Hospitals In Gaza Likely To End Up As 'Graveyards', Says Lancet Report

Hospitals in Gaza are likely to end up as “graveyards” because of the lack of medicines, water, and power, a new report by the Lancet, one of the oldest and most prestigious medical journals in the world, said quoting Red Cross officials.

“I’m in Gaza City with my 2-year-old son and wife who is pregnant in her 36th week and no one is safe. ICRC is in constant dialogue with both sides and aid must be allowed and international humanitarian law respected," Hisham Mhanna, spokesperson for the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said. 

Quoting the Director General of the Palestinian Ministry of Health in Gaza City Medhat Abbas, the report said, that hospitals in Gaza had run out of medicines and other supplies and most people were left without potable water by October 14. “Potable water is badly needed in the Gaza Strip immediately. [I have] Some food but soon without water," he said.

“Without a safe route for patients to go outside and to bring medical crews with assistance and fuel from outside, there will be a humanitarian disaster in the coming hours, not even days," he said via voice message. “All the staff are staying in the hospitals. Nobody goes home and they work 24 hours… We have full capacity in the hospitals and the patients are lying in the corridors.”

In its latest report titled ‘Israeli and Palestinian doctors speak out’, the Lancet said Israeli doctors are treating unprecedented numbers of complex injuries after hundreds of Hamas militants broke out of the Gaza Strip at dawn on October 7, 2023, and killed more than 1,300 people, injured more than 3,400 and kidnapped 199 hostages confirmed by Israel who have been taken into Palestinian territory in the biggest attack against civilians since the creation of the state in 1948.

“The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) responded with a wave of air strikes on Gaza and vowed to eradicate Hamas, which has controlled the blockaded territory with more than two million people for the past 16 years, leading to what has been described as an unfolding humanitarian crisis by the UN and other agencies,” the Lancet report reads.

The report further said, “More than 2700 Palestinians had been killed and 9700 had been injured as of Oct 16, said the Palestinian Ministry of Health, as the IDF prepared a military build-up for a ground invasion of Gaza, which the IDF believes will be necessary to eliminate the threat Hamas poses to Israeli security.”

Israel blocked the transfer of food and fuel to Gaza from Israel after the Hamas attacks, and the Egyptians have also kept their border closed. Israel further ordered 1.1 million Palestinian people to leave northern Gaza for the south on October 13 in advance of a ground invasion; more than 600,000 internally displaced Palestinians were in the middle of Gaza by October 16, according to the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East.

WHO said Israel's repeated orders for the evacuation of 22 hospitals treating more than 2,000 inpatients in northern Gaza “could be tantamount to a death sentence" in a statement on October 14.

In the initial aftermath of the attack by Hamas, Israeli health workers were left scrambling to treat unprecedented numbers of patients, the report said. Although the system was able to respond quickly, many staff had to work non-stop as soon as they heard about the attacks, said doctors. "Within the first 24 hours, 700 patients were admitted to Soroka University Medical Center, a hospital in Be’er Sheva in the south of Israel. Shock and trauma were widespread, with many Israelis having a connection to the people who had been killed or to the injured, who recounted horrific experiences including stabbings, shootings, and being forced to flee safe rooms and try to escape when Hamas militants invaded or set their homes on fire,” the report said.

Quoting Director of Hebrew University's Nutrition and Brain Health Laboratory Aron Troen, the Lancet report said, “My sister died shielding her son with her body. He was shot with her but not fatally and is recovering. Under the circumstances, I feel compelled to speak out. As health professionals, we are committed to humanity and must condemn and fight these crimes against humanity.”

Soroka University Medical Center and Barzilai Medical Center, a hospital in Ashkelon, were the first to switch to emergency status, discharge elective patients, and mobilise patients to underground wards to provide a shield for most vulnerable people, Khitam Muhsen of Tel Aviv University's School of Public Health told The Lancet. “The teams had to deal with many wounded having unusual and complex penetrating injuries, gunshot and shrapnel injuries, etc, requiring advanced and complex prolonged surgeries, orthopedics, general surgery, vascular surgery, and more,” she said.

“Although the health system was able to cope with physical injuries, the long-term challenges will be providing mental health care and the social determinants of health, including food and shelter for the many people left homeless or evacuated from southern and northern Israel, with a strong focus on tackling health inequities,” Nadav Davidovitch, Director of the School of Public Health at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, told The Lancet.

“Many Israeli people have volunteered to help with immediate needs but the state will have to step in soon, he said. “I have been involved in many emergencies but never in such a situation seen after these atrocities. Many Palestinians I’ve worked with said how shocked they were and now we have a grave humanitarian situation including infants and elderly abducted in Gaza,” the Lancet report reads.