Gaza’s collapsing lifeline amid war

WITH NO ELECTRICITY, MEDICINE, OR SURGICAL TOOLS, SURGEON AT SHIFA HOSPITAL TRIES TO SAVE LIVES

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At Shifa hospital in the Gaza Strip, nothing is sterilised, so Dr. Jamal Salha and other surgeons wash their instruments in soap. Infections are rampant. The stench of medical waste is overwhelming. And flies are everywhere.

Without painkillers, patients moan while lying on metal beds lining the corridors. There’s no electricity and no ventilation amid searing heat, leaving anxious visitors to fan bedridden relatives with cardboard.

Shell of its former self

Shifa, once the largest hospital in Gaza and the cornerstone of its health care system, is a shell of its former self after 22 months of war. The hospital complex, the size of seven soccer fields, has been devastated by frequent bombings, two Israeli raids and blockades on food, medicine and equipment. Its exhausted staff works around the clock to save lives.

“It is so bad, no one can imagine,” said Salha, a 27-year-old neurosurgeon who, like countless doctors in Gaza, trained at Shifa after medical school and hopes to end his career there.

But the future is hard to think about when the present is all-consuming. Salha and other doctors are overwhelmed by a wartime caseload that shows no sign of easing. It has gotten more challenging in recent weeks as patients’ bodies wither from rampant malnutrition.

21 to 3 operating rooms