Surgeon Ghassan Abu Sitta spoke to Al Jazeera from al-Ahli Hospital, which he said was now the only operating hospital in all of Gaza City after al-Shifa and al-Quds were forced to almost completely close.
“Ever since the collapse of al-Shifa Hospital, we have become the only functioning Hospital in Gaza City,” he said.
“If you recall, this is the hospital that was targeted initially by the Israelis at the beginning of the war and so parts of the hospital were damaged,” he said, referring to the October 17 blast at the hospital. Israel has denied it was behind that explosion, which Palestinian health officials said killed over 470 people.
“After the collapse of al-Shifa, we turned the forecourt and the grounds of the hospital into a field hospital,” he said. “We have over 500 wounded here. There’s only three surgeons here and two operating rooms”.
“We’ve been having to perform excruciating painful procedures on the wounds of the patients to stop them becoming infected with no analgesia or anesthetic,” he said. “Because we have such limited supplies and we’re keeping them for the most life saving surgery.”
Source: alJazeera
