What the Israeli military is calling a “limited operation” in Rafah, in the southern Gaza Strip, has already had devastating consequences for health workers and patients across the enclave over the past two days, according to doctors and humanitarian groups. That's what it means.
An Israeli military order ordering around 110,000 people to leave eastern Rafah on Monday spread fear throughout Abu Yousef Al-Najjar Hospital. The hospital is in an area where Israel has announced it will use “extreme force,” said Dr. Marwan al-Hams. the coach said in a phone interview Tuesday.
Medical staff at Al-Najjar rushed to remove more than 200 patients, fearing Israeli military attacks similar to those carried out on hospitals across Gaza. Some patients were left in cars secured by their families, while the seriously injured were taken by ambulance to other hospitals in southern Gaza, including the European Hospital in Khan Younis and the International Medical Corps Field Hospital in Rafah.
However, Israeli airstrikes on Rafah continued while there was a scramble to evacuate hospitals. Since Sunday, the bodies of 58 people killed in the Israeli attack have arrived at the hospital, Alhams said, adding that hospital staff had to ask the families of the victims to bury the bodies themselves. .
“The situation is not dangerous. The situation is catastrophic, catastrophic, catastrophic.”
The Israeli military's actions also immediately restricted access to more basic medical services across Rafah. Project Hope, a US-based aid organization that operates clinics across Gaza, has been forced to close its mobile medical units in areas where Israel has ordered people to leave. The hospital provides primary care in eastern Rafah, treating upper respiratory infections and gastrointestinal illnesses that are prevalent among displaced Palestinians crammed into shelters with little access to clean water and sanitation. was.
The aid group also said six medical workers, including a general practitioner, a gynecologist and a nurse, lived in or directly next to an Israeli military camp, so early Monday morning another clinic in Rafah outside the evacuation zone was closed. also had to close. Chessa Latifi, Project HOPE's deputy director of emergency preparedness, said the operation would begin.
Many of the medical workers had already been forced from their homes in Khan Yunis and Gaza City and were forced to flee again with their families, including dozens of children, but this time with the patients they were treating in eastern Rafah. .
At least two teams of doctors who were trying to enter Gaza on Monday to help struggling hospitals in the northern part of the enclave warned of the deteriorating security situation even before Israeli forces took control of the Rafah crossing on Tuesday. I was forced to turn back.
One of the Jordanian doctors' teams organized by Project HOPE is working to rescue overwhelmed medical staff and deliver desperately needed supplies such as anesthetics, surgical sutures and gauze to Kamal, in the far north of Gaza. They were aiming to reach Adwan Hospital. The delegation was also to deliver salaries to medical workers from Rafah aid groups, much-needed cash to ensure housing and transportation during the chaotic evacuation.
“We have been making contingency plans for a very long time, especially as it became increasingly clear that an offensive would begin in Rafah,” Latifi said. But “the impact of what's happening will only continue to grow,” she says.
Another delegation of medical workers, organized by aid group MedGlobal, began receiving alerts on Monday, about halfway from Cairo to Rafah. The World Health Organization's coordination team said the Rafah crossing could soon be closed.
Doctors tried to continue on that path. But once informed of the impending closure of border crossings, “most of us realized that what was about to happen was going to be significant,” said Dr. John Kahler, co-founder of MedGlobal. .
The delegation also included anesthetists and midwives who will be supporting Al Awda Hospital, one of the few hospitals still able to provide maternal care for pregnant women. Dr. Kahler himself had intended to go to Kamal Adwan, where his organization had opened a nutrition stabilization center for malnourished children over the weekend.
Speaking from Cairo on Tuesday, Dr Kahler spoke about the difficult decision to disband the delegation. He said if this was the beginning of a ground offensive that has been threatened for years, it would be too dangerous to travel from Rafah to northern Gaza, even if doctors were able to get through the Rafah crossing on Monday.
Dr Kahler said the level of anxiety was “very high” among team members and Palestinian partners in the Gaza Strip as they waited to see what would happen next.
“Babies will continue to be delivered. Injuries will continue to occur. People will continue to die,” he added.