Doctors and humanitarian aid groups say the Israeli military’s so-called “limited operations” in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip over the past two days have had devastating consequences for medical staff and patients across the enclave.
On Monday, the Israeli military ordered about 110,000 people to leave eastern Rafah, sparking fear throughout Abu Yousef al-Najjar Hospital, which is located in an area where Israel said it would use “extreme force” operations, said Marwan al-Hams of the hospital. said the doctor. the director said in a phone interview Tuesday.
Fearing that Israeli forces would carry out attacks similar to those carried out on hospitals across Gaza, medical staff at Najar Hospital urgently evacuated more than 200 patients. Some patients were safely kept in their cars by family members, while the seriously injured were transferred by ambulance to other hospitals in southern Gaza, including the European Hospital in Khan Younis and the International Medical Corps Field Hospital in Rafah.
But even during the emergency evacuation of the hospital, Israeli air strikes on Rafah continued. Dr Hames said 58 bodies of people killed in Israeli attacks had arrived at the hospital since Sunday, adding that hospital staff had to ask the victims’ families to bury the bodies themselves.
“The situation is not dangerous; the situation is catastrophic, catastrophic, catastrophic,” he said.
The Israeli military’s actions also immediately limited access to additional basic health services across Rafah. U.S.-based Project HOPE, an aid group that operates a number of clinics across Gaza, was forced to close a mobile medical unit in an area that Israel had asked people to leave. It has been providing primary care in east Rafah and treating upper respiratory tract infections and gastrointestinal illnesses that are spreading among displaced Palestinians crowded into shelters with little access to clean water and sanitation.
Earlier on Monday, the aid group also had to close another medical clinic elsewhere in Rafah outside the evacuation zone because six of its medical staff – including a general practitioner, a gynecologist and nurses – live in Israel Military locations or in close proximity to Israeli military locations. Operations will begin, said Chessa Latifi, deputy director of emergency preparedness for Project HOPE.
Many medical staff, already displaced from their homes in Khan Younis and Gaza City, were forced to flee again with their families, including dozens of children – this time along with the patients they were treating in eastern Rafah.
At least two delegations of doctors tried to enter Gaza on Monday to provide support to struggling hospitals in the north of the enclave, but were forced to turn back even before the Israeli military took control of the Rafah crossing on Tuesday as the security situation deteriorated.
A delegation of Jordanian doctors organized by Project Hope aims to reach Kamal Adwan Hospital in northern Gaza to relieve pressure on overwhelmed medical staff and deliver much-needed supplies, including anesthetics, surgical sutures and gauze. The delegation should also pay salaries to medical staff working on Rafah’s aid team – cash they desperately need Ensuring housing and transportation during chaotic evacuations.
“We have had contingency plans in place for a long time, especially as it became increasingly clear that Rafah’s offensive was about to begin,” Ms Latifi said. But “the consequences of what’s happening continue to expand,” she said.
On Monday, another delegation of medical workers, organized by the aid group MedGlobal, was about halfway en route from Cairo to Rafah when it began receiving alerts from: The World Health Organization coordination group said the Rafah crossing could soon be closed.
The doctors tried to continue on their way. But when they were told border crossings were about to close, “most of us realized what was going to happen was going to be significant,” said MedGlobal co-founder Dr. John Kahler.
The delegation, which includes an anesthetist and a midwife, will support Al-Awda Hospital, one of the few hospitals still able to provide maternal care to pregnant women. Dr. Kaler himself plans to travel to Kamal Adwan, where his organization opened a nutritional stabilization center for malnourished children over the weekend.
Speaking in Cairo on Tuesday, Dr Kahler described the difficult decision to dissolve the delegation. He said it would be too dangerous to move from Rafah to northern Gaza if this was the start of a long-term threat on the ground, even if doctors were able to get through the Rafah crossing on Monday.
Dr Kahler said anxiety levels among team members and their Palestinian partners in Gaza were “very high” as they waited to see what would happen next.
“Babies will continue to be born; injuries will continue to occur; people will continue to die,” he added.
