JAKARTA – The health system in the Gaza Strip hit by the Hamas-Israel war is worse than expected, a health expert who recently returned from the southern Palestinian enclave said.
“You have to decide who you will save and who you will leave behind,” Dr. Anas Al-Kassem whispered, reported CNN January 10.
Dr. Anas Al-Kassem is a Canadian surgeon who has just returned from Gaza, after spending two weeks working in Khan Younis, in the south of the Palestinian enclave.
He detailed the impossible decisions the few remaining doctors have had to make as staff, equipment and supplies run short amid the Israeli offensive.
Al-Kassem said CNN On Wednesday, the state of the health system in Gaza was “worse than I expected.”
“I think it’s worse than I expected, to be honest with you,” he said, adding that the Israeli bombardment of Gaza was more intense than what he experienced while working in Aleppo, Syria, during the civil war there.
“The health system may not be the best because of the siege on Gaza for many years,” he said, adding that in the current war, “the system is on the verge of collapse and has completely collapsed.”
The lack of adequate medical supplies has impacted other health facilities in the region, he said.
“We lack equipment, medicines, CT scanners, etc., not to mention the lack of medicines (such as) painkillers, antibiotics,” Al-Kassem said, adding that he had to perform stitches on patients without anesthesia in order to save them for surgery.
The Israeli siege and strict restrictions on food, fuel and water entering Gaza are known to have devastated the health system, forcing medical personnel to care for critically injured patients in an environment devoid of essential supplies and infrastructure. This came after the Hamas militant group attacked the southern Israeli region on October 7.
Only 13 of Gaza’s 36 hospitals are partially functional and bed capacity stands at 351 percent, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry in Ramallah.
In Deir al-Balah, the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital reported receiving dozens of casualties from several areas in central Gaza, due to the incessant airstrikes that have pounded the area. Further south, where the Israeli army is concentrating part of its military operations, the World Health Organization (WHO) stressed that it “cannot afford” to lose its remaining operational hospitals.
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