Warning: This article contains images and descriptions depicting children who are injured or in distress.
A hospital in the central region of the Gaza Strip is on the verge of collapse due to the large increase in the number of victims caused by Israel’s bombings in recent days.
Journalist Adnan el Bursh, from the BBC Arabic service, reported that in At the Al Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in Deir Al Balah, medical staff are working beyond their capacity to care for the many patients who have arrived.
Meanwhile, the bodies of those who could not be saved lie in the hospital courtyard. Relatives fall to the ground, crying in pain for the victims.
Officials from the Hamas-controlled Health Ministry reported that more than 100 people were killed during Israel’s overnight bombings. In total, according to the same ministry, as of Monday 5,087 people have died in Gaza as a result of the bombings.
In response to this situation, the Israeli army told the BBC that it had attacked areas near the hospital “based on intelligence information confirming the presence of a Hamas leader in the area.”
The current Israeli bombings follow deadly Hamas attacks on military posts and kibbutzim near the Gaza border on October 7when more than 1,400 Israelis and foreigners were killed and more than 200 hostages were captured by the Palestinian organization.
Broken bodies
“We have been here since early morning and the bodies completely filled the patio. And they are added to the corpses that are found in cold rooms – which are full -, inside and outside the building,” said a health employee at the Al Aqsa Martyrs Hospital.
“We do not have enough shrouds for the bodies because the quantities are enormous. All the bodies arrive in pieces. We cannot identify them because they have been disfigured or crushed.”
The scene at the scene was one of a large influx of vehicles arriving at the hospital with injured people. Some could walk to the clinic, but others were carried in their arms.
“Frankly, the situation is catastrophic, unbearable,” the hospital employee told the BBC. “Despite everything we have witnessed before, these are scenes we have never seen.”
Some of the images that emerged from the hospital on Sunday are too explicit to show. Children, including two babies, are among the dead.
Deir Al Balah, where the hospital is located, is a town in the central region of the Gaza Strip, approximately 19 kilometers south of Gaza City.
It was attacked last week by Israeli forces. The city is outside the northern Gaza evacuation zone, where Israel has asked civilians to leave the area and flee south.
More hospitals on the limit
Similar scenes have been seen in recent days in hospitals across the Palestinian territory as the war between Israel and Hamas reaches its third week.
The militant group, which has ruled the Gaza Strip since 2007, says more than 30 homes were destroyed during a surge in Israeli shelling.
According to the local Ministry of Health, 266 people died in the last 24 hours, including 117 children.. This would bring the total death toll to 4,651 since Israel began its offensive in the Gaza Strip.
At al Quds hospital in the Tel al Hawa area of Gaza City, bombs fell on nearby buildings as a team of 23 doctors and nurses treated more than 500 people, according to a message from a doctor at the hospital sent to the BBC.
The patients and civilians sheltered in the hospital were in “a state of terror,” said the doctor – who did not want to be identified for security reasons – via voice message.
And in the midst of the health situation, which he described as “catastrophic,” Doctors have to decide who to treat first.
The medical staff has been reduced, as some doctors have died and others cannot reach the hospital. The rest now share the building with 1,200 displaced people who have taken refuge there.
The threat of lack of fuel for babies in incubators
Gaza hospitals are scrambling for supplies, even after 20 aid trucks were able to enter from Egypt on Saturday (14 more entered on Sunday and this Monday others are being allowed to enter, but from the area it is said that it is very little for the enormous needs).
And so far no fuel has entered, which hospitals depend on to run electricity generators.
Unicef warned this Sunday that 120 babies in incubators – including 70 premature newborns also connected to ventilators – depend on machines powered by generators.
The International Committee of the Red Cross warned last week that Gaza hospitals risked becoming morgues due to lack of power.
Israel cut off electricity, most water service and blocked food and medicine from entering Gaza following the Hamas attack on October 7.
The Israeli government said that Services would be restored when the group freed the more than 200 hostages it held in Gaza.
Only on Saturday, and after many humanitarian negotiations, did the Israeli government accept the entry of aid shipments.
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BBC-NEWS-SRC: https://www.bbc.com/mundo/articles/c72lqjvn85jo, IMPORTING DATE: 2023-10-23 11:20:06
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