As of Oct. 7, 2023, Israel has attacked 162 healthcare facilities in Gaza and rendered 114 hospitals and clinics inoperable. In the midst of starvation by siege, daily bombardment, and threats to their lives, Gaza’s remaining healthcare workers continue to care for the sick and wounded. The Real News reports from Al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Hospital and Al-Ahli Arab Hospital in the Gaza Strip.

Producer: Belal Awad, Leo Erhardt
Videographer: Ruwaida Amer, Mahmoud Al Mashharawi
Video Editor: Leo Erhardt

Rula Khaled Khalil Awadh – Nurse, Shuhada al-Aqsa Hospital: 

My brother was killed while I was at work. They called me and said, “Admit your brother, he has been killed.” 

Narrator: 

Rula Khaled Khalil Awadh is a nurse at the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in Southern Gaza. She was on shift when her brother’s body was brought into the hospital after he was killed in an Israeli strike. 

Rula Khaled Khalil Awadh – Nurse, Shuhada al-Aqsa Hospital: 

This is Mohamed, my brother, the martyr, who died when I was on shift. He was martyred and left this world. The occupation took him, against our wishes. He has two sons and a girl: Firas, Khaled, and Ruweida. Ruweida is named after our mother, God rest her soul. He grew up an orphan from an early age. Now he’s left behind three children—orphans. 

I won’t lie to you, from day one, we were witnessing how many doctors, nurses, and medical staff had lost their family members while they were at work. So we put the scenario in our minds: How would I face this situation? Then we’d say, “No, God forbid!” But then it happened. He has no connection to anything. He went to chop wood because there isn’t any gas. While he was cutting wood, he was hit by a drone. This is during his funeral. This is during my meeting with him. The experience of loss. We’re experiencing loss every day. 

Narrator: 

Dr. Ahmed Radi is a doctor volunteering at the Al-Ahli hospital in besieged Northern Gaza. It was here, on the 17th of October 2023, that a missile struck the courtyard of the Al-Ahli hospital killing 471 people and wounding 342 others. 

Since then, Israeli air strikes have pummelled Gaza’s medical infrastructure, making life incredibly difficult for doctors like Ahmed 

Dr. Ahmed Radi – Volunteer Doctor, Al Ahli Hospital: 

The experience of loss, I mean: Mothers losing their sons. Children losing their mothers. People losing children, losing the elderly. These experiences have been difficult, not just as a doctor but as a human being. We haven’t found the time for grief or sadness, for expressing our feelings, because events are continuing, the genocide is continuing, the misery is continuing in Gaza. The war has eliminated all aspects of life for us, especially this war, the likes of which we have never seen. This has been a war of annihilation from every angle. It’s affected us psychologically, it’s affected us physically. 

With regards to displacement, of course, there’s no one, especially in northern Gaza, who hasn’t been displaced multiple times in light of the continuing military operations by the occupation forces. We’ve suffered from displacement; we’ve been forced into uninhabitable areas, unfit for life.

Narrator: 

The North of Gaza has been under complete siege since October 1st 2024, with tens of thousands of people trapped without access to food and water. Israeli forces have been using military vehicles, drones and sand barriers to stop any movement of people, goods and aid. It’s under these conditions the staff at the AL-Ahli hospital are forced to function. 

Dr. Ahmed Radi – Volunteer Doctor, Al Ahli Hospital: 

This is a small hospital; it can’t accommodate these large numbers. The rooms are filled with patients; the corridors are filled with patients. This is the biggest, most difficult challenge for keeping on top of the patients. 

Rula Khaled Khalil Awadh – Nurse, Shuhada al-Aqsa Hospital: 

– Hello. How are you? How is Heba? Is she doing OK? When did Heba arrive? – Two days ago. 

– What happened to Heba? 

– Our school was bombed, ‘The Martyrs School’ in Nuseirat. The classroom that was next to us, she was standing at the door when it was bombed. 

– She was in the middle of the strike? 

– Yes, in the middle of it. 

– OK. What happened to her exactly, with her head, what’s the situation? – It’s all open from here to here; they did a CT scan. There’s a piercing to the cranium, internal bleeding, and we are keeping track, with God’s will. 

– Did they change the bandage? She’s taken her medication? 

– She’s taken her medication. 

– OK, is she always crying like this? 

– She’s quiet, then cries, quiet, then cries. 

– This is from the fear, the effects of the hit, she’s scared. 

– Yes, at night she freezes. 

– It’s not like at the beginning, though. She’s scared, but it’s less. Thanks be to God. – OK, but try as much as you can to feed her, so her immune system strengthens, so that also the stitches will close up faster. 

The problem, of course, is that there is no food available. Nothing is available. OK, try, for example, milk: things like this. There are vitamins, the doctor—you will be prescribed it. We received a child; she was one and a half years old, identity unknown. She was completely burnt. Two hours later, while they were treating her, the situation deteriorated from complications brought on by the war, from inhalation of the chemicals released by the missiles. The child suffered from complications, and we transferred her to intensive care. Two hours later, the child died, and she was unidentified. 

Some of the injured, it’s as if you have opened a diagram that shows, separately: the skin, the muscles, the flesh, the bone. Shown in a clear picture, in the wounds of the patients and the injured.

Painkillers, the absolute basic medication required for the injured, is not available in the hospital. Paracetamol is not available—or only in tiny amounts. 

Dr. Ahmed Radi – Volunteer Doctor, Al Ahli Hospital: 

The killer in this war is the silence. In light of the genocide, in light of the mass killings, and the mass burnings, we haven’t found a single person that’s stood and said: “Stop the war on Gaza!” Where is the world? 

[Explosions] I would describe myself as a normal Palestinian citizen who’s suffering from this war and its woes, whose house was destroyed, who was displaced. But we have no choice but to stay in our homes in northern Gaza. The cutting off of the evacuation routes, the destruction of every possible evacuation route to evacuate the Palestinian people. The medical staff have been exhausted, and pressure has been applied on them; some were arrested, some were killed. But the decision has been to remain in the Gaza Strip, to remain specifically in the north of the Gaza Strip. 

We will follow through with what we were born to do, and we pray that God ends this war and ends this genocide and returns peace to this beautiful city. 

Rula Khaled Khalil Awadh – Nurse, Shuhada al-Aqsa Hospital: 

– Hi Bashoura. How are you? How’s things? Good? Where’s your needle? You’re playing with the ball? How? You’re squeezing it? Good. Does it hurt? No? OK, great. In a little while, we are going to change it for you. Can I see your head wound? What’s its status? Are you getting headaches, Bashayir? No pain? Nothing. Good. OK, let me just grab this and see to your injection. Is there any pain? 

– [Silently] A little. 

– Good. 

A flood. I describe this war as literally a flood. The name matches. They called it a flood, and it is, in fact, a flood. We used to be in a state of independence, stability, and safety. Now we’re in a state of fear, anxiety, displacement, and loss. This is the war, summed up—a flood. We will grow in resilience and strength and more giving, God willing. We are a mighty people; we will remain a mighty people. God willing.

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