This is the story of the Director of Reception and Public Relations at Youssef Al-Najjar Hospital, west of Rafah in Gaza, Talaat Barhoum, who told Sky News Arabia: “Last night, I was working on my shift at the hospital, and I did not know anything about my family and children for more than two weeks due to pressure. work, the large number of wounded, as well as the interruption of the Internet and communications.”
While Barhoum was carrying out his work recording the wounded and providing journalists with data and statistics, he received terrifying news, as he described it: “I was surprised by one of the journalists who knew me well and had internet on his phone connected to the satellite, telling me that there had been a bombing targeting the area where my family’s home was.”
Barhoum went on to say: “I went out immediately to ask my colleagues in the ambulance crews, and they told me that they had transported cases of wounded and martyrs as a result of an Israeli bombing on the Al-Iskan Al-Abyad area in the Tal Al-Sultan neighborhood, west of Rafah.”
He noted that there is only his family’s home and two other homes in that area, noting, “Here I was certain that something had happened to my wife and children.”
While Barhoum cannot communicate with anyone from his family or his area, he was also unable to leave his job due to the harsh conditions that hospitals and the health sector are suffering from in Gaza.
Heavy minutes passed that seemed like a lifetime. “Then I found an ambulance entering us with my wife’s brother’s wife in it. She was injured and in critical condition, and I was unable to obtain information from her about my family,” Barhoum said.
Anxiety increased, accompanied by an internal refusal to believe in the fate that had become inevitable. “My mind was certain of the fate and my heart was attached to the hope that they were alive,” according to Barhoum’s words.
“An ambulance driver told me that they had transported the body of a woman and four children to the Emirati hospital near the hospital where I work.”
Barhoum ran towards the Emirati Hospital as if he was throwing his feet to the wind, and he arrived there without knowing how or how long it took, according to his confirmation.
“As soon as I entered the Emirati Hospital and saw my wife’s niece who works there crying, I sat on the floor in shock at the shock I had come in, hoping that it had not happened.”
Barhoum says, “I took it upon myself and stood up to find out exactly who in my family had died. I saw the bodies of my wife, Maysoon Abu Alwan, and my four children, Ahmed, 8 months old, Layan, 14 years old, Abdul Rahman, 12 years old, and Muhammad, 10 years old. I was left with only two boys in secondary school.” .
Barhoum concluded that he transported the bodies of his wife and four children to Youssef Al-Najjar Hospital, where he works, because it has a morgue, noting, “I only had half a day off and buried them and returned to work on Tuesday evening. Despite my grief, there is no time to grieve, because work and rescuing the wounded requires me and my colleagues. Within a month.” Since the start of the war, I have only seen my family twice.”
#Gaza. #hospital #employee #surprised #bodies #family #among #victims