World
Patients dazed and numb as Israeli raid leaves Gaza hospital in ‘catastrophic’ state
Hospitals in northern Gaza are struggling to function as Israeli military operations continue and aid agencies warn of a catastrophe unfolding.
One of the hospitals, Kamal Adwan, was raided by IDF (Israel Defence Forces) forces last week.
Around 100 people were arrested, many of them medical staff.
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Now, only a few doctors remain to care for hundreds of patients and in desperate conditions. The wounded lie on thin mattresses wherever there is space.
Iodine and other debris on the floor of the Kamal Adwan hospital
There is the occasional cry or groan of pain, but mostly people are silent, dazed, numb to this catastrophic war.
Surgical gloves, pools of blood and iodine and medicine packets lie scattered on the surgery floors.
Soiled gowns and blankets piled in heaps on the edges of corridors. The storeroom has been left ransacked.
“Everything we ever built, they burnt to the ground,” Dr Hussam Abu Safiya, the hospital director, told Sky News.
“They set our hearts on fire. They set our hearts on fire at this hospital. They killed my son.”
He is one of only two doctors remaining at the hospital.
“The conditions are overall catastrophic. The specialities we provide are currently non-existent,” he said.
“Honestly there is nothing we can provide. The health care system has collapsed. Israeli forces left us in terrible condition after they pulled out. We cannot even describe what we saw.”
The systems at the hospital have collapsed, says its director
The IDF has now withdrawn.
It claims the hospital was being used as a Hamas base and has published video showing weapons found at the site, although workers insist there was no presence of Hamas there.
In a statement on Monday, it said it has helped facilitate the “relocation of 88 patients, caregivers and staff” in recent weeks.
It added that two fuel trucks with 30,000 litres of fuel had been allowed to enter the hospital compound.
The IDF raided the hospital last week and says it found weapons inside
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Outside, the never-ending buzz of Israeli drones continues in the skies overhead and a few people wander through the besieged wasteland.
Rescue workers say they haven’t been able to reach many areas and Gazans claim little or no aid has reached them. Israel is still preventing international journalists from entering Gaza.
Ruined vehicles lie in the devastated streets around the hospital
What hasn’t been buried under the rubble has fled elsewhere – Israel has ordered everyone to leave.
Many have, but thousands are reportedly still there, either unable or unwilling to leave.
The cost of staying, the price of defiance, however, is the risk of death.