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Gaza City – Medical staff are overwhelmed by the number of wounded at the largest hospital in Gaza after dozens of Palestinians were killed and wounded in heavy airstrikes.
Shaima Ahmed Qwaider, a nurse at al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City, 23, described horrific scenes of people arriving seriously injured on Sunday, some of whom lost limbs bombing victims.
“I’ve never seen anything like this in my life,” he told Al Jazeera. “There were body parts wrapped in hospital beds and unbearable scenes.”
While rescuers were trying to extract victims from the rubble of destroyed buildings, many of those rescued were unable to reach the hospital, as they also hit the main road to al-Shifa – the largest medical center on the Gaza Strip.
Dr. Midhat Abbas of the Gaza Ministry of Health said 1,200 Palestinians were injured in the seven days of the attacks, half of whom were women and children.
He accused the Israeli military of deliberately directing health facilities with airstrikes and bombing roads near al-Shifa.
“Mostly civilians are targeted, these are the victims of this attack,” Dr. Abbas said. “[Israeli Prime Minister] Benjamin Netanyahu he wants to save himself from prison and therefore decided to kill Palestinian children. “
Israeli airstrikes killed 33 Palestinians, including 13 children, in Gaza on Sunday, Gaza health officials said. The attacks killed 181 people in Gaza, including 52 children. Israel has reported 10 dead, including two children.
There was no immediate comment from the Israeli army about the attacks.
‘Very limited capacity’
Dr Abbas said staff were making beds in reception areas as the hospital filled, adding that Israel had a shortage of medicines and equipment as a result of the 15-year siege of Gaza and the coronavirus pandemic.
“We expect the patients to go to Egypt [for medical care] because our capacity is very limited, ”Dr. Abbas told Al Jazeera.
Nurse Amal Badawi described the crowd as bringing more injuries.
“The hospital is full of people and relatives. It was difficult for him to be crowded and to practice and perform the necessary treatment. The number of injured or dead is staggering and they continue to arrive, ”Badawi told Al Jazeera.
Among those killed in Sunday’s airstrikes was Dr. Ayman Abu Auf, an al-Shifa doctor, the health ministry said.
Fahad al-Haddad al-Shifa, an emergency medicine specialist, said most of the dead brought to the hospital showed no external wounds, meaning they were killed by debris that fell while they were still alive.
Egypt has opened the Rafah border crossing a day earlier than planned to allow students, people in need of medical treatment and other humanitarian cases to pass through, the two border sources told Reuters.
The border was closed for the Eid al-Fitr holiday and would reopen on Monday.
Egypt has so far sent 16 ambulances to Gaza to pick up victims of Israeli bombings to be treated in Egyptian hospitals, a medical source said.
The source said the bus carrying 95 people arrived from Gaza on Sunday morning.
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