DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza –
An international team of doctors who visited a hospital in central Gaza was prepared for the worst. But the horrific impact that Israel’s war against Hamas is having on Palestinian children still stunned them.
A young boy died from a brain injury caused by an Israeli attack that fractured his skull. His cousin, a baby, is still fighting for his life and part of her face was torn off by the same blow.
An unrelated 10-year-old boy screamed in pain for his parents, unaware that they had died in the attack. Next to her was her sister, but he did not recognize her because the burns covered almost her entire body.
These heartbreaking victims were described to The Associated Press by Tanya Haj-Hassan, a pediatric intensive care doctor from Jordan, after a 10-hour night shift at Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in the city of Deir al-Balah.
Haj-Hassan, who has extensive experience in Gaza and speaks regularly about the devastating effects of the war, was part of a team that recently completed a two-week stint there.
After almost six months of war, Gaza’s healthcare sector has been decimated. About a dozen of Gaza’s 36 hospitals are only partially functioning. The rest closed or barely function after they ran out of fuel and medicine, were surrounded and attacked by Israeli troops or suffered damage in the fighting.
That leaves hospitals like Al-Aqsa Martyrs caring for overwhelming numbers of patients with limited supplies and staff. Most of the beds in its intensive care units are occupied by children, including babies wrapped in bandages and wearing oxygen masks.
“I spend most of my time here resuscitating children,” Haj-Hassan said after a recent shift. “What does that tell you about all the other hospitals in the Gaza Strip?”
A different team of international doctors who worked at Al-Aqsa Martyrs in January stayed at a nearby guesthouse. But due to a recent wave of Israeli attacks nearby, Haj-Hassan and his co-workers remained in the hospital.
That gave them a painfully vivid view of the strain the hospital faces as the number of patients continues to rise, said Arvind Das, Gaza team leader for the International Rescue Committee. His organization and Medical Aid for Palestinians arranged the visit for Haj-Hassan and others.
Mustafa Abu Qassim, a Jordanian nurse who was part of the visiting team, said he was shocked by the overcrowding.
“When we look for patients, there are no rooms,” he said. “They are in the hallways on a bed, a mattress or on a blanket on the floor.”
Before the war, the hospital had a capacity of about 160 beds, according to the World Health Organization. There are now about 800 patients, but many of the hospital’s 120 staff can no longer come to work.
Health workers face the same daily struggle as others in Gaza to find food for their families and try to guarantee them some security. Many take their children to the hospital to keep them close, Abu Qassim said.
“It’s just miserable,” he said.
Thousands of people driven from their homes by the war also live on the hospital grounds, hoping it will be safe. Hospitals have special protections under international law, although those protections can be removed if combatants use them for military purposes.
Israel has alleged that the hospitals serve as command centers, weapons storage facilities and hideouts for Hamas, but has presented little visual evidence. Hamas has denied the accusations. Israel has been carrying out a large-scale operation in Gaza’s largest hospital, Shifa, for the past week.
Israeli troops have not attacked or besieged the Al-Aqsa Martyrs, but have attacked surrounding areas, sometimes attacking near the hospital. In January, many doctors, patients and displaced Palestinians fled the hospital after a series of attacks.
Israel’s bombing and offensive in Gaza has killed more than 32,000 Palestinians and injured nearly 75,000 more in the territory of 2.3 million people, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry. The count does not differentiate between combatants and civilians, but the ministry says around two-thirds of the dead have been women and children.
About half of Gaza’s 2.3 million residents are 17 years old or younger, the U.N. children’s agency estimates.
Israel holds Hamas responsible for non-combatant deaths and injuries because militants in Gaza operate from civilian areas. He says more than a third of those killed are Hamas militants, although he has not backed up the claim with evidence.
The war was triggered on October 7 by Hamas and other militants who attacked southern Israel, killing about 1,200 people and taking about 250 hostages. The Israeli government believes that around 100 hostages held in Gaza are still alive.
In the early stages of the war, Israel severely limited the entry of food, fuel and medical supplies into Gaza. While the flow of aid has increased (and Israel says there are no longer limits), the international community has called on Israel to allow more in.
Aid groups say complicated border inspection procedures, continued fighting and disruption of law and order have caused huge delays to convoys. Israel accuses the UN of disorganization.
The result has been catastrophic: hospital staff have struggled to cope with a shortage of spare parts to maintain medical equipment. The Al-Aqsa Martyrs have also had shortages of anesthetics, meaning that surgeries and other procedures are frequently performed without painkillers.
Haj-Hassan says there is only one way to end the healthcare crisis in Gaza.
“They need the war to end,” he said.
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Chehayeb reported from Beirut.