A trauma hospital in Gaza had to wash a burns patient with regular soap due to an “ominous” shortage of supplies – as bombing victims flood in and the consequences of a 16 year-siege start to bite, a doctor told Sky News.
British-Palestinian surgeon Professor Ghassan Abu-Sittah, who left London for Gaza on Sunday, said burns patients are strewn around Al-Shifa hospital because the specialist unit is already “completely full up”.
“In three days, to have that number of wounded, with that kind of severity and that amount of devastation and is shocking,” added the surgeon, who has worked in war zones in Yemen, Mosul, Beirut and Gaza.
Israel has been pounding the densely populated, impoverished enclave with airstrikes since Saturday afternoon, after Hamas militants had broken out of the Gaza strip and launched the biggest attack on Israel in decades.
Mr Abu-Sittah said Al-Shifa – the main trauma centre in Gaza – is “so overwhelmed” already, they can only treat patients needed lifesaving procedures, such as neurosurgical or vascular injuries, while limb injuries have to wait.
The doctor, who works with charity Medical Aid for Palestinians (MAP), called it “absolutely devastating” to inspect injuries that could recover with proper and prompt treatment.
But “delay in getting these contaminated, devitalised wounds to the operating room”, means the residual disabilities will be much worse than they needed to be, he said.
“The other issue is that this is Gaza after 16 years of siege, and so they’re [already] short of basic supplies.”
With casualties mounting and Israel lining up tanks on the border with Gaza, he called the shortages “critical” and “ominous”.
Today he needed some antiseptic chlorhexidine – a staple item in UK hospitals – to scrub down a burns patient.
But “there wasn’t any. So we ended up having to use regular soap,” he said during a phone conversation with Sky News on Tuesday.
Israel has blockaded Gaza in varying forms since 2007, controlling the free movement of people, goods and food, which it says is necessary to protect its citizens from Hamas.
‘The world only remembers Gaza when there’s a flare-up’
Yesterday Israel ordered a “complete siege” of Gaza, cutting off food, water and humanitarian access, in response to the violent attack by Hamas.
Aid agencies are calling for a humanitarian corridor to be set up to allow critical food, water and medical supplies to enter the bombed territory.
Mr Abu-Sittah added: “The world seemed to have decided that it’s acceptable that this siege that lasted 16 years can carry on and the rest of the world can go on, while 2.25 million people live in a complete prison.
“That’s the shocking thing, is that the world only remembers Gaza when there’s a flare-up, but that siege is a form of daily violence against the Palestinian people living in Gaza.”
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