Gaza -

Israa Hamdan was about to take her baby, Muhammad, to the outpatient clinic at the "Martyr Abu Youssef Al-Najjar Hospital" in the city of Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip.

Israa (Um Fawzi) will not be able to visit the clinic at the present time, following the decision of the Palestinian Ministry of Health in Gaza to “stop work in outpatient clinics in all government hospitals,” and devote herself to dealing with the martyrs and wounded victims of the massive Israeli air strikes.

Umm Fawzi - to Al-Jazeera Net - said that she resorted to a small pharmacy near her home to buy a temporary treatment for her child (5 months), until the severity of the Israeli aggression receded and he was able to review the government hospital.

The mother of 3 children, the youngest of whom was Muhammad, used her seventy-year-old mother to help her with a “folk recipe” of liquids and herbs, for her little one, who she believed “suffers from flatulence” that caused him aches and an inability to sleep.

Since Friday noon, the Gaza Strip has been subjected to an Israeli military attack, which resulted - until noon on Sunday - killing 29 citizens, including 6 children and 4 women, and wounding about 253, including dozens in serious condition, as well as restricting the ability of civilians to move in the streets, which turned into death fields.

An injured girl arrives at a medical center in the city of Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip, after her house was bombed by the Israeli forces (Anatolia)

In the eye of the storm

The renewed Israeli military escalation on Gaza places the city's health sector in the eye of the storm, and puts enormous pressure on its facilities, which are already exhausted due to the long years of siege.

Only about 24 hours after the sudden Israeli aggression, the Ministry of Health in Gaza was forced to stop work in outpatient clinics in all government hospitals, and stop scheduled surgeries, to give a full opportunity to conduct emergency operations for the wounded of the aggression.

This step would harm thousands of sick cases that are worse than the condition of the infant Mohammed Hamdan, but "the Ministry of Health found itself compelled to do so due to the limited options and capabilities," as its officials commented.

The ministry has mobilized all its medical and nursing staff to keep pace with the sharp increase in the number of victims of the martyrs and the wounded, amid high fear that government medical services will stop completely within a few hours.

The only power plant in the Gaza Strip has stopped working, after Israel prevented the entry of fuel supplies since last Tuesday.


Limited days stock

Dr. Muhammad Abu Salmiya, director of Al-Shifa Medical Complex, which is the largest in the Gaza Strip, said, "The lives of many patients depend on the availability of electricity around the clock, which is necessary to operate the vital departments and facilities in hospitals."

As a result of the Energy Authority’s announcement that the generation station would be suspended, the Electricity Distribution Company operates according to an “emergency program,” whereby electricity supplies homes and vital facilities, including hospitals, for about 4 hours per day, in exchange for a cut-off that lasts more than 16 hours.

Al-Shifa Complex needs 400 liters of diesel per hour to operate the generators and ensure the functioning of its various sections.

What is currently available in its stores is sufficient for the medical complex for 4 or 5 days at best, according to what Abu Salmiya told Al Jazeera Net, and he seemed exhausted after long working hours in which he did not take off the white robe;

Like the rest of his colleagues working in the health sector.

The current aggression has increased pressures on the health sector, which has been operating for 15 years under complex conditions.

Abu Salmiya said, "The new escalation comes as the health sector is preoccupied with confronting the Corona pandemic, and hospital departments are overcrowded with people infected with the virus, and other patients."

*Ministry of Health in Gaza||*

🚨 48 hours separate us from the cessation of health services after the power plant stopped and the limited quantities of fuel in hospital generators were depleted.

pic.twitter.com/NSqEOFD41Z

— Dr. Ashraf Al Qudra (@press221) August 7, 2022

Difficult hours and severe helplessness

The spokesman for the Ministry of Health in Gaza, Ashraf al-Qidra, said that the Israeli aggression erupted and the health sector was suffering primarily from a "very, very tragic situation", as a result of the Israeli restrictions and the long years of siege that exhausted the health system and made it in a "continuous state of need."

The figures cited by Al-Qidra reflected the deteriorating pharmaceutical reality in the Ministry of Health stores, which suffer from a severe shortage of basic medicines by 40%, and a deficit of 32% in medical consumables, with 60% of the shortage in laboratory supplies and blood banks, in addition to the occupation’s prevention of the supply of medical devices Essential for vital departments in hospitals.

In view of this tragic health reality, Al-Qudra estimated that “the next few hours will be difficult and harsh,” if the pace of the Israeli aggression increases, and the resulting casualties and severe pressure on hospitals with their limited capabilities, which constitutes “a real threat to their ability to continue providing their services.” .

In every war on Gaza, including the current aggression, the Ministry of Health facilities and hospitals face pressures that exceed their capabilities.

According to ability, the development of the current aggression and its continuation for other days to come puts the health system in Gaza before "impossible tasks."

This ongoing aggression on Gaza, for the third consecutive day, is the most violent since the fourth war launched by Israel in May of last year, and lasted for 11 days, leaving hundreds of martyrs and wounded, and massive destruction of residential homes, facilities and infrastructure.