Medical teams use flashlights in light of the power outage and the cessation of generators at Al Awda Hospital (Al Jazeera)

Gaza -

The birth of the Palestinian woman, Wissal Salha, was postponed for a full week, due to the lack of fuel necessary to operate the obstetrics and gynecology department at the “Al Awda Hospital” located in the Tal Al-Zaatar area in Jabalia, in the northern Gaza Strip.

Three days ago, at eight in the evening, Wissal (22 years old) gave birth to her baby, Walid, “and she was lucky,” according to her husband, Abu Ahmed (27 years old), to Al Jazeera Net, “Our presence in the hospital coincided with someone bringing a gallon of diesel fuel, which allowed the maternity ward to restart.”

During these days that followed the birth, Wesal did not receive any medications except simple palliative treatments, and her birth coincided with a warning from the hospital administration that its services would be completely halted, as a result of her not receiving any quantities of fuel, in addition to the interruption of medicines and medical consumables since October 7 of last year.

Al Awda Hospital has been targeted several times since the outbreak of the Israeli war (Al Jazeera)

The deadline has passed

About two years ago, Wissal gave birth to her firstborn, Ahmed, in Al Awda Hospital. She told Al Jazeera Net, “The situation has changed a lot. In the first birth, the service was great in terms of periodic review and examination, and everything the pregnant woman needed was available, but now the hospital is dark and there is no electricity, generators, or... Drugs".

"Al-Awda" is the only hospital that is still operating in the northern Gaza Strip at a minimum and according to the simple capabilities available, after the occupation disrupted, by direct and indirect targeting, all governmental and private hospitals in Gaza City and its north.

Abu Ahmed sees Al-Awda’s withdrawal from service as “a collective death sentence for the northern Gaza Strip,” and describes the hospital as “the only hope for people in the north, after all hospitals and health centers have gone out of service.”

The administration of Al Awda Hospital had previously announced - last Tuesday - that the operations, laboratory and radiology departments had been out of service, while reception and emergency services, specialized clinics and maternity were now threatened with complete cessation within 48 hours.

With the expiration of this deadline, Dr. Muhammad Salha, the acting director of the hospital, tells Al Jazeera Net, “We have effectively been out of service, and we are currently struggling to survive.” Therefore, hundreds of thousands of Palestinians in Gaza City and its north will face the dangers of death from bombing, hunger, and disease, according to confirmation from medical and popular circles.

Doctors at Al Awda Hospital perform life-saving operations under complex circumstances and modest capabilities (Al Jazeera)

Sentenced to death

With the Ministry of Health announcing - last Wednesday - that its last government hospital in the northern Gaza Strip, “Kamal Adwan Hospital,” was out of service due to the cessation of the electric generator and the lack of fuel necessary to operate it, residents there lost dialysis, intensive care, nursery, internal medicine, cardiology, general surgery, and children’s overnight and emergency services.

Ministry spokesman Dr. Ashraf Al-Qudra said, “The cessation of medical services in northern Gaza is a death sentence for 700,000 citizens.”

In a statement published by the Health Ministry on its official platforms, Al-Qudra confirmed that “northern Gaza hospitals are unable to provide life-saving services.”

In confirmation of this, Al Awda Hospital was forced to postpone 46 scheduled orthopedic surgeries, and Dr. Salha warns that “these patients are at risk of amputation of their limbs, and the most dangerous thing is that their health conditions will deteriorate, and may lead to death.”

Al Awda Hospital received 176 wounded from the “flour massacre,” which claimed the lives of 112 Palestinians and hundreds of wounded, who gathered on Al-Rashid Street, southwest of Gaza City, hoping to obtain a bag of flour from the scarce aid trucks that the occupation allows to arrive from the south of the Gaza Strip.

With modest resources, electricity from small batteries, and flashlights, doctors in the hospital performed 7 surgical operations, out of 27 wounded people who needed urgent surgical interventions.

The hospital's acting director, Mohamed Salha, said, "Surgical operations were performed in the reception and emergency department, in extremely difficult and complex circumstances, in order to save lives."

Al Awda Hospital's generators stopped working due to lack of fuel (Al Jazeera)

Hospital siege

Al-Awda National Hospital was established in 1985, and it is affiliated with the Al-Awda Health and Community Association, which runs it with another hospital with the same name in the Nuseirat camp in the central Gaza Strip, in addition to 6 primary health care centers throughout the Gaza Strip.

Combined, 240,000 citizens have benefited from the services since the outbreak of the Israeli aggression, including 40,000 in the northern Gaza Strip, including 7,000 wounded.

Over the past five months of the war, the occupation forces destroyed the main headquarters of the Return Center in Gaza, and 3 other centers in the city and its north, and in the city of Khan Yunis in the south of the Gaza Strip.

Al Awda Hospital is considered the only hospital that provides orthopedic, gynecological, and obstetrics services in the northern Gaza Strip, in addition to general surgery, reception, emergency, specialized clinics, radiology, and the laboratory.

Since last October 7, “no drop of diesel or medicine has arrived at the hospital,” according to Dr. Salha’s confirmation, due to the occupation’s repeated refusal to coordinate with the World Health Organization, Doctors Without Borders, and partner international health institutions to bring aid to the hospital.

Al Awda Hospital reached the stage of danger and was completely out of service (Al Jazeera)

Systematic targeting

Dr. Salha said, “The occupation has deliberately, since the beginning of the aggression, and as part of its systematic policy of disrupting the health system, targeted Al-Awda Hospital in the northern Gaza Strip, through direct threats of closure, and then targeting it with direct bombardment, destroying housing departments, operating rooms, the solar energy system, water and diesel stores, and medicine and gas warehouses.” Medical, transport, ambulance and medical supply vehicles.

Last November 21, 3 doctors were martyred as a result of direct shelling, and 50% of the hospital’s capacity was taken out of service.

Dr. Salha stated, “The occupation was not satisfied with that, but rather besieged the hospital on December 5 for 18 days. As a result, 3 workers were martyred, 12 medical staff and volunteers were injured, and the hospital director, Dr. Ahmed Muhanna, and 3 medical staff were arrested. Their fate remains unknown.”

The spokesman said, "We worked for months to collect diesel drop by drop from the field, and provide what we could of medicines and medical consumables necessary to sustain medical services, and now we have reached the stage of danger of stopping and going out of service, and completely depriving the citizens of the northern Gaza Strip of basic health services, due to all hospitals being out of service." the service".

Salha concluded his statements by saying, "This exacerbates the complex and complicated crises, and we will be facing a certain catastrophe, unless what remains of the free world intervenes and pressures the occupation to supply the hospital with fuel, medicines, consumables, and medical supplies."

Source: Al Jazeera