Nothing could prepare doctors for awful sight of maimed children

An international team of doctors visiting a hospital in central Gaza was prepared for the worst. But the gruesome impact Israel’s war against Hamas is having on Palestinian children still left them stunned.

One toddler died from a brain injury caused by an Israeli strike that fractured his skull. His cousin, an infant, is still fighting for her life with part of her face blown off by the same strike.

Anunrelated10-year-old boys creamed out in pain for his parents, not knowing that they were killed in the strike. Beside him was his sister, but he didn’t recognise her because burns covered almost her entire body.

These gut-wrenching casualties were described by Tanya Haj-Hassan, a pediatric intensive-care doctor from Jordan, following an overnight shift at Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in Deir al-Balah.

Dr Haj-Hassan, who has extensive experience in Gaza, was part of a team that recently finished a two-week stint there.

After nearly six months of war, Gaza’s health sector has been decimated. Roughly a dozen of Gaza’s 36 hospitals are only partially functioning. The rest have either shut down or are barely functioning.

That leaves hospitals such as Al-Aqsa caring for an overwhelming number of patients with limited supplies and staff. The majority of its intensive care unit beds are occupied by children, including infants wrapped in bandages and wearing oxygen masks.

“I spend most of my time here resuscitating children,” Dr Haj-Hassan said after a recent shift. “What does that tell you about every other hospital in the Gaza Strip?”

Adifferent team of international doctors working at Al-Aqsa in January stayed at a nearby guesthouse. But because of a recent surge of Israeli strikes nearby, Dr Haj-Hassan and her co-workers stayed in the hospital itself.

That gave them a painfully vivid look at the strain the hospital has come under as the number of patients keeps rising, said Arvind Das, the team leader in Gaza for the International Rescue Committee.

Mustafa Abu Qassim, a nurse from Jordan who was part of the visiting team, said he was shocked by the overcrowding.

“When we look for patients, there are no rooms,” he said. “They are in the corridors on a bed, a mattress, or on a blanket on the floor.”

Israel’s bombardment of Gaza has killed more than 32,000 Palestinians and wounded 75,000, according to Gaza’s health ministry. It says two-thirds of those killed were women and children.