Medics in Gaza risking their lives to save people hurt by Israel’s war

Palestinian and foreign medics are working in impossible circumstances to save countless lives in Gaza

Izedine Lulu was besieged in Gaza’s al-Shifa Hospital when he heard that Israel had bombed his family home in November.

His brothers, sisters and father had all been killed.

The 21-year-old medic could not go to find their bodies because al-Shifa was surrounded by Israeli tanks and snipers.

He could only tend to his patients, alive and dead.

“Eight patients in the [intensive care unit] died before my very eyes,” Lulu told media. “It was the first time I had ever buried people on the hospital’s [premises].”

“There is no support for medics in Gaza, but I think it’s our duty to keep working.

“We need to stay in the hospitals,” said Lulu, who is now working at al-Ahli Hospital.

Lulu is one of hundreds of Palestinian and foreign medics trapped in a warzone after Israel took control of the Rafah crossing between Gaza and Egypt earlier this month, the only way out of the besieged enclave.

Israel has killed or injured 100,000 people – men, women and children – following the Hamas-led attack on southern Israel on October 7, in which 1,139 people were killed and 250 were taken captive.

Since then, Israel has completely destroyed 23 out of 36 hospitals and killed 493 health workers, according to the World Health Organization (WHO) and Gaza Health Ministry, respectively. The former also said that there was a “systematic dismantling of healthcare” in Gaza as a result of Israel’s war.

The acute danger has prompted qualified health professionals to flee Gaza, compelling doctors to come from abroad to help the medics who stayed behind.

Mosab Nasser, who left Gaza nearly 30 years ago to study medicine, is one of those who returned.

He came back in April as the CEO of Fajr Scientific, a non-profit that dispatches volunteer surgeons to conflict zones.

Coming home

Nasser and his team of 17 surgeons were working in the European Gaza Hospital in Khan Younis where they saw some of the most horrific war casualties.

“We have seen mothers, fathers and children with broken bones and broken skulls,” Nasser told media. “In some cases, we can’t determine if the victim is a male or female after they were crushed or hit.”

However, his team was forced to leave two members behind, one Egyptian and one Omani doctor who are still in Gaza as their countries were unable to secure their evacuation. They are now waiting for the WHO to organise their departure.

With the majority of the team’s departure, the European Hospital now has hardly any surgeons left. Nasser said that most qualified Palestinian health workers had fled to the coastal area of al-Mawasi after Israel began its military operation in Rafah, a town that borders Egypt and where 1.4 million Palestinians from all over Gaza had sought refuge.

Nasser predicts that the hospital will be overwhelmed with casualties if Israel expands its operations. The only other major hospital in Khan Younis was Nasser Hospital, which has been out of service since Israel attacked it in February.

In April, a mass grave of more than 300 bodies was uncovered there. Men, women, children and medics were among the victims – some were found naked with their hands tied.

“We know it will be tough leaving the people of Gaza and the [Palestinian hospital] staff to face the crisis alone,” Nasser said, just days before evacuating.

Mohammed Tawfeeq, an Egyptian eye surgeon with a different volunteer mission in Gaza is still stuck in the European Hospital.

Matter-of-factly, he spoke of the countless children he has seen who have lost their eyesight from war injuries.

“About 50 percent of our patients are children,” he told media.

Unlike other Gaza hospitals, the European Hospital, which has foreign volunteers working in it, has relatively stable electricity and more medications such as anaesthetics.

However, the staff is overburdened.

Tawfeeq sees about 80 patients a day and does not know how the hospital will cope once he evacuates. The hospital may have to rely on healthcare workers to perform complicated surgeries despite being untrained and ill-equipped.