In Gaza’s European Hospital, medical staff face the harrowing reality of having to decide which patients are most likely to survive as they grapple with severe shortages of staff and equipment. The situation has reached a critical point in the Khan Younis facility, originally designed to accommodate 240 patients but now inundated with around 1,000, alongside many displaced people seeking refuge in its corridors.
Dr. Ahmed El Mokhallalati, a plastic surgeon at the hospital, shared the agonizing choices they are forced to make daily, prioritizing patients with better survival prospects and reluctantly turning away those in dire need of care. “We lost many patients because we were unable to provide the service,” he lamented, highlighting the particularly grim decision to refuse patients with extensive burns due to the intensive care unit’s limitations.
The emotional toll on healthcare workers is profound, with Mokhallalati recounting the distress of performing amputations on individuals who had lost their entire families. “I often burst into tears because we are unable to provide the care in the way it is needed,” he admitted.
Medics help a Palestinian man, wounded in Israeli fire, at a medical point formed to get better access to frontlines, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas, in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip January 30, 2024.
This healthcare crisis unfolds against the backdrop of over 27,000 deaths and 66,000 injuries in Gaza, following Israel’s military campaign in response to a deadly attack by Hamas on Oct. 7. The assault on southern Israel by the militant group, which governs Gaza, left 1,200 dead and took 253 hostages, exacerbating the strain on the enclave’s medical facilities. Many hospitals have closed due to direct attacks or raids, and those still operational are under immense pressure as Israeli forces advance, with allegations of Hamas using medical facilities for military purposes.
Facial surgeon Thaer Daifallah echoed the dire situation, citing a complete collapse in healthcare and predicting a long road to recovery. The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies also raised alarms about the potential closure of nearby Al-Amal Hospital, which has suffered multiple hits in recent weeks. “I don’t want to even think about the possibility of having Al-Amal close in the coming days,” said spokesperson Tommaso Della Longa, underscoring the dire consequences if the situation does not improve.
