'Bombing victims' injuries are very severe. We will do our utmost to save them... but we face shortages of everything'

MEDICS helping the Palestine Red Crescent Society have revealed harrowing details of the daily effort to provide healthcare in the Gaza war zone.

- By Hanna Geissler Health Editor

Nurse Mirna Kalab and Dr Iman Moein Abu Ward have repeatedly been displaced with relatives in nearly two years of conflict.

They spoke out as the British Red Cross warned that the “trickle of aid” reaching the enclave was nowhere near enough.

Mirna, 28, starts every day with a prayer before heading to work where she treats the victims of bombings. She said: “The injuries are extremely severe - we receive patients in critical condition with very serious wounds.

“Our resources are very limited. There is a shortage of supplies. Everything is lacking.

“Despite the limited resources, we do our utmost to help the injured and save their lives. But the situation is extremely difficult.”

Mirna graduated from the Islamic University of Gaza in general nursing. A total of 90% of the Gaza Strip’s population are thought to have fled their homes since the Hamas-Israel conflict erupted in October 2023, with 2.1 million still displaced.

Diseases spread easily due to crowded and unhygienic conditions where hundreds of thousands try to live.

Mirna has often moved with her parents and siblings from Khan Younis to Rafah and back, depending on where seemed the safest at the time.

She is now in a tent in the coastal area Al-Mawasi where “it’s very difficult to bring water or get food”.

Mirna added: “Going to work or to get anything we need is a daily struggle and great hardship.”

Reflecting on her once safe and stable life, she said: “It’s nothing like now we are displaced, far from home. This war has affected my mental health and my family’s.