As Gaza's health system collapses by Israeli attacks, Palestinian doctors desperately race to save lives

As Israel's new war on Gaza continues with no immediate ceasefire in sight, horrific scenes of doctors scrambling over bodies of Palestinian casualties and desperately trying to resuscitate them, while other doctors and paramedics pull the stretcher into a hospital, have become normalised for the reception department at Al-Shifa Hospital in the besieged coastal enclave. 

The Palestinian Ministry of Health announced on Wednesday, 25 October, that Israeli strikes killed more than 6,500 Palestinians, including more than 2,700 children, and injured more than 17,000.  

"Around the clock, we can witness dozens of such tragic scenes," a local doctor at the hospital, who preferred not to mention his name over security issues, said to The New Arab. "The Israeli occupation has committed massacres against our people without any mercy for the civilians."

Since the beginning of Israel's bloody war against Palestinians in Gaza 19 days ago, the hallways of al-Shifaa Hospital, as well as all other hospitals and medical centres, have become sites for bodies, blood, and wails. 

When one enters the hospital, they will immediately see dozens of bodies scattered on the ground. Blood has splashed on floors, walls, and the previously white beds of the hospital. 

I don't like to do this but there is a lot to unpack here and it's very important so here we go 🧵. The number of casualties reported in Gaza has consistently proven reliable in this and previous Israeli assaults and there have been many. This time is no different. Here is why: https://t.co/AizG5wqOfY

— Nour Odeh 🇵🇸 #NojusticeNopeace (@nour_odeh) October 24, 2023

"Here, death is trying all the time to claim more casualties. We are forced to race against it, race against everything, just to save only some of the wounded," remarked the doctor to TNA.  

Periodically, this doctor and dozens of other surgeons have been forced to conduct intense medical surgeries in the corridors among other patients and victims waiting to be treated.

"Every day, we receive thousands of injuries, mostly children and women, and we cannot even deal with such a high number of patients amid the lack of medical equipment and medicines," the Palestinian doctor said. As a result, the doctor explains, they have been doing extraordinary hard choices for triage, choosing patients who have more hope of living. 

"A lot of wounded people have died because we could not save their lives at the right time," the doctor said, tears welling up.

Not far away from this doctor, his colleague is busy conducting surgery on a young man who lost both legs due to an Israeli attack on his residential building in Gaza. "Without minimum medical tools, I have saved dozens of casualties, while I have lost hundreds of others," this doctor said. 

"Day by day, we lose control of the medical health situation here in the hospital," he angrily added."We are forced to perform major surgeries without using any anaesthetic, and this increases the victims' pain."

The logic of ellimination pic.twitter.com/XE0y6f2O5m

— Ghassan Abu Sitta (@GhassanAbuSitt1) October 24, 2023

Abed al-Assar, a resident of the al-Nuseirat refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip, had to watch a complicated surgery be conducted in a hallway on his brother, who was severely injured by an Israeli attack on a local supermarket in their neighbourhood. 

"For an entire hour, my brother kept screaming in pain as the doctors performed surgery on him to save his foot from being amputated. His screams were terrifying, making me feel oppressed and miserable. I cannot imagine the extent of the pain he felt," al-Assar said to TNA. 

"I couldn't calm my brother down," Abed recalled. "All I could do for him was cry, and I cried for him and for all those injured in the hospital around us in the hospital who were all also screaming in pain." 

Three days after performing the operation on his brother, the doctors at the end they had to amputate his foot without using anaesthesia due to its rot and the possibility of gangrene spreading throughout the body. 

The health system in Gaza has officially collapsed after 19 days of Israel's war on the Palestinian people in the coastal enclave, according to Ashraf al-Qedra, the spokesman of the health ministry.

"We have a total collapse of the health system as a result of lack of medicines as well as the power outage. We urgently need the fuel to operate the generators in hospitals," al-Qedra said to TNA.

What exacerbates the situation, al-Qedra noted, were Israeli attacks that killed 65 medical staff, destroyed 25 ambulances, and made 12 hospitals and 32 health centres inoperable in Gaza.

He expressed significant fear that more hospitals and health centres will be out of service in the coming hours as Israel's attacks continue while fuel entirely runs out. He called for urgent interventions to help save the health system so that it can restore its functions and treat the sick and wounded.