Beneath the Bombs: In Hands on Health: Transforming Gaza’s Hospitals into Battlefields, Susan calls for protection of civilians in the war.
The hospitals of the northern Gaza strip, therefore, endure the crux of what might be viewed as a humanitarian disaster obscured by constantly pounding strikes and territorial invasions. Where once was vibrant activity and pristine hallways and OT’s one sees empty wastelands, infrastructure half destroyed and health care almost completely lost.
Every hospital in the embattled north Gaza has been almost on the verge of closure. Blackouts are rife and the hospitals are in the middle of it all trying to serve their patients despite the power outages and the mayhem that characterize the environment.
Eyewitness accounts, available satellite images, and videos that captured the scenes on the ground give a melancholy picture. Among the Adh Ocns identified in northern Gaza, 20 Wa hospitals have been at least severely affect by or destroyed during the first two and a half months of the war between Israel and Hamas. The toll is stark and undeniable: 14 hospitals directly targeted, hospitals which could have been the pride of the whole health system some few days back with strong walls faded to dust and their vital instruments destroyed.
In a bid to fight for what it believes in, Gaza has put the surrounding region into a pit of suffering after the October 7 Hamas terrorism incident. Well over 1200 people perished, hundreds of thousands have been essentially kidnapped by their government – the human and social cost is priceless. The Israeli forces tend to accuse Hamas of using the hospitals as operational theatres, storage and manufacturing centres for their weapons, as well as holding centres for hostages hence the justification of targeting they apply in such establishments. Hamas, on its part, refutes such allegations, thus adding moreostringstream to what is already a bad situation.
Meanwhile, ordinary people are shocked and horrified, while the opportunity to receive the necessary medical assistance limps along. Even hospitals and police departments which are supposed to help and safeguard have crumbled down and the people who are suffering are left in the lurch. The knock-on effect of this devastation is immeasurable, adding to the suffering of people who for the most part have endured the trauma of war, especially the IDPs who rely on such hospitals as shelter and treatment centers.
Great emphasis is placed on the fact that it is the hospitals in Gaza that are most vividly conveying the cost of the ongoing hostilities. In this case, with every strike, optimism diminishes a little more – in the wake of carnage that engulfs every inch of the canvas. Again, one is struck by how such great odds are placed before the people of Gaza; they survive the shot and shell and are left only with hopes of rebuilding.
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