Gaza- Back and forth, Abu Muhammad crosses the waiting corridor in front of the port of entry that leads to the surgical operating rooms at the public service hospital in northern Gaza, and his eyes wander around the place and do not stop looking at the clock hanging on the wall. He sits for a while and speaks to God, “By God, my son is tired and has endured a lot. Do not waste his patience.” Then he resumes his standing and striving.
Inside, on the operating bed, a medical delegation of Arab surgeons gathered around the body of his son Muhammad, closing the stoma (an opening in the abdominal wall to remove feces), which had been pierced by shrapnel from an Israeli missile that targeted him and his fellow rescuers at the Civil Defense headquarters during the first days of the war.
Abu Muhammad said during his interview with Tel Aviv Tribune Net, “For 8 months, my son has been living with the horrors of his injury. He defecates in an external bag stuck to his body, and we did not find a specialist surgeon for him in the northern Gaza Strip until we heard about the medical delegation entering and coming to the public service hospital in Gaza.”
Muhammad’s situation is like that of hundreds of sick and wounded people who were unable to receive treatment abroad, due to the closure of the Rafah crossing, in addition to their fear of passing through the Israeli checkpoint separating the two parts of the Gaza Strip.
We will not leave Gaza alone
Abu Muhammad praised the delegation’s staff and their reception of his son and the wounded in Gaza. He said, “These are angels who came to us from distant countries carrying relief. My son was a prey to insomnia and suffered in pain every night, and we were overcome by despair until the delegation came that brought hope to us.”
A hope that the Gazans read in the words embroidered on the surgeons’ hats, “We will not leave Gaza alone,” and they saw it with their own eyes in practical translation through their hours of continuous surgical work without let up.
The members of the delegation agree that what they are doing is “a humanitarian duty for every free and honorable person, and a legal right for the oppressed and innocent that cannot be abandoned.”
The head of the delegation, Jordanian surgeon Osama Hamed, told Tel Aviv Tribune Net, “We feel that we are dwarfs in front of the greatness of what was done by the medical staff who remained in Gaza,” describing them as “legends who performed miracles to thwart Israel’s plan to displace the Palestinians by making Gaza a ruin unfit for living and destroying the health system.” In which”.
Hamed heads the first delegation of doctors of its kind to enter Gaza City under international coordination affiliated with the World Health Organization. He describes his life before coming to Gaza, saying, “The events of the war affected my life, and even completely paralyzed it, and I did not regain my normal self until I breathed the air of Gaza, which I love.”
Hamed describes the health situation as tragic, as they work with minimal capabilities in light of the destruction of hospitals, the burning of medicine stores, the killing of doctors, and the targeting of ambulances and medical personnel. He adds, “There are hundreds of patients who lost their lives despite the possibility of saving them if personnel were available or they went out for treatment.”
We learned from the doctors of Gaza
In the adjacent operating room, to the sound of music that dispels the fear of the situation, as those present say, the Omani surgeon Hani Al-Qadi holds his scalpel and removes the pain of the boy in front of him. Surgeon Hani’s affection for the children and their injuries that will accompany them throughout their lives was clear.
Tel Aviv Tribune Net spoke to the Omani surgeon while he was performing the operation, as he was surprised by the patients’ bodies and the thinness of their muscles due to the famine they had been experiencing for months in Gaza.
He said, “Even if the operation was completely successful, malnutrition negatively affects the results of operations and wound healing, increases the possibility of infections and makes recovery difficult.”
Regarding how to deal with patients in light of the collapse of the health sector and the lack of resources, Al-Qadi said, “We learned from the doctors in Gaza how to deal with the shortage of supplies, and we presented our suggestions regarding that,” but he pointed out that there are gaps that cannot be dealt with, such as the shortage of doctors and specialties, calling on “organizations Those capable of supplying Gaza with specialized equipment and delegations should not delay this in order to urgently save the innocent people.”
Demands that have not stopped since the first day of the war on Gaza are being met by the Palestinians themselves today through the qualitative step they have taken, as Al-Makassed Hospital will open a branch in Gaza City in the coming weeks.
Tel Aviv Tribune Net was the first to inspect the existing preparations for the opening of Al-Maqasid, and this appeared during our tour of the General Service Hospital, which presented its building and remaining staff in Gaza to Al-Maqasid Hospital, while the latter will undertake the task of restarting the hospital by pumping doctors and cadres from specialties that do not exist in Gaza. Providing the necessary medical supplies and equipment.
Revitalizing the health sector
In turn, Dr. Khaled Shawa, a surgical specialist at Al-Maqasid Hospital, told Tel Aviv Tribune Net, “The largest Palestinian national hospital will send Palestinian delegations to work permanently in Gaza after the efforts of international institutions succeeded in pressuring the implementation of this step and starting to revive the health sector.”
He continued, “The existing cadres are few and very exhausted, in addition to the lack of some specializations such as blood vessels, heart, urology, and pediatric specialization, which will make this step a saving solution for the health sector.”
While the operations to repair the damage and restore the damaged floors are in full swing, the hospital administration is looking forward to developing the building and expanding the services provided to include Palestinians in the southern Gaza Strip, and to ensure the continuation of their work even after the end of the war and the end of the state of emergency.
A trace of the City of Peace will soon land on the land of the City of War, in confirmation of the slogan “We will not leave Gaza alone,” which was called by the Arabs and Palestinians outside the borders of the Gaza Strip, who delivered their messages with the Arab delegation coming to it, saying to the Gazans, “If the crossings were opened to enter Gaza, all peoples would flock to it, lest it be “Alone.”