“Life is very difficult here,” said hospital director Dr. Haidar Al-Qudra. UN News.
Currently, according to the World Health Organization (WHO), only 12 of Gaza's 36 hospitals are “partially functioning,” with the rest destroyed by Israel's near-constant bombing of the enclave.
As the war in Gaza enters its fifth month, Israeli forces continue to attack health facilities, with Al Amal hospital one of the last to endure a deadly weeks-long siege. Israel claims that Hamas is operating in hospitals, but Palestinian authorities and medical professionals have refuted those accusations.
Al Amal hospital received 40 direct attacks that killed at least 25 people and incapacitated the health center, according to a report by the UN Humanitarian Country Team in Palestine.
Buildings continue to be riddled by Israeli sniper fire, communications outages and detentions of health workers, along with drastic shortages of essential goods and restrictions on what vital supplies can enter the complex, according to UN agencies and media reports. .
'We are surrounded now'
Since the start of the siege of Al Amal in January, More than 8,000 displaced people have been evacuated. of the complex, many of whom had used the facilities as shelter against Israeli attacks in the area.
Close fighting and multiple shelling left health workers “fearing for their lives” and, for more than a month, they have not been able to leave hospital buildings, Dr. Al-Qudra said.
“Now we are surrounded and patients cannot reach the hospital because they are not allowed to walk on the streets near the hospital.,” he said. “Our ambulances now can not move outside the hospital.”
Dr. Haidar Al-Qudra, director of Al Amal Hospital.
“Most of the patients have died or are suffering”
Many surgical cases have been postponed, he warned, noting that five months have passed without many operations being performed, from mastectomies to thyroidectomies.
“All these normal operations were not performed in any hospital, therefore, Most of these patients died or are suffering increasingly.”said Dr. Al-Qudra.
The extensive damage has also forced management to try to transfer patients to receive the care they need. After the third floor ceiling collapsed, she said they would now refer about 35 patients to other nearby hospitals.
But the remaining hospitals throughout Gaza are severely overcrowded. In Rafá, 77 newborns shared 20 incubatorsaccording to UNFPA.
At the Al-Helal Al-Emirati maternity hospital in Rafah, 77 babies share 20 incubators.
'First time we see the sun'
Dr Waheed Qudih, a surgical consultant at Al Amal Hospital, was among the medical staff trapped inside during the siege.
“This is the first time we've seen the sun,” he said, referring to the arrival of a joint U.N. mission to the battered facility this week. “We have not been allowed to leave the hospital door since January 21.“
He, like others, remained inside the place “to help the injured patients.”
“We perform a lot of surgeries on injured patients, such as general surgery and orthopedics,” he explained. “We have saved many patients' lives and did what we could with limited facilities..”
Dr. Waheed Qudih, Consultant Surgeon at Al Amal Hospital.
Joint UN aid mission
Following reports of the besieged medical center, the UN deployed a joint mission, with WHO, the humanitarian affairs office OCHA, the mine action service (UNMAS), the reproductive health agency UNFPA, the department of security and protection (UNDSS) and UNRWA, the Palestinian Refugee Assistance Agency.
Meeting with health workers in the besieged hospital and monitoring the condition of patients and companions inside, the mission objective The goal was to evacuate 24 patients and deliver vital food, water and fuel, as well as emergency surgical supplies and antibiotics to treat about 50 infections.
The mission had to leave behind 31 non-critical patientsan OCHA spokesperson said on Tuesday, noting that the The Israeli army had not given “any information or any communication” about why the mission's ambulances were detained for at least seven hours or why the paramedics “had been taken out, forced to strip naked.”
'There are still patients here'
Dr. Athanasios Gargavannis, a trauma surgeon and WHO emergency staff member, said the level of devastation he witnessed is “beyond imagination”.
“However, there are still patients here,” he said. “Our top priority is to identify and refer several of them so they can continue to receive care.”
As chronic delays continue at Israel's Kerem Shalom crossing, with news reports showing Israeli protesters blocking aid from entering Gaza, some nations have resorted to emergency aid airdrops this week.
But that represents only a small portion of what is needed at Al Amal and other Gaza health centers.
WHO and the Palestinian Red Crescent lead life-saving missions to transfer critical patients from besieged hospitals in Gaza.
“No humanitarian rights are respected”
At Al Amal Hospital, Dr. Al-Qudra said that before the war, it had 100 beds, focused on maternal and child health, and could meet basic surgery and internal medicine needs while providing specialized rehabilitation services.
The destruction caused by the bombing of the third floor reduced the capacity to about 60 beds. Supplies are scarce. Communications outages continue.
On Wednesday, the Palestinian Red Crescent Society said Israeli forces were continuing Detain seven team members for almost three weeks.including a doctor, an anesthesia technician and ambulance staff, who were detained during Israel's raid on Al Amal hospital, according to media reports.
These days in Gaza, Dr. Al-Qudra stressed, there are “no respect for any norms or humanitarian rights related to medical personnel”.
UN staff help transport patients out of Nasser Hospital in Gaza.
