — comparable to a neurosurgeon, a vascular physician, an orthopaedic physician for damaged bones, and one other professional for burns.
The medical employees are exhausted from the continuous work, and the volunteers who help them have little to no expertise.
“We want specialised docs to work in intensive care rooms, operations and delicate surgical specialities,” al-Aqqad says. “We’ve got reached a tough stage in well being providers, and we really feel that we’re giving past our power and talent to avoid wasting the injured and attempt to deal with them.”
‘Experiencing the worst of all of it’
At the least 26 out of the 35 hospitals within the Gaza Strip usually are not functioning because of the lack of gas and assaults by the Israeli military.
Within the northern Gaza Strip, the Indonesian Hospital has been bombed repeatedly by the Israeli military, which additionally ordered the evacuation of docs and the wounded. This compelled the Ministry of Well being in Gaza to distribute the injured to hospitals within the central and southern Gaza Strip, together with the European Gaza Hospital.
Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital can be beneath nice strain, after exceeding its capability to obtain folks wounded within the Israeli assaults on cities and refugee camps within the central Gaza Strip, together with Deir el-Balah, Nuseirat and Bureij.
Al-Aqqad urges worldwide well being and human rights organisations to intervene to cease “this hideous battle” on Gaza.
“I’ve by no means seen in my life hospitals which can be besieged and bombed out of service and compelled to discharge sufferers to depart their hospital beds earlier than finishing their restoration course of,” he says. “What we’re experiencing is the worst of all. Save what stays of the folks of Gaza.”