A group of American doctors who spent over a week working in hospitals in northern Gaza describe “miserable,” “catastrophic” and “dire” conditions to CNN, as more people die of starvation in the enclave.
The doctors volunteered through a World Heath Organization-coordinated mission to the north of Gaza — where little to no aid is reaching hospitals, and spent most of their time at the Kamal Adwan Hospital.
“The situation here is dire… they’re running on solar power, there’s no fuel to run the electricity in the hospital… patients are lying on the floors in their blood because there’s no beds available,” Dr. Farhan Abdelaziz, an emergency medicine physician said. “The humanitarian crisis here is beyond what words can really convey.”
Video filmed by a CNN stringer in Kamal Adwan Hospital shows the doctors operating on screaming patients on the floor, most of whom are children.
Abdelaziz is seen trying to calm down a nine-year-old girl crying out in pain, caressing her hand, telling her to pray to God.
Another doctor said the hospital received “mass casualties” every day — ranging from 10 to 20 people showing up all at once.
“This morning we woke up and found out that four patients died in the ICU. One of them was about 10 years old, and the mom refused to leave the child’s bedside, refused to believe that the child was dead, refused to let the staff cover her up … She just couldn’t believe her child was dead,” Dr. Samer Attar, an orthopedic surgeon, told CNN. The child died of malnutrition and dehydration, he said.
At least 30 Palestinians have died of malnutrition in Gaza, including over 20 children, according to the enclave’s Ministry of Health.
“These people, they just need help. They just want this to stop… Nobody discusses politics here. They just talk about food and water and shelter, and they just want the war the end,” Attar said.