As Israeli troops pushed into Gaza overnight, intense tank fire shook
parts of Khan Yunis, sending a flood of patients into the southern
city's Nasser hospital.The shells smashed into buildings near the
border with Israel, prompting thousands to flee their homes under the
cover of darkness, only missiles lighting up the sky.
At Nasser hospital, doctors and nurses working 24-hour shifts were on
alert for the wave of patients who began arriving in the early hours.
"The situation is very, very difficult," said doctor Kamel Zaqzuq.
"This is much, much more difficult than the last war," he said,
referring to the previous major conflict between Israel and Hamas
militants in November 2012.
"At night, it's one constant emergency."
He said the hospital was running short on some supplies, including
medical sutures for stitches.
Many of those who arrived at the hospital on Thursday night and early
Friday morning, after the ground operation began, were children, he
said.
For some, it was too late -- doctors said 11 people ended up in the
facility's morgue.
Two were still there on Friday morning, wrapped in white sheets on the
steel shelves of a refrigerator, locked behind a door of rusting iron
bars.
Others suffered grave injuries and were being treated in the intensive
care unit, including 25-year-old Khadija Abu Hamad.
She was hurt in tank shelling in a neighbourhood known simply as
Sharqiya, or eastern district.
Shrapnel ripped through most of her body, embedding itself in her
brain, breaking her left arm and gouging out her left eye.
The little remaining part of her face not covered in bandages was
bruised black and yellow, and metal pins were holding her broken arm
together.
- 'We had to amputate' -
Next to her was 18-year- old Uday al-Astal, now paralysed on his right
side after shrapnel entered his brain.
And on the other side of the room was a relative of his -- 23-year-old
Yusef Astal.
"He came in with a very serious injury to his femoral artery," said
doctor Moataz al-Jubur, who is supervising the intensive care ward.
"We had to amputate his leg."
Both were wounded in an Israeli bombing on Wednesday. Four of their
relatives were killed -- among them two children, aged four and six.
Across the ward, Jubur was supervising another patient hurt late on
Thursday night as the ground incursion began.
Shrapnel tore into his stomach, kidneys and intestines, Jubur said.
"I keep giving him blood transfusions, but he's in very bad shape."
Downstairs, those with less serious injuries waited for treatment, or
to hear news of loved ones.
Ibrahim Fayyad, 24, was sitting outside his house on Friday morning
when an airstrike hit.
"It happened a few metres away and so I started to run away in fear," he said.
"Even as I was running there was another strike, a plane fired three
times, there was a huge explosion, and there was shrapnel flying
everywhere."
Two of his cousin's sons were killed: 26-year-old Mohammed Fayyad, and
25-year-old Mahmud Fayyad.
- 'Not the first time' -
Jubur has worked at Nasser hospital for more than five years, and was
sanguine when asked about the current conflict.
"This is not the first time I've been in a situation like this," he said.
Israel and Hamas fought a bloody 22-day conflict over New Year 2009,
and again in late 2012, both of which had devastating consequences for
civilians in Gaza.
The current conflict has depressing echoes of those former rounds of violence.
So far, the Palestinian death toll from 11 days of violence stands at
more than 270, while two Israelis have also been killed, one soldier
and one civilian.
UN figures indicate that at least a third of the dead are children,
and emotions in Gaza are running high.
"The whole world is watching while the Palestinians are being
slaughtered," Jubur said, his voice rising.
"They are innocents, people sitting next to their homes, people
sitting with their relatives," he added.
"Where should these people go?"
http://www.punchng.com/news/israel-ground-assault-overwhelms-gaza-hospital/
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