Remaining hospitals hit by a 'tsunami' of Gaza's sick and injured

The few remaining hospitals and clinics in central and southern Gaza are being overwhelmed by a “tsunami” of injured and sick patients fleeing a new Israeli offensive in the north of the devastated territory, medics say.

- Jason Burke

At both Nasser hospital complex, in the southern city of Khan Younis and field hospitals in al-Mawasi, the coastal “humanitarian zone” designated by Israel, staff are struggling to cope with large numbers of new arrivals forced out of Gaza City in the north of the devastated territory.

“We are seeing more people every day from the north with blast and bullet injuries ... with old, dirty and infected wounds. Every one is hungry, malnourished, has lost their home and loved ones and every one is scared ... We have not got enough of anything,” said Dr Martin Griffiths, a consultant trauma surgeon at Barts NHS health trust in London who arrived in Gaza as a volunteer two weeks ago.

He said the emergency department of the 90-bed field hospital in al-Mawasi had received 160 injured in one night, with 600 seeking treatment from its primary care clinic.

About 320,000 people have already complied with Israeli military evacuation orders and fled Gaza City, according to the latest figures from the United Nations. The crisis has been made worse by the closure of medical facilities in northern Gaza as Israel presses its offensive there.