Doctors in the war-torn Gaza Strip have implored Israel to reopen the Rafah crossing for them to receive adequate medical supplies needed for treating those injured in the Israeli air raids.
At least four Palestinians were killed and about 70 others injured after an Israeli air strike on Monday hit the tents of displaced persons near Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in central Gaza's Deir al-Balah, the Palestinian official news agency WAFA reported, citing sources from the medical profession.
In an interview with China Global Television Network (CGTN), Muhammad Shaheen, head of the Emergency Department at the hospital said many of the patients were burned in the attack, but the hospital lacks almost everything essential to treat them.
"Most of them are dangerously injured in the chest and in the abdomen, need operation, need more care in the Intensive Care Unit. We deal with a huge number of these injuries, with a shortage of most of the equipment and most of the disposable materials in Al-Aqsa, which we need. The shortage of these materials has affected our responsibility and affected our services. After the closure of the Rafah border crossing, there is a shortage of everything; shortage of gloves, shortage of blood [infusion], shortage of plaster, shortage of gauze, everything that (is) in your mind is in a shortage here. We depend on the international organizations. They give us some of the disposable things, some of the equipment, some of the instruments to do the minimal base of operation or deal with the patients," he said.
The doctor said he has repeatedly stressed the urgent need to reopen the Rafah crossing to ensure medical supplies can reach hospitals.
"There are a lot of messages, but we're not sure about if anybody hears our messages or does anything about our messages. In the first of this thing, this war should be stopped. The second is to open the Rafah border crossing to (let everything enter) that we need for the Ministry of Health and everything that (is) needed in the hospitals in Gaza. We should reenter (all) of this equipment and this material to make the hospitals safe and make the hospital to give their services to the injured patients," he said.
Amani Madi, the mother of a child injured in the air strike, said everything in her home was burned and a missile fragment penetrated her child's body.
"We were sleeping one night like any other night. We woke up at one o'clock to the sound of strong shelling. All of us woke up. Suddenly my son started screaming and said, 'Mom, there is something hurting me.' We saw a missile fragment inside the child's body. We pulled him out and took him to the hospital for emergency care. Of course, there was a massacre. Everything was burned. The mattress and the children's clothes were all burned. My eldest child is 10 years old, and the youngest is three years old. His injury was between the pelvis and the joint. The fragment remained inside his body because it is a sensitive area and he suffers from it, as you can see. He walks slowly and raises his legs with great difficulty because it is a sensitive area," she said.
The Palestinian death toll from ongoing Israeli attacks on the Gaza Strip has reached 42,500, the Gaza-based health authorities said in a statement released on Friday.
Gazan doctors call for reopening of Rafah crossing as medical aid dwindles, injuries rise
Gazan doctors call for reopening of Rafah crossing as medical aid dwindles, injuries rise
