An Australian medic working at Gaza City’s al-Shifa Hospital says she has lost count of the number of amputations she has had to perform, as two more hospitals were shut down amid Israel’s relentless bombardment of the enclave.
“On the first day, I started off thinking I’ve never seen anything like this, and then in the following days I’ve seen … more. I’ve lost count of the number of amputations I’ve done,” Dr Saya Aziz, an anaesthesiologist, told Al Jazeera.
“The worst thing is these patients are alive … when we take them into the [operation] theatre they’re alive, they’re bleeding to death,” she said, adding how in the recess area of the hospital, dangling bits of toes and flesh and people with missing limbs have become a common sight.
Dr Aziz, who joined the barely functional medical facility about a week ago, says that as soon as hospital staff members hear a huge bomb, within minutes, the hospital fills up with mass casualties.
“You’ll hear the wailing, the screams, the chaos of family members bringing in the patients … it is a bloodbath,” she said.
The doctor added that the hospital’s operating theatre is also in a sordid state with flies everywhere, while Israel has curbed the entry of aid, including medical supplies, into Gaza.
“Everything is just filthy. I can’t even clean the patients covered in dust, gun powder, we’ve got no gauze … I wish I had a couple of towels, which I could wash the patients with. I have no fluids to clean them with. I have no pain relief to give them. My heart breaks,” Aziz said.
Healthcare crippled by Israeli attacks
Al-Shifa Hospital was once the largest medical complex in the Gaza Strip, but most of it now lies in ruins after several rounds of intense Israeli ground and air sieges since the start of the war in October 2023.
Gaza’s healthcare facilities have been repeatedly targeted by Israel, including with 2,000-pound bombs supplied by the United States, Israel’s closest ally.
Hundreds of medics have been killed in the 23 months of brutal war that has been dubbed a genocide by numerous rights organisations, including the United Nations.
Dr Adnan Al-Bursh, the head of orthopaedics at al-Shifa Hospital, was tortured to death in an Israeli prison months after he was arrested in December 2023. Dr Hussam Abu Safia, the director of Kamal Adwan Hospital, was arrested last November. He still languishes in an Israeli jail.
Targeting of health facilities, medical personnel and patients is considered a war crime under the 1949 Geneva Convention.
Aziz said that on Sunday, Israel’s attacks also killed one of the hospital’s nursing staff and his wife.
“Their one surviving child, an 11-year-old, had burns on his face. I couldn’t even give him any pain relief,” she said, tearing up.
“His name is Mohammad, and he kept saying, ‘I could see my father, I never even said goodbye to him.’”
Israel has routinely justified its deadly attacks on healthcare facilities across Gaza by saying it was targeting Hamas, though it has never provided any proof for its claims.
But media reports, including from Al Jazeera, have documented evidence of Israel’s targeting of medics and hospitals during the course of the devastating war that has killed more than 65,300 Palestinians.
On Monday, the Gaza Health Ministry said two Gaza City hospitals stopped services due to the escalation of Israel’s ground offensive and damage caused by continued Israeli bombing, as tanks advanced deeper into Gaza City.
Tens of thousands of Palestinians in Gaza City have been forced to flee, as Israel has vowed to seize the city, which hosted more than a million people ahead of the latest Israeli offensive that began a few weeks ago.
Famine has also spread in Gaza as Israel continues to block the entry of aid. At least 440 people have died due to starvation so far.
The Health Ministry said in a statement that al-Rantissi Children’s Hospital had been badly damaged in an Israeli bombardment a few days ago. It also reported Israeli attacks in the vicinity of the nearby St John Eye Hospital, which forced the suspension of services there, too.
“The occupation deliberately and systematically targets the healthcare system in the Gaza governorate as part of its genocidal policy against the Strip,” it said.
“None of the facilities or hospitals have safe access routes that allow patients and the wounded to reach them,” the ministry added.
But despite Israel’s attacks, doctors at the major urban centre’s al-Shifa Hospital say leaving patients is not an option.
“Our medical crews are still carrying out their humanitarian mission in this hospital complex under heavy pressure,” the director of the hospital, Dr Muhammad Abu Salmiya, told Al Jazeera’s Ibrahim al-Khalili in Gaza City on Saturday.
“Their message continues: We serve patients and the injured to the best of our abilities.”
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