Gaza City – Hospitals in Gaza are facing catastrophic shortages that are forcing medical staff to reuse orthopedic devices retrieved from the dead, according to Melanie Ward, CEO of the relief group Medical Aid for Palestinians (MAP).
Ward, who visited the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in Deir al-Balah earlier this month, recalled the harrowing scenes she witnessed of overwhelmed doctors struggling amid severe shortages caused by Israel’s blockade. “I saw someone who had an open wound with flies in it,” she said.
With dwindling water and medical supplies due to the blockade’s restrictions on aid, Ward stated “They’re having to remove [external fixators] from limbs of dead people and try to clean them and then re-use them.”
The situation is taking a heavy psychological toll on local staff as well, many of whom have been displaced from their homes by the bombardments or have lost relatives. “Everybody is traumatized and terrified,” Ward told CNN. “Palestinian colleagues are just trying to survive…They’re terrified about the future for their children.”
Despite the acute trauma, doctors carry on attempting to save lives and treat the wounded amid the most rudimentary conditions. At Al-Aqsa Hospital, the grounds were covered with displaced patients and their families seeking refuge, with injured children screaming in pain.
Water shortages mean there is sometimes no running water on the wards to maintain hygiene and prevent infections among the wounded. Food supplies, especially in the north, are also becoming scarce.
“How do you recover from this?” Ward asked, reflecting on the harrowing realities faced by medical staff and civilians in Gaza. The difficulties they confront in obtaining basic resources and medical care seem impossible to overcome.
