Our hospitals were already under intolerable pressure because of Covid-19. Then came the latest bombardments
Today the streets of Gaza City are full of cheering in response to the news of a ceasefire. But during the 11 days of the aerial bombardment by Israel, the streets told a different story: they were empty, except for ambulances rushing to hospitals and people displaced from their homes by bombings looking for a place to sleep. It was a ghost town with the soundtrack of a nightmare: explosions, sirens and the cries of our children as we sheltered in our kitchens at night would punctuate the eerie silence.
Now we are left to pick up the pieces. And though we hope the ceasefire will hold and the bombing has ended, the health sector in Gaza is still on the brink of collapse. This is something you may have heard many times over the past 16 months, as the world has dealt with the Covid-19 pandemic with differing degrees of success. But in Gaza it is to another magnitude: trauma is always most harrowing to deal with. Children came into hospitals torn apart. At least 12 families were completely wiped out, all of their family members killed. Hospitals battled against massive power cuts as they tried to save critically wounded patients.
