"In the operating room, there are sometimes three victims at the same time. Most of the injured are dismembered or amputated. There are dead bodies everywhere in the corridors because the refrigerators in the morgue can no longer hold them all." These are the words of Dr. Haidar, an anaesthetist and intensive care specialist at Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis, south of Gaza, echo the exhausted medical staff.
Beds, painkillers, syringes: Gaza's health system lacks everything. "Their basic stocks and fuel are running out quickly," said Juliette Touma, a spokeswoman for UNRWA (the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East). As a result, patients are crammed into the corridors without being able to be treated.
"Bed capacity is limited. The two main hospitals in the northern Gaza Strip, the Indonesian Hospital and the Al-Shifa Hospital, have already exceeded their combined capacity of 760 beds," said Tarik Jasarevic, spokesman for the World Health Organization. "The health system is on the verge of collapse," according to UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres. Morgues are overflowing. Ice trucks had to be used to store the bodies.
Ambulances and medical workers targeted
In addition to shortages, the health system is directly affected by Israeli strikes. More than 60 ambulances have been targeted by the IDF and more than 30 health workers have been killed since the beginning of the conflict. "We are firefighters, we don't have weapons and we don't coordinate our actions with anyone. We are civilians. We are people who put out fires and rescue the injured. ", said a Gazan rescue worker. Several hospitals stopped functioning after being bombed. Due to a lack of fuel, the generators used will soon no longer be sufficient.
Read also"People drink salt water": southern Gaza "on the verge of collapse" with the influx of displaced people
Faced with this catastrophic situation, NGOs have been calling for several days to unblock a humanitarian corridor to supply the Gaza Strip. On Wednesday (October 18th), Israel announced that it was allowing humanitarian aid to enter the enclave from Egypt. The day before, the deadly bombing of Al-Alhi Hospital accelerated the already unbearable pressure on Gaza's hospital system.