End of truce brings renewed suffering in Gaza as hospitals collapse

04-12-2023
Mohammed Salim
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KHAN YOUNIS, Gaza Strip - Overwhelmed hospitals in the Gaza Strip receive dozens of injured Palestinians as the relentless bombardment of the enclave, combined with a ground assault, continued for the fourth consecutive day since the collapse of a week-long truce. 

Israeli airstrikes have killed over 15,500 Palestinians and injured over 41,000 since the start of the war on October 7th. 

Almost all of the injured have lost family members in airstrikes. Mohammed Ghaben says the trauma of this war will live with them forever. 

"Together with my brother and my brother's friend, we were returning home when behind al-Fakhura School in Jabalia [northern Gaza Strip] we were bombed by an Israeli missile," Ghaben said. "We are not associated with any organization. We are civilians,” he said, likely referring to Palestinian militant group Hamas. 

"In the bombing, my brother and his friend were martyred, and I was transferred to the Indonesian hospital.”

"We have only been eating dates to prevent starving to death since Israel has launched war on Gaza. There is no water, no food nor medicine."

A week-long ceasefire between Israel and Hamas that temporarily halted the airstrikes on Gaza and resulted in hostage exchanges between the two sides came to an end on Thursday.

The Nasser Medical Complex in the southern Gaza Strip has been overwhelmed with the wounded. Some receive treatment in the hospital's corridors, with people barely managing to walk between the injured. 

"When we were targeted by a missile, some were martyred and some of my family and neighbors were injured. They found me on the roof of a house as a result of the bombing. God saved us from death, but I suffered a broken hand and foot. I pray for God to heal me and heal everyone," Issam Abu Tarish, another injured Palestinian said.

The Palestinian Ministry of Health in Gaza has repeatedly appealed to the international community to provide the necessary medical aid and allow the wounded to leave for treatment outside the Gaza Strip.

Warda Dawwas is an injured teenager who says that there are no safe places left in Gaza and that she and her family struggle to find shelter. 

"There is no safe place. We are a nation who is slowly dying," said Dawwas who sustained minor injuries in their right eye. "Where are the politicians and the government to end our sufferings?"

"What is the fault of the children and what is the fault of the people who have become homeless in the streets?

"They [Palestinian authorities] abandoned us in the north [of Gaza Strip]. There is no safe place, not even in hospitals. There is no safety."
 

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