GAZA – As Gaza residents brace for an Israeli ground offensive, after days of intense air strikes and a blockade, in response to the attack by the Palestinian militant group Hamas, health ministry official Ashraf Al-Qidra wonders how hospitals will cope.
Doctors have been scrambling to help a rising number of patients, including children injured in the air strikes, in overcrowded hospitals that are running short on medicines and fuel due to the blockade. Only the most acute cases are getting surgery because there are not enough resources, doctors say.
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Hospitals across the enclave have only 24 hours more of fuel reserves, putting thousands of patients at risk, the UN humanitarian office (OCHA) said on Monday.
At least 2,750 Palestinians have been killed and 9,700 wounded since Oct. 7, the health ministry said on Monday. Another 1,000 people were missing and believed to be under rubble.
Qidra appealed to people to head to the Shifa hospital, the largest of the territory’s 13 public medical facilities, to donate blood.
“If the hospital stops working, the whole world will be responsible for the lives of hundreds and thousands of patients who rely on our services, especially from Shifa,” said Qidra.
Shifa serves the entire Gaza Strip but more directly the around 800,000 people who live in Gaza City.
Israel is conducting its heaviest ever air strikes and is expected to launch a ground offensive in Gaza, one of the most densely populated areas in the world with 2.3 million people.
It has vowed to annihilate Hamas in retaliation for a rampage by its fighters in Israeli towns nine days ago in which its militants shot men, women and children and seized hostages in the worst attack on civilians in the country’s history.
About 1,300 people were killed in the surprise onslaught, with graphic mobile phone footage and reports from medical and emergency services of atrocities in the overrun towns and kibbutzes. (Reuters)
