Deir el-Balah, Gaza – Abdelrahman Abu Shawish didn’t expect to make life-changing decisions for his patients so soon after earning his medical degree from Gaza’s Azhar University.
The 25-year-old, who lives with his family in the Nuseirat refugee camp, began volunteering in the surgical department of Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital on October 10 and ended up decide whether an injured person needed total or partial amputation of their limbs. .
“The injuries I saw in the (May) 2021 war were more or less the same,” he told Tel Aviv Tribune. “But this time I saw so many different types, from varying degrees of burns to amputated limbs to deep lacerations to different types of shells.”
The hospital, which was supposed to serve the central city of Deir el-Balah, became the main treatment center in the Gaza Strip due to the complete collapse of hospitals in Gaza City and northern Gaza.
Nearly two-thirds of hospitals in the Gaza Strip – 26 out of 35 – have stopped functioning after weeks of bombardment by Israeli forces on the territory, which began on October 7. At least 1.5 million Palestinians have been displaced from their homes and massive aerial bombardments and ground attacks on Gaza have destroyed much of its infrastructure, including more than half of the homes.
Additionally, Israel’s total siege of the enclave means hospitals are running out of fuel, electricity and clean water.
“We have very limited medical supplies,” Abu Shawish said. “When dozens of wounded arrive at the hospital following an Israeli attack, we often cannot treat them all at once because we have to sterilize our tools because we don’t have enough. »
Lack of resources means doctors can only do the minimum required to keep their patients alive. Proper treatment is out of the question.
“We cannot remove all the shrapnel from an injured person’s body, only the pieces that threaten their life,” Abu Shawish said. “It remains dangerous because shrapnel can cause infections that can lead to multiple organ failure, but we hope they can follow through once the war is over.”
The young doctor, who had studied German in preparation for his residency in Germany, said he had to scale back his career aspirations.
“I had big dreams before the war, but now I just hope that my family and I stay alive,” he said.
“No time to rest”
After his family’s home was destroyed during Israeli bombing of the al-Zahra neighborhood south of Gaza City, Mohammad Abu Salem began volunteering at the Al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Hospital on October 19 and has only seen his family twice since.
Also only 25 years old, Abu Salem, who specializes in physiotherapy at the Islamic University in Gaza City, said Israeli massacres of Palestinians have become a daily reality in the Gaza Strip.
“I knew working in a hospital in general would be hectic, but working in a hospital during a war is on a whole other level,” he said. “You don’t know what’s going to happen tomorrow, whether you’re going to live or die. But giving up is not an option.
The physiotherapy department sees all patients after their first treatment in the emergency room, after which they are transferred to other departments such as the surgical unit or the pediatric wing. Abu Salem talks to patients about the nature of their injuries, the complications that could arise, and how to avoid such risks.
“The other day my own brother came in injured. Luckily it wasn’t serious,” he said. “But the stress of caring for people you know… can be very debilitating.”
An almost total collapse
In the emergency room, Alaa Kassab points out patients whose limbs have turned blue, explaining that the shrapnel has probably done so much damage that the limb is no longer oxygenating and may need to be amputated.
Incidents like this, particularly the large number of children she has seen lose limbs to amputation, have scarred her to the point where she is sometimes unable to speak.
Instead of talking to her family at home, she needs to sit in silence to recover most of the time.
Kassab completed her medical studies at Ain Shams University in Cairo and returned to her hometown of Deir el-Balah last February.
“I dreamed of completing my residency year in medicine, then traveling abroad to complete my studies by specializing, before finally returning to Gaza,” she said. “What I’ve seen in the last two weeks since I’ve been volunteering has only made me more determined to become a doctor.”
The hours are long and exhausting, and Kassab has never seen some of the injuries she now has to treat.
“There is not a day we can rest,” she says, adding that she works from noon until 3 a.m. the next day. “The number of injured never decreases. That’s why I decided to volunteer, because I knew that doctors are under enormous pressure and the situation is very difficult.
Kassab said the hospital was on the verge of a total collapse of services. Without enough surgical tools, fuel, medical supplies or staff, they soon won’t be able to treat any patients, she said.
“Of course, I am here to serve my people, and I do not regret it for a single second,” she said. “But the situation in the Gaza Strip is very bad.”