Israel-Hamas War: Gaza Hospitals Overwhelmed, Death Toll Rising Every Minute

By Reporter

Palestinian Hospitals are overwhelmed as the Israeli army continues bombardment of the Gaza Strip, four days after Hamas sent rockets and fighters into Israel in an unprecedented attack. Palestinian Ministry of Health is therefore calling for ‘humanitarian corridor’, so also, is the World Health Organisation (WHO) “to ensure the entry of urgent medical aid” into Gaza’s overwhelmed hospitals.

Israel has announced a “total blockade” on Gaza, including a ban on admitting food and fuel. Such a siege, with the intent to starve a population, is a war crime under United Nation (UN) statutes.

The latest death toll has passed at 770 Palestinians in Gaza and more than 900 people in Israel, but global news outlets reports that these figures are under estimated.

Hamas’s surprise attack on Saturday came after Israeli settlers stormed the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound in recent days and a record number of Palestinians were killed by Israel in recent months.

Speaking to Al Jazeera, a senior health ministry official in Gaza said the medical facilities in the besieged Strip are on the verge of collapsing.

“We have a shortage of medications, medical supplies, and reagents required to operate the laboratories of our hospitals. The situation is very hard and complicated. We have received thousands of injured. This is pressurising the ministry of health and health facilities,” Dr. Medhat Abbas, director general of Gaza Health Ministry, said.

“Our capacity in hospitals is only 2,000 beds. We are about to collapse. The shortage of medication is [because] we are consuming in one day what we consume in a month,” he added.

“The situation is so bad. Five of our ambulances [have been] attacked and five of our colleagues killed. There is no safe route for health professionals to move,” he added.

Meanwhile, Iraq’s populist Shia leader Muqtada al-Sadr has condemned Arab leaders for their continued failure to adequately support the Palestinian people, calling it a source of “shame and disgrace”.

In a press conference, he added that “we are prepared to deliver food and water to Gaza through Egypt, Syria or elsewhere” and called on the Arab states to ensure the supply of power and water.

He also called out “a policy of double standards”.

“All countries hurried to support Ukraine. Why not do same for Gaza?”

Moreover, al-Sadr singled out the Arab states who had normalised relations with Israel, saying it “will be of no benefit.”

The latest Hamas’s unprecedented attack on Israel has prompted doubt about Israeli intelligence services, who appear to have failed to stop a sophisticated assault that involved dozens of infiltrations into Israel and thousands of rocket attacks.

Al Jazeera reporters there are shocking scenes here in the town of Kfar Aza, very close to the Gaza fence. “There are a lot of dead bodies of Hamas fighters and civilians. Many are still being removed from the homes in which they were killed. This town has suffered some severe fighting.

“The military says it doesn’t know how many people were killed here and how many are still missing. Israeli forces say they have now taken full control of Kfar Aza. But they also say that there is a risk that some Hamas fighters are still at large in the surrounding countryside.”

Zeinab, a nurse working in Gaza’s Shifa Hospital, was seen in a video monitored by Midwest Herald reporter, rushing out of the building in distress when she learned that her husband, also a medic, had been killed during fierce Israeli air strikes.

“My husband has been martyred,” she screamed. “While I was working in the hospital, he was martyred. While I was working with the injured, I found out my husband has been martyred.

“God, please punish them.” The distressed nurse said.

Despite the devastation blow, Hamas has called for a “general mobilisation” of the Arab and Muslim world in support of Palestinians on Friday.

It said that the day would be marked as the “Friday of Al-Aqsa Flood”, with the event aimed at showing support for the Palestinian people “in the face of open warfare of the (Israeli) occupation”.

Hamas also called on young Palestinians in the occupied West Bank to engage in confrontations with Israeli soldiers.