Hospitals struggling under "avalanche of human suffering" in Gaza, doctor says
Doctors are struggling to treat patients with severe injuries under dire conditions in Gaza as Israel maintains its bombardment of the enclave, a medic with aid group Doctors Without Borders said.
Speaking from Amman, Jordan, Dr. Tanya Haj-Hassan said the lack of medical supplies in Gaza meant doctors have been "completely stripped of all the tools of modern medicine" to treat patients — mostly women and children — with severe injuries and burns.
"Our hearts are burning. This is an avalanche of human suffering. And it’s 100% man-made," Haj-Hassan told CNN's Paula Newton.
Doctors at the strip's largest
Al Shifa Hospital are seeing children with the majority of their body and faces burned, missing limbs and other "catastrophic injuries," said Haj-Hassan, a pediatric intensive care and humanitarian doctor with the aid group, which is also known as Médecins Sans Frontières.
"And the doctors are left to treat them with limited pain control, running out of anesthetic drugs." she said. "We do not have enough antibiotics to treat wound infections, we don't have enough dressings."
Ceasefire call: Haj-Hassan called for an immediate humanitarian ceasefire in the Israel-Hamas war, saying "a stop rather than a pause" is needed in what she described as the "indiscriminate bombardment and massacre."
"We have lost over 130 health care providers, many of whom I have known personally. They have lost their families," she said.
Medical workers in Gaza are working around the clock while they and their families also fear being bombarded, she said. But "they have refused to leave, because they have decided to stay with their patients," she said.
Israeli airstrikes hit near Al Quds hospital in Gaza City, director says
Israeli airstrikes struck near the Al Quds hospital in Gaza City, where doctors say thousands of displaced people are sheltering, the key medical facility's director told CNN Thursday.
The strikes that began Wednesday evening continued into Thursday morning and were “getting closer to the hospital,” Dr. Bashar Mourad said in a phone call.
“Very heavy airstrikes in the vicinity of the hospital since last night, intensified this morning and getting closer to the hospital where 14,000 displaced people are,” he said.
The Palestinian Red Crescent said in a statement around 10 p.m. local time Wednesday that heavy airstrikes were targeting near the hospital “for two hours”.
The hospital, the second-largest in the main urban center of Gaza City in the northern part of the enclave, has previously been targeted in Israeli airstrikes.
In a statement to CNN, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said due to “intensifying hostilities” against Hamas in Gaza City and northern Gaza, the IDF continues to urge civilians to evacuate south.
Evacuation zones and warning alerts from the Israeli military have not guaranteed safety for civilians in densely populated Gaza, where
Palestinians have no safe place to escape Israeli bombs.
Israel's military says it is surrounding Gaza City as its bombardment of the strip continues. Follow for live news updates.
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