@guardian: ‘We are seeing patients who have been burned from the skin right down to the bone,’ says Dr Omar El-Taji, a British surgeon in one of Gaza’s largest remaining hospitals as Israel’s invasion of Rafah deepens. Officials estimate that as many as 500,000 people have fled Rafah since being told to evacuate by the IDF before their first attacks in and around the city a week ago, while continuing airstrikes and hospitals being forced to evacuate have already strained medical facilities in the south of the Gaza Strip. El-Taji, a urology specialist at Health Education North West, has been in Gaza for more than a week with medical nonprofit FAJR Scientific working out of the European Hospital in Rafah, which was founded by UNRWA with a grant from the EU. Tens of thousands of refugees are sheltering at the hospital, as well as El-Taji, after Rafah was evacuated. He and his team were due to fly out on Monday, but have been unable to leave since the border closed. There, with dwindling resources and fewer local staff, remaining medical staff have been working day and night to support patients – from babies to the elderly – who have been rushed to the hospital with devastating injuries. ‘These people have gone through this for six to seven months now, They cannot go through this any more’, says El-Taji. ‘Please let this war stop.’ Only a third of Gaza’s 36 hospitals and primary health care centres are working and all face acute shortages of medicine, basic medical supplies, fuel and manpower. The World Health Organization (WHO) has warned that southern Gaza’s medical operations could soon run out of fuel. Israel’s military offensive in the Gaza Strip, triggered by surprise attacks launched by Hamas on 7 October in which 1,200 people, mostly civilians, were killed and about 250 hostages were taken, has killed at least 35,173 Palestinians and wounded 79,061. The Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, has so far rejected US pressure to hold off on a full-scale attack of Rafah, and claimed the area is the last stronghold of Hamas, and that Israel can only achieve its war aims by killing militants and leaders in the city. Watch this video to hear about El-Taji’s experiences, and follow the latest developments by heading to the link in bio.

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Tuesday 14 May 2024 17:42:21 GMT