Khan Younis, Gaza Strip, Palestine – In the dimly lit corridors of al-Amal hospital west of Khan Younis, one of 17 partially operational health facilities in Gaza, a rare sense of hope grips staff and patients.
Mediators announced a ceasefire between Hamas and Israel to end the 15-month war on Gaza, and although the Israeli cabinet has not yet approved the agreement, the optimism is contagious.
For the first time in months, orthopedic consultant Dr Khaled Ayyad speaks with confidence as he reassures patients that they will soon receive urgently needed medications and procedures and that hospitals will not were unable to provide due to Israeli restrictions on aid deliveries to Gaza.
“We did the impossible. We had to improvise ways to deal with cases of such magnitude and number over a very long time to get to this point,” says Ayyad.
Along with other medical staff and patients, he was forced by the Israeli army to leave his post at the Palestinian Red Crescent-run al-Quds hospital in Gaza City a month later. the start of the war, on October 7, 2023. The old surgeon has been operating in Al-Amal since then, relying on what he describes as “minimal capabilities”.
Throughout Israel’s war on Gaza, “every medical center or humanitarian distribution system has been or is being destroyed,” according to a January 7 report from the medical aid group Doctors Without Borders, known by its French acronym MSF.
Ayyad suffered two Israeli raids on al-Amal hospital in February and March and had to move to the arid area of al-Mawasi, southwest of Gaza, with his family, including his six children. He says he is lucky to have survived: more than 1,000 health workers were killed and many arrested by Israeli forces.
“The number of cases I examined reached 70 patients and injured per day, in addition to the hospitalized cases in the departments, which are no less than eight cases,” Ayyad told Tel Aviv Tribune. As he speaks, countless patients and visitors crowd the hospital’s wards, while outpatient clinics and hallways overflow with people seeking care.
Patience
Ayyad explains how he often resorted to temporary measures to treat fractures until the fixation plates needed for operations were available. “Soon they will be,” he said with a big smile, reassuring Hani al-Shaqra, a patient whose collarbone was broken Monday in an Israeli attack near the Deir el-Balah house where he found refuge.
Unable to respond to Ayyad’s enthusiasm due to his pain, al-Shaqra says he cannot wait for a ceasefire to take effect so he can have the surgery he needs.
“In the midst of this genocide, the care I received is predictable, especially since everyone faces great difficulties in seeking treatment or even accessing hospitals. I am optimistic… that treatment is possible after the ceasefire,” he says, speaking cautiously, careful not to move his arm or the sling that helps lift the weight off his shoulder. .
“I just hope it happens soon before my condition deteriorates,” he adds.
Talks aimed at reaching a ceasefire and ending a war that has killed more than 46,700 Palestinians failed repeatedly over the past year until mediators announced Wednesday that an agreement had been reached.
The inauguration of Donald Trump as president of the United States on Monday served as a de facto deadline, and the ceasefire was expected to take effect the day before. Through this project, larger supplies of much-needed humanitarian aid can be allowed into the enclave after a massive shortage of aid deliveries, which was exacerbated by the May closure of the Rafah crossing with the Egypt, through which most supplies arrived.
“Much work still to be done”
Although Ayyad hopes the influx of humanitarian supplies will bring some respite to Palestinians in Gaza, he knows he and other medical staff will have a lot of work to do.
“Many of the injured people we discharged with temporary treatment will need to be properly re-operated on once supplies become available,” he said.
Dr Adnan al-Zatma, a general surgeon working alongside Ayyad, highlights the enormity of the challenges.
Setting aside the obvious shortages of medicines and supplies, he lists the devastation seen throughout the hospital: from the X-ray machines and power generators destroyed during the Israeli invasion to the burned-out wards, bullet-riddled walls and entrances and roads bulldozed. leading to the hospital.
“A ceasefire would be a respite, but it would not be magical,” says al-Zatma.
According to Dr. Haidar al-Qudra, executive director of the Palestinian Red Crescent Society in Gaza, the health sector is operating at less than 10 percent of its pre-war capacity. The pre-war state of the health system was already below what was needed, according to MSF, due to Israel’s 17-year blockade of Gaza. It is now in ruins.
“Tens of thousands of patients have suffered from the collapse of health care,” says al-Qudra.
“This includes deaths, disabilities and serious complications for those who were unable to access appropriate care during the war,” he adds, noting that facilities like al-Amal Hospital and the al-Wafaa hospital remained non-operational for most of the war.
“For many patients, rehabilitation was the only path to regaining mobility or basic functions. The loss of these services was catastrophic,” he says.
Major hospitals like al-Quds and al-Shifa were heavily damaged, and facilities like al-Amal Hospital suffered significant infrastructural damage.
Despite these challenges, Red Crescent hospitals treated more than 500,000 cases and received an additional 900,000 patients in their primary care centers during the conflict. Al-Amal Hospital alone treats 1,500 cases per day, alongside two field hospitals and 10 primary care centers in northern Gaza.
“Progressive recovery”
“A ceasefire would lead to a gradual recovery of the health system, supported by international aid,” explains al-Qudra. “The Red Crescent plans to establish five field hospitals across Gaza and 30 primary health centers, including one main center in each of the five governorates” once supplies become available.
Coordination with international organizations like the Red Cross and the World Health Organization aims to facilitate the entry of medical supplies from the occupied West Bank, where Red Crescent warehouses hold essential stocks, he says.
“These supplies, along with the arrival of Arab and international medical teams, will breathe new life into Gaza’s health system,” adds al-Qudra. “Reopening hospitals, even gradually, and improving mobility across Gaza will restore some sense of normalcy. The ability to work without fear of being targeted will also improve conditions for medical teams.
“The ceasefire offers a glimmer of hope for everyone. Like everyone else, medical staff are exhausted. The health system, hit by incessant war, needs a chance to recover, and it is ready to face the long road to recovery,” he concludes.
This piece was published in collaboration with Egab.
