Even without a full-scale Israeli ground invasion, Rafah's medical facilities are overwhelmed.
Medics say more than a million people displaced in Gaza's southern cities are at risk of lacking medical care after Israeli forces launched a “limited” operation against Hamas in Gaza's eastern suburbs on Monday. states that it has been done.
Abu Yousef al-Najjar Hospital, the largest of the city's three partially functioning hospitals, had to be hastily abandoned the next day as staff were ordered to evacuate and fighting broke out nearby. .
The hospital's dialysis unit was the only surviving unit in the Gaza Strip and served as a lifeline for patients suffering from kidney failure.
The Israeli advance also cut off access to the Europa Gaza Hospital in nearby Khan Yunis, where critically ill patients were referred for surgery, and to the nearby Rafah and Kerem Shalom border crossings.
The UAE's maternity hospital in Rafah is busy delivering dozens of babies every day, while Kuwait's specialist hospitals lack capacity, staff and equipment to deal with a surge in emergency cases. is struggling with
One of the doctors at the hospital, which had only four intensive care beds before the war, said the situation on the ground was “catastrophic in every sense of the word.”
“Unfortunately, the hospital in Kuwait is a small hospital and does not have diagnostic capacity,” its director Dr Jamal Alhams told BBC Arabic's Gaza Lifeline programme. “Even the X-ray inspection equipment has been rendered unusable due to Israeli shelling, and there are no spare parts as the railroad crossing is closed.”
“And the CBC analyzer stopped due to overload,” he added, referring to a complete blood cell test used to diagnose and monitor many diseases.
Dr. Hammes said he and his colleagues still have to treat people with complex trauma, burns, broken bones and contusions of extremities.
“We've had cases where the abdomen and intestines have been torn apart, as well as cases with skull fractures where part of the brain is outside the skull,” he recalled. “In addition to cases where lower limbs have been amputated at the foot, there have also been cases where the main part of the hip has been lost.
“These are unusual injuries caused by unusual weapons. I've lived through every war ever [in Gaza]… Injuries are always in a specific area and treated by one specialist. But now, each case requires multiple experts. ”
He also expressed anger that doctors at Al Najjar Hospital were forced to evacuate both the facility and their family home on such short notice.
Israeli forces told all residents of many areas east of Rafah to leave for their own safety on Monday and head to the “Expanded Humanitarian Zone,” which stretches from nearby al-Mawasi to the central city of Deir al-Balah. He announced that he had given instructions. There will also be field hospitals, tents, and relief supplies.
“Where should they go? Tents and other supplies were supposed to be provided in other safe locations. This has not been done,” Dr. Hammes said.
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Dr. Yousef Abu al-Rish, deputy director of the Hamas-run Gaza Ministry of Health, told Gaza Lifeline that the remaining medical facilities in Rafah can no longer save the lives of many seriously injured and sick patients. .
“There is no real medical service in Rafah governorate since Abu Yousef Al-Najjar Hospital was closed and people can no longer go to Europa Gaza Hospital,” he said.
“There are many field hospitals, but they cannot provide all these services because they do not have the necessary infrastructure or capacity. For example, they do not have dialysis services, oxygen generation stations, intensive care units, blood banks, etc.”
He added: “Kuwait Hospital is a small non-government hospital and cannot provide emergency services. However, we are trying to strengthen its capacity.”
Medical aid group Project Hope announced on Thursday that all clinics and mobile medical hubs in Rafah had been closed and almost all of its staff had been evacuated, with many taking refuge in Khan Younis and Deir al-Balah.
“Most of the aid operations were based in Rafah. Now people are going further north and there is little aid. As long as the violence continues and the Rafah border crossing remains closed, preventable More and more people will die from the cause,” said Moses Kondwe. , leader of the Gaza team in Rafah.
Kondwe said he expected an increase in malnutrition, pregnancy complications and other health conditions such as hepatitis A and cholera.
Hundreds of thousands of children evacuated in Rafah are already injured, sick, malnourished, traumatized and living with disabilities.
Médecins Sans Frontières announced on Wednesday that it had begun discharging patients from the Rafah Indonesia Field Hospital, where the team had been helping provide post-surgical care, and had ceased operations at its clinic in Al Shaboula. It described the move as “catastrophic”.
The medical group also said it would hand over activities at the emirate's maternity hospital to the Gaza Ministry of Health.
Dr. Abu al-Rish said Tuesday's closure of the Rafah border with Israeli-occupied Egypt has left patients stranded who were due to be sent abroad for treatment.
Another teenager waiting to be discharged is Haitham, who has already undergone three surgeries for a bullet wound that penetrated his lung.
“I feel helpless,” he said. “The world doesn't have the power to open borders. The hospitals here can't help me anymore.”
Zeina, a 9-year-old girl with epilepsy, was also scheduled to be transferred overseas by the end of this week.
“She went to the hospital for hepatitis, her liver function test results were very high and she fell into a coma,” her mother told Gaza Lifeline.
“Fourteen days later, Zeina woke up and her neurons were affected and she couldn't walk, move or hold anything. Her hands were shaking frequently, so they put her on medication. We started feeding her and then sent her away.”
Israeli military spokesman Maj. Gen. Daniel Hagari said Thursday night that the Israeli military continues to operate against “terrorist targets and arms smuggling in the eastern region of Rafah.”
“This activity confirms the intelligence that we had [that] “Hamas used the Rafah intersection area for terrorist attacks,” he added.
“We have discovered several terrorist tunnel shafts in the area and are currently conducting investigations and scans. So far, our forces have not entered the area during encounters, airstrikes, or even scanning in the area. We eliminated about 50 terrorists.
The Israeli military also said Wednesday it had reopened the nearby Kerem Shalom supply route for humanitarian aid, but the United Nations said fighting had made it impossible to receive supplies there.
And without fuel deliveries in the coming days, the World Health Organization said all hospitals in Rafah and elsewhere in southern Gaza may soon have to suspend services.