Situation inside Gaza hospital has reached the breaking point, says Canadian aid worker
Medical staff face shortage of critical supplies, influx of wounded patients
Aid workers at Nasser Hospital in the southern Gaza Strip are pleading for more supplies as critically wounded Palestinians flood the Khan Younis medical facility.
"We have to ration off the soap and the hand sanitizer because supplies haven't come in and we can't disinfect properly," said Amy Kit-Mei Low, an emergency room nurse from Montreal working for Doctors Without Borders at the hospital.
"It's not safe medically as well, because the lack of space, the overpopulation of patients that are in there and also the lack of supplies. We don't have the cleaning supplies, we don't have sterilization paper. We don't have hand sanitizer.
"And certain medications as well. I went to the pharmacy today and they said they didn't have enough pain medications for the maternity department. So there's just, huge gaps and a lot of suffering."
With the war between Israel and Hamas in its 10th month, Gaza's Health Ministry said at least 70 people were killed and 200 injured in Khan Younis on Monday by Israeli fire after its military ordered civilians to evacuate a humanitarian zone in order to carry out attacks against Hamas militants.
"They didn't give people enough time to evacuate," Low said in an interview on Tuesday. "A lot of people were hit."
"They kept striking us and forced us to leave our homes," Khan Younis resident Muhammad Awaida said in an interview.
"I came outside and found my niece thrown and my siblings thrown," Adel Abu Hammad said. "I found them all in pieces."
'There is nothing left after Nasser'
The war in Gaza began when Hamas-led militants crossed the border and attacked Israel on Oct. 7, killing about 1,200 people and taking some 250 others hostage, according to Israeli tallies. The attacks led to an Israeli offensive into Gaza that has killed more than 39,000 Palestinians, says the Gaza Health Ministry, which does not distinguish between fighters and civilians in its numbers.
According to Doctors Without Borders, Nasser Hospital is the last tertiary hospital providing maternal and pediatric care in the region. But aid workers say it's struggling to meet the needs of women and children because of an influx of wounded patients and a shortage of critical supplies.
"There have been injured patients arriving all day consistently," Dr. Javid Abdelmoneim, the medical team leader for Doctors Without Borders in Gaza, said in a video message posted to X, formerly Twitter.
"It's causing an immense strain to the staff. My own colleagues themselves live in the evacuation zone and have been in tears today. There is nothing left after Nasser. If we have to close Nasser Hospital, there is nowhere for the 400 to 600 patients [to go] that might be here."
High risk of polio virus spreading in Gaza: WHO
The World Health Organization now says there's a high risk of the polio virus spreading across the Gaza Strip.
Traces of the disease, which is spread through fecal matter, were found in wastewater samples collected from two cities in southern and central Gaza.
"I think that just speaks to the water and sanitation conditions that are here," said Low, the ER nurse from Montreal. "A lot of people don't realize that when a war breaks out, everything stops."
Low said the only way to help the injured and protect civilians in Gaza is for the fighting to come to an end.
"There needs to be a ceasefire. You can't stop the suffering without a ceasefire. Hospitals can't get back to normal," she said.
"It's the worst place to be on Earth right now," Low said. "There's no security here. People are living in such precarious conditions."
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
With files from Reuters, The Associated Press and Mohamed El Saife