Guillemette Thomas, Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) medical coordinator for Palestine, in a stark update, “Gaza: ‘The Wounded Are in Danger of Dying in the Next Few Hours’” reported on Oct. 19 that in the wake of the Israeli order to Palestinians to evacuate from the north of Gaza, “people have been forced to make extremely difficult choices between staying and leaving. For health workers, this meant the choice between abandoning their patients to an almost certain death or staying and risking their own lives.”
“Today, medical staff suffer the same fate as the rest of Gazans: they have been constantly bombed for the past 10 days,” Thomas said. “Our colleagues tell us that many doctors and other health workers have died since the start of the Israeli offensive….
“We are already witnessing the collapse of patient care. The medical staff can no longer treat people or admit new patients properly. Everything is being done in extremely poor conditions, with a shortage of staff, drugs and medical equipment. There are constant flows of patients and seriously injured people, with complex trauma wounds, burns, fractures and crushed limbs.
“Al-Shifa hospital, the main hospital in Gaza, now hosts thousands of people who went there looking to be protected from the constant bombing. While Gaza is in the darkness, Al-Shifa is one of the few places that still has electricity, though the fuel will only last another 24 hours at most.
“In short, without electricity, many patients will die—especially those in intensive care, neonatology and on respiratory support machines. Patients with chronic illnesses, such as diabetes and cancer, and pregnant women are also at risk due to a general shortage of medicines.” Many of these patients have likely died in the two days since her Oct. 19 warning.
“It is vital to get the hospitals back up and running. To do that, regular ceasefires must be guaranteed for medicines and fuel to be brought in on a massive scale. If we run out of anesthetic drugs, surgeons will be forced to stop operations,” Thomas concluded. “Immediate humanitarian support is needed for the one million displaced people. They need access to water and sanitation, as well as basic healthcare, before their health deteriorates dramatically.”
