Gaza Strip, May 17: Monday was another tense day in the Gaza strip amidst continued air raids from Israel.
“Hospitals are running out of resources, corridors and all departments, including the administration, are filled with beds and mattresses,” said Gaza-based journalist Youmna al-Sayed a few minutes after an Israeli missile hit a car a few metres away from her killing three people.
“Electricity comes from one to three hours at best, which is a crisis for hospitals as well while generators are running out of fuel,” al-Sayed said, adding that the power crisis triggered a water shortage as well.
Experienced Gaza doctors killed in Israeli attacks
Medical workers and health organisations have decried the killing of two senior doctors – a neurologist and the head of internal medicine at Gaza’s largest hospital – in Israeli attacks on the besieged Palestinian enclave.
The deaths further exacerbate a medical staff and expertise shortage in the Gaza Strip, the result of a 14-year-long blockade that prevents freedom of movement, causes dire supply and equipment shortages and hinders medical advancement.
Dr Ayman Abu al-Ouf, head of internal medicine at Al-Shifa hospital, was killed along with members of his family in an early morning missile attack in the al-Wehda district of Gaza on Sunday.
The bombing killed at least 33 civilians and left rescuers sifting through the rubble of apartment buildings to find survivors.
“It is a shock for me and for the entire medical community,” Dr Osaid Alser, a former student of al-Ouf’s who also interned with him at Al-Shifa, said. “He is one of the most senior internal medicine doctors in Gaza… That means a huge loss to the medical community.”
Dr Mooein Ahmad al-Aloul, a 66-year-old psychiatric neurologist, was also killed in his home during the al-Wehda attacks early Sunday, his brother Mazen al-Aloul said.
He added that his brother, who studied in Egypt and France and worked in Saudi Arabia before returning to Gaza, had been working at a specialised clinic before his death.
Dr al-Aloul’s 25-year-old daughter, Aya, spoke to Al Jazeera over the phone from the hospital, saying she and her mother were recovering from shrapnel wounds there. “Without warning,” she said, “they bombed our house.”
‘Huge loss in Gaza’
With around 200 Palestinians in Gaza killed since the Israeli bombardment began, including 58 children, as well hundreds wounded, Gaza’s medical system, which was already on the verge of collapse before the coronavirus pandemic, is reeling.
Medical personnel remain in short supply, particularly in Gaza where those present are overwhelmed, rights groups say, with many relying on international aid groups for medical care.
In particular, there are shortages in “family practice [particularly with an orientation to children], neurology, oncology, paediatric surgery and psychiatry”, according to a 2017 paper published in the BMJ Paediatrics Open medical journal.
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