XPost: uk.legal, soc.culture.jewish, alt.news-media   
   XPost: alt.politics.democrats, alt.atheism   
   From: void@invalid.noy   
      
   Rotting wounds, starvation, babies born in tents without anesthesia,   
   the spread of infectious disease, and the severe lack of medicine are   
   all part of the new normal for over two million people living in Gaza.   
   Last week, the Gaza-based Palestinian health ministry said that about   
   600,000 people in the northern Gaza Strip no longer have access to any   
   kind of healthcare. It also warned that medicine fridges and the only   
   oxygen plant in Gaza are at risk of shutting down due to the   
   systematic lack of fuel. The World Health Organization has said that   
   Israel is “systematically dismantling” the health system in Gaza. Save   
   The Children has reported that Israel’s attacks on the health sector   
   in Gaza have been higher than in any other conflict — at the rate of   
   73 attacks per day.   
      
   But one of the most major blows that Gaza’s health system suffered was   
   in early April, following a two-week Israeli siege of al-Shifa   
   Hospital, leaving the medical compound completely and permanently   
   non-operational. The aftermath of the siege revealed that a massacre   
   had occurred. Mondoweiss gathered testimonies from survivors of how it   
   was carried out by Israeli soldiers, which included rounding up people   
   in the hospital, separating them into groups identified by   
   differently-colored bracelets, and executing one of the groups before   
   burying them in mass graves.   
      
   Al-Shifa was the largest Palestinian medical complex in all of   
   historic Palestine. Founded under the British Mandate in 1946, it grew   
   over the years until it became the Gaza Strip’s primary medical hub,   
   housing 25% of its medical staff. It was the beating heart of Gaza’s   
   health system.   
      
   “Al-Shifa was the center of all medical services in the Strip. It was   
   the ultimate destination for complex medical conditions,” Nebal   
   Farsakh, a spokesperson for the Palestinian Red Crescent Society   
   (PRCS), told Mondoweiss. “It was also the training center of a large   
   number of medical students and practicing junior doctors.”   
      
   “During previous wars, al-Shifa was a hub for receiving complicated   
   injuries and the overload from other hospitals, as it had the most   
   complete equipment and a wide range of specialized doctors in most   
   medical fields,” Farsakh added. “Yet, al-Shifa was repeatedly   
   overwhelmed during the Israeli assaults of 2008 and 2014, which were   
   much shorter and caused much less casualties than the current   
   assault.”   
      
   “My 19-year-old cousin, Anas Abu Rass, lost his leg after bomb   
   shrapnel hit him while he was sleeping in his bedroom,” Huda Amer, a   
   resident of Gaza City who continues to live there with her family,   
   told Mondoweiss. “For this critical wound, in normal conditions, we   
   would have taken him to al-Shifa. Now he is being treated in a small   
   primary health care center where they don’t have the equipment, and   
   they had to amputate his leg.”   
      
   “Most patients who have scheduled surgeries on the public health   
   insurance list were treated at al-Shifa. Now, they are all waiting   
   their turn in the remaining overcrowded hospitals and getting whatever   
   help they can in small clinics, like my cousin,” she added.   
      
   The second largest hospital in the Strip after al-Shifa was the Nasser   
   Hospital in Khan Younis. Israeli forces besieged the hospital for   
   weeks at a time between February and April, targeting Palestinians   
   inside with sniper fire. In mid-February, Israeli forces raided the   
   hospital and forced medical staff and patients alike to leave its   
   premises, arresting hundreds.   
      
   The Israeli army withdrew from Khan Younis in early April. After the   
   withdrawal, Palestinians found hundreds of bodies buried in mass   
   graves in the hospital’s vicinity, a repeat of al-Shifa. Many of the   
   bodies unearthed from the scene had medical catheters still attached   
   to their bodies, indicating that they had been patients. Others were   
   found with their hands bound by zip-ties with Hebrew labels on them.   
   Mondoweiss gathered testimonies from people who visited the mass   
   graves searching for missing relatives who had disappeared months   
   earlier. Some were able to identify them and put the mystery of their   
   disappearance to rest. Others were not quite so lucky and were left   
   wondering about the fate of their loved ones.   
      
   A dying health sector   
   Inside what remains of Gaza’s hospitals, things are worse than one can   
   imagine. Patients and the injured are strewn on the floor as doctors   
   move between them in an attempt to provide treatment to whoever they   
   can. Patients’ families carry plastic bags filled with intravenous   
   medications and raise them high so that they continue to flow. The   
   majority of stitching and suturing operations are performed without   
   anesthesia. Most drugs for chronic diseases are not available in   
   hospitals or private pharmacies. All kidney patients have suffered for   
   months due to the cessation of their dialysis treatments. Many have   
   died.   
      
   The stories coming out from Gaza City of doctors and nurses who had to   
   operate on their family members without anesthesia are haunting. In a   
   video posted on social media, Dr. Hani Bseiso recounts in pain how he   
   made the difficult decision to amputate his niece’s leg with a kitchen   
   knife.   
      
   “I had difficult choices: to let Ahed bleed to death or to use the   
   capabilities available to me and treat her,” Dr. Bseiso says. “I   
   decided to close my eyes and my heart, bite down on my pain, and do   
   what could not be done.” He performed the operation on their home’s   
   dining table. On hand was a kitchen knife, a dish sponge, water, and   
   soap.   
      
   Other than al-Shifa, all other hospitals in northern Gaza have been   
   destroyed, including Beit Hanoun Hospital and the Indonesian Hospital.   
   All of them were stormed by the army, their equipment ransacked, their   
   beds burned.   
      
   Muhammad Zaqout, General Director of Hospitals in the Gaza Strip, says   
   that while 35 hospitals were operating inside the Gaza Strip before   
   the war (13 of which were government hospitals), only 4 hospitals now   
   remain open in the entire coastal enclave.   
      
   “The hospitals that are still operating are the al-Aqsa Martyrs   
   Hospital in Deir al-Balah, with a capacity of up to 140 beds; the   
   European Hospital in Khan Younis, with a capacity of up to 240 beds;   
   and al-Najjar Hospital in Rafah, with a capacity of up to 65 beds,”   
   Zaqout said. “There is one specialized hospital for maternity, which   
   is the Emirates Maternity Hospital. The rest of the hospitals in the   
   Gaza Strip all stopped working and were stormed, destroyed, or   
   burned.”   
      
   “There is also no hospital left for children in the Gaza Strip,”   
      
   [continued in next message]   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)