16 December 2024
Yesterday evening (15 December), an Israeli military airstrike hit a United Nations-run school sheltering Palestinian civilians driven from their homes in Khan Younis, southern Gaza. The attack happened in the so-called ‘humanitarian safe zone’ of al-Mawasi, just metres from Nasser Hospital, one of the last partially-functioning hospitals left in Gaza.
International doctors at Nasser Hospital, with a volunteer emergency medical team (EMT) organised by Medical Aid for Palestinians (MAP) and the International Rescue Committee (IRC), reported that the emergency department was inundated with casualties. Staff worked throughout the night to try and save patients’ lives.
A consultant in intensive care and emergency medicine with the EMT, who was working in the emergency department, said: “We received a huge number of casualties. The emergency department was full of women, children and elderly patients with severe injuries. I lost count of the number of patients that came in with injuries I’ve never seen in my entire career. I counted at least 18 victims who died in the emergency department, of these there were 12 children under the age of 12 years old.”
“The very first patient that came in was a three-year-old girl who had the left side of her forehead torn open by shrapnel fragments which had penetrated her skull. Due to the limited amount of painkillers and anaesthetics that we had available, we had to undertake the procedure in the emergency room with very little access to medications.”
“It’s very clear to me that the children I witnessed yesterday are not members of any militant organisation, these are young children who are trying to escape war by sheltering in a UN school. Yet they were massacred, I’ve got no other way to describe it.”
Israel’s military assault on Gaza has so far killed at least 45,000 Palestinians and wounded more than 106,000 since 7 October 2023, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health. 1,047 Palestinian healthcare workers have reportedly been killed.
A vascular surgeon with the MAP and IRC EMT said: “It was beyond imagination and beyond description. In minutes the A&E was flooded with casualties. All the casualties I saw were women, teenagers or children below the age of 10.”
“Some of them just turned up gasping and then died. Many were severely injured and died on site or enroute to the hospital.”
“I think every effort should be done towards saving civilians from such attacks. We shouldn't see children, women and girls being targeted by rockets.”
A plastic surgeon with the EMT said: “The first patient I came across was a 12 to 14-year-old boy whose face was entirely burnt and bruised. He had an open wound in his chest, and he had wounds on both his legs. I don’t know if he will make it out of his injuries. This is a young boy who is going to lose his life or at least one of his legs, through no fault of his own.”
For more than a year, medical workers at Nasser Hospital have been dealing with weekly mass casualty events and extreme shortages of medical supplies, equipment, fuel, food and staff. In February, the Israeli military invaded and besieged the hospital, which left it non-functional and severely damaged, with many staff and patients killed, injured or detained. MAP has been working with the Ministry of Health and partners to rehabilitate parts of Nasser Hospital and provide support to staff.
MAP urges the international community not to turn a blind eye to the further destruction of the health system and resultant humanitarian catastrophe. The UK government cannot continue to be an ally to Israel’s atrocities and must take real action to protect Palestinian civilians and healthcare, including imposing an immediate arms embargo on Israel. Those responsible for serious violations of international law must be held accountable.
Photo: Palestinians at a school-turned shelter which was destroyed by an Israeli airstrike, in Gaza City on 16 November 2024. (Credit: Mahmoud Zaki/Xinhua/Alamy Live News).
