In Gaza City’s Dar Al Shifa Hospital, the living sleep among the beds filled with patients, in the hallways, and in other areas of the facility, while the dead overwhelm the morgue. The name Dar Al Shifa translates to „House of Healing,“ but the people here are not only seeking healing but also refuge from the bombs and rockets that rain down on Gaza every hour. They pray for the hospital to provide them with at least some protection. Blankets are hung on the iron handrails of the courtyard entrance to provide shade, while families with children and their remaining belongings wait in the stairwell.
Dar Al Shifa ist nicht nur die größte medizinische Einrichtung im Gazastreifen, sondern zugleich eine Art Nervenzentrum des gesamten Gesundheitssystems. Die lokalen Behörden wie auch Hilfsorganisationen schätzen, dass inzwischen auf dem gesamten Gelände 35.000 bis 40.000 Menschen campieren. „Die Ärzte haben ihre Familien aus Sicherheitsgründen ins Krankenhaus gebracht. Ich habe letzte Nacht auf einem Operationstisch geschlafen“, sagte Professor Ghassan Abu-Sittah, einer der Chirurgen, im Telefonat.
„People are extremely afraid and believe that this is the safest place. Everything happening around them confirms that this is the safest place.“ However, the high number of asylum seekers poses a risk as those stranded here need food and water, of which there is almost none. „This influx will lead to an outbreak of infectious diseases. This poses a public health catastrophe,“ Abu-Sittah warns.
The medical care in Gaza has reached its maximum capacity.
When the Israeli artillery started attacking the Gaza Strip from the sea and destroying entire city blocks after the Hamas fighters launched a deadly attack on Israel, many people resorted to a behavior they had learned from previous attacks: they sought refuge in the hospital.
In the past decade, this hospital has largely been spared from bombings. At the entrance, a spacious area in front of the emergency room doors welcomes television crews, amidst the sirens of ambulances and the constant sight of patients being brought in on stretchers. This time, the hospital is pushed to its limits. And recent efforts by the International Committee of the Red Cross to modernize the emergency room come too late.
When the Israeli government ordered a „complete blockade“ of the Gaza Strip a week ago, interrupting the supply of water, food, and fuel, it also had consequences for the „House of Healing“. Not only was there a risk of being without electricity, but there was also a possibility of running out of diesel supplies for its emergency generators. Days later, the Israeli military issued an evacuation order for all 1.1 million people north of the Gaza River, including Gaza City, urging them to flee south.
Evakuierung der Krankenhäuser ist unmöglich
Das Shifa-Krankenhaus und mehrere andere medizinische Einrichtungen signalisierten sofort, eine Verlegung sei unmöglich. Die Weltgesundheitsorganisation WHO sekundierte und bezeichnete die Anordnung zur Räumung von Krankenhäusern als „Todesurteil“ für Tausende von Kranken und Verletzten. In Shifa gebe es bereits keine Betten mehr, sagte Professor Ghassan Abu-Sittah, und Patienten könnten nicht operiert werden, weil die Operationssäle voller Menschen seien. Ganz abgesehen davon, dass die Vorräte an Medikamenten gefährlich zur Neige gingen.
The mortuary of the Shifa Hospital, which has a capacity for 30 bodies, is now so overcrowded that hospital staff are forced to stack the deceased in front of a walk-in refrigerator. However, this does not change the fact that dozens of bodies are lying side by side in the hospital parking lot, some in a tent and others under the scorching sun. „The bodies are piling up also because people are afraid to bury their dead,“ Abu-Sittah said.
The nurse Abu Elias Shobaki told the Associated Press (AP) that the hospital is now a graveyard. „I am emotionally and physically exhausted. I have to struggle to keep myself from thinking about how much worse it can still get.“ When the clinics in the northern Gaza Strip had to close due to evacuation orders and constant attacks, there was no alternative but to transfer the patients to Shifa.
Einsamkeit der Überlebenden
„I cannot reword“
„Ich kann es nicht umformulieren.“
The physician Abu-Sittah breathes heavily like a exhausted person as he describes some of the cases he has just faced. „This morning we had to treat two children from different places, both severely injured, both labeled with the accompanying document: ‚Wounded child, no surviving family.‘ These are the most heart-wrenching things one has ever seen. It is difficult to comprehend while the emergency room is filled with crying relatives and patients, doctors and nurses running around, to find a quiet place where a gurney with an injured child stands and no one is nearby except the medical staff. This is a war against children. Even the survivors will spend the rest of their lives alone.“