A doctor documented the scene at one of the last functioning hospitals in Gaza, as Israeli forces increased attacks. Thousands of displaced Gazans have sought refuge at the hospital, including Dr. Moghrabi’s own family.
“Two days of horror. We are in a besieged Nasser hospital. We received more than 320 patients within two days. This is a gunshot. Can you hear it? All the time, all over and around the hospital, they are bombing and it is not safe to go outside of the hospital. And we are afraid that we will suffer from the lack of the foodstuff and clean water. Many of the medical personnel have already left the hospital and we are almost like 12 surgeons only. So the pressure is very big here. I keep my children with me here. They will die from hunger for sure because nothing can enter.”
The Israeli military said its operation in Khan Younis was focused on dismantling Hamas’s military framework and the Hamas stronghold. “They promised that they will not attack the hospital. Only they will attack around the hospital. But the Nasser hospital is located within this block that should be evacuated. It must be evacuated. We as medical staff, we don’t know actually what to do. Here the operative theatre is like a battle scene. Since we see many patients this day, we are fighting here at the operative theatre. I am going to perform one operation on this child. We are in a rush. We have to finish all cases. We want all the rooms here. We have six rooms, all these rooms, because we just received the news that they attacked the nearby areas which are populated by lots of people. They are going to be evacuated. The people are now gathering at the gate of the hospital right now. They want to try to evacuate the whole area and really, I am confused. Either I go with the people and evacuate or I stay at the hospital, waiting for my fate.”