Izedine Lulu was besieged at Gaza’s al-Shifa hospital when he learned that Israel had bombed his family’s home in November.
His brothers, sisters and father had all been killed.
The 21-year-old doctor was unable to collect their bodies because al-Shifa was surrounded by Israeli tanks and snipers.
He could only care for his patients, living and dead.
“Eight patients in (the intensive care unit) died before my eyes,” Lulu told Tel Aviv Tribune. “It was the first time I buried people on the hospital premises.”
“There is no support for doctors in Gaza, but I think it is our duty to continue working.
“We have to stay in hospitals,” said Lulu, who now works at al-Ahli hospital.
Go home
Lulu is among hundreds of Palestinian and foreign doctors stuck in a war zone after Israel took control of the Rafah crossing between Gaza and Egypt earlier this month, the only way out of the besieged enclave.
Foreign volunteers came to Gaza to help civilians during what United Nations experts have called a genocide. Many volunteers of Western nationality have recently been evacuated by their embassies after the end of their mission, but new volunteers have been unable to enter Gaza.
The loss of foreign doctors has further destroyed Gaza’s few remaining hospitals, all of which are struggling with catastrophic shortages of medicines and medical supplies needed to treat the growing number of wounded.
Israel killed or injured 100,000 people – men, women and children – following Hamas’ attack on southern Israel on October 7, in which 1,139 people were killed and 250 captured.
Since then, Israel has completely destroyed 23 of 36 hospitals and killed 493 health workers, according to the World Health Organization (WHO) and Gaza’s Ministry of Health, respectively. The former also said there was a “systematic dismantling of health care” in Gaza as a result of the Israeli war.
The acute danger has pushed skilled health workers to flee Gaza, forcing doctors to come from abroad to help those left behind.
Mosab Nasser, who left Gaza nearly 30 years ago to study medicine, is among those who returned.
He returned in April as CEO of Fajr Scientific, a nonprofit that sends volunteer surgeons to conflict zones.
Nasser and his team of 17 surgeons worked at the European Gaza Hospital in Khan Younis, where they saw some of the most horrific war casualties.
“We saw mothers, fathers and children with broken bones and skulls,” Nasser told Tel Aviv Tribune. “In some cases, we cannot determine whether the victim is male or female after being run over or hit. »
After Israel captured and closed the crossing between Gaza and Egypt, Nasser and his team were stranded for several days.
Most of his team – nationals of the United States and the United Kingdom – eventually managed to leave the Gaza Strip through the Karem Abu Salam (Kerem Shalom) crossing after coordinating with their embassies. As an American citizen, Nasser also left.
However, his team was forced to leave two members, an Egyptian doctor and an Omani doctor, still in Gaza, as their countries were unable to ensure their evacuation. They are now waiting for the WHO to organize their departure.
With the departure of the majority of the team, the European Hospital now has virtually no surgeons. Nasser said most of the trained Palestinian health workers had fled to the coastal area of al-Mawasi after Israel began its military operation in Rafah, a border town with Egypt and where 1.4 million Palestinians from across the Gaza Strip had sought refuge.
Nasser predicts the hospital will be overwhelmed with wounded if Israel expands its operations. The only other major hospital in Khan Younis was Nasser Hospital, which has been out of service since Israel attacked it in February.
In April, a mass grave of more than 300 bodies was discovered there. The victims included men, women, children and doctors – some were found naked with their hands tied.
“We know it will be difficult to leave the people of Gaza and the (Palestinian hospital) staff alone in the face of the crisis,” Nasser said, just days before evacuating.
Children who lose their sight
Mohammed Tawfeeq, an Egyptian eye surgeon with another volunteer mission in Gaza, is still stuck in the European hospital.
In fact, he talked about the countless children he saw who lost their sight to war injuries.
“About 50 percent of our patients are children,” he told Tel Aviv Tribune.
Unlike other hospitals in Gaza, the European Hospital, which employs foreign volunteers, has relatively stable electricity and a greater number of medicines such as anesthetics.
However, the staff is overworked.
Tawfeeq sees about 80 patients a day and is unsure how the hospital will fare once it is evacuated. The hospital may have to rely on nursing staff to perform complex surgeries, even if they are untrained and poorly equipped.
Lulu has this dilemma. Before the war, he was in his fifth year of medical school, yet he now treats injuries caused by explosions and bullets, without basic medical supplies, in northern Gaza.
He told Tel Aviv Tribune that he recently had to operate on a boy whose face was disfigured by an explosion. The hospital had no electricity or anesthesia.
“The boy was crying while I tried to restructure his face for three hours,” Lulu said. “We had to use the light from our phones to see (in the dark).”
Hospital attacks
Foreign doctors feel “relatively safe” since the WHO shared the coordinates of the European hospital with the Israeli army.
But this is not the case for Palestinian doctors.
Since October 7, the Israeli army has carried out more than 400 attacks against Palestinian health facilities and personnel in Gaza. Additionally, around 118 doctors have disappeared into Israel’s labyrinth of dark detention centers, according to the WHO.
Medical student Deema Estez, 21, spoke with resignation about a young boy who arrived with a brain hemorrhage at the hospital where she was volunteering.
There was no doctor to help him when he arrived.
He was forced to wait for hours with his mother and father until someone was available. Estez later learned he was dead.
She also spoke of the countless times she amputated children’s limbs, sometimes removing “more than half their bodies.”
Despite the trauma and danger, Estez refuses for the moment to leave Gaza.
The killings and arrests of doctors are leading to a severe shortage of medical personnel, with medical students like Estez having to fill the void.
She joined a medical team in northern Gaza during Ramadan, after convincing her parents it was her duty to help. Estez says his colleagues are overcome with fear as they try to save lives.
“Just last week, Israeli forces were firing artillery near the entrance to the hospital,” she told Tel Aviv Tribune.
Israel recently attacked a nearby hospital, al-Awda, in the Jabalia camp. Israeli troops reportedly surrounded the facilities and prevented ambulances from leaving, according to the Palestinian Wafa news agency.
Estez warns that if Israel kills more doctors, it will add to the burden on Gaza’s crippled health sector.
“(F)or now, I’m going to stay and help my people,” she said.
“I realize it’s dangerous. At any time we could be targeted.