The Doctors of Gaza

[0] From the New York Times, I'm Sabrina Tavernisi, and this is the daily.

[1] As the door of the hospital, they bomb the door of the hospital.

[2] Thousands of people are out.

[3] Thousands of people.

[4] Thousands.

[5] As Israel's war on Hamas enters its sixth week, hospitals in Gaza have found themselves on the front.

[6] lines.

[7] They are a refuge for growing numbers of civilians fleeing the violence.

[8] But one that has become increasingly dangerous, as Israel's military targets what it says are Hamas fighters, hiding inside of them and beneath them.

[9] Israel's bombing campaign has become one of the most intense in the 21st century.

[10] Ghazan health officials say the death toll now stands at more than 11 ,000 people, higher than all previous wars, between the U .S. and health officials say the death toll now stands at more than between Israel and Hamas combined.

[11] At the center of it all are doctors.

[12] Hi, Dr. Ahmed, this is Sabrina Tavernisi from the New York Times.

[13] Hello, Dr. Marwan Abusada.

[14] Yes, yes, please.

[15] Hello, doctor.

[16] I'm a special branch of New York Times.

[17] The daily has spent the past several weeks, calling doctors all over the Gaza Strip, asking them what the war looks like from inside their hospital.

[18] hospitals.

[19] Their attacks are continuous.

[20] They bomb a building, and then we get a gush of casualties coming at least 40 or 50 at one time.

[21] You hear the bombing now?

[22] Yes, I do.

[23] Yes.

[24] How do you are working?

[25] We work hard.

[26] We work more than 18 hours per day.

[27] How they are living.

[28] Where are you sleeping?

[29] Are you going home?

[30] In the hospital.

[31] Sometimes in the office, sometimes in the OR.

[32] and what they are doing to keep up with the flood of patients.

[33] I will show you just for one minute with the camera to see how many patients are waiting in the waiting room.

[34] Just one minute, please.

[35] Okay.

[36] Oh my goodness.

[37] I see so many patients.

[38] Now, as Israel's military moves deeper into Gaza City, the war is pushing hospitals to the brink of collapse.

[39] It's catastrophic situation, madame.

[40] You have to watch by yourself to see what I talk about.

[41] Today, three doctors on survival in Gaza.

[42] He's actually operating at the moment.

[43] Would you be able to call back in half an hour?

[44] Of course, of course.

[45] So you need to go to a surgery right now.

[46] Yeah, yeah, yes, I must go.

[47] Excuse me. Okay, thank you.

[48] It's Monday, November 13th.

[49] Hello, Dr. Abusita.

[50] Yes, speaking.

[51] A few weeks ago, my colleague Jessica Chung called Dr. Gassan Abusita, a British -Palestinian plastic surgeon.

[52] Hi, how are you?

[53] I'm good.

[54] How are you doing?

[55] Exhausted, but otherwise intact.

[56] Can you tell me a little bit about where you are right now?

[57] I'm in the operating room of Shifa Hospital.

[58] It sounds like a child is...

[59] in pain.

[60] She needs an amputation part of her foot.

[61] She's six taken from underneath the rubble.

[62] How many patients are at the hospital right now?

[63] Around 1 ,600 to 1 ,700.

[64] But the hospital capacity is 600.

[65] So you can only imagine.

[66] The day she reached him, he was working at Al -Shefa Hospital in Gaza City, the largest hospital in the Gaza Strip.

[67] Israel's army had not invaded Gaza yet, but its airstrikes had driven many from their homes, and Shifa had become a kind of refuge.

[68] Around 60 ,000 people were living there.

[69] If you walk through the hospital, it's turned into a tented city.

[70] On the floors at the entrance, there are families sitting.

[71] There are patients on the corridors, patients on mattresses in the floors, of the patients on trolleys, there are patients in the emergency room.

[72] It's just, it's surreal, it's surreal how awful it is.

[73] Across the whole way from my operating room door, there is a whole three -generational family, grandmother and parents and a sibling, and they have a little girl who's oxygen dependent.

[74] She's like four and needs continuous oxygen, so they're sitting next to an electric socket on the floor.

[75] There are some patients on mattresses with their injuries.

[76] it's miserably grim and they smell it's a public health catastrophe waiting to happen this is color of our typhus waiting to happen and are you sleeping in the hospital in the operating room there's in each operating room has a small area called recovery where we put patients right after the surgery just to monitor them until the anesthetic whereas in that recovery area is where i i sleep are colleagues there also sleeping there?

[77] Everybody's sleeping here and some people have brought their families.

[78] And where are they sleeping?

[79] Every available office, cupboard, storage room, corridor, whatever you can imagine.

[80] And how many patients have you been able to see today?

[81] What have you done today?

[82] I've just been operating all days.

[83] So burns, we brought in major burns patients, so patients with over 40 % burns.

[84] We had a mother, her 11 -year -old son, who has full sickness wounds to his face and his arms.

[85] We had a mother with burns to her legs and to his arms.

[86] We had a seven -month -old with burns to his legs and arms.

[87] But we also had this child with facial burns yesterday who doesn't look like he's going to do well.

[88] What happened to him?

[89] He's got over 60 % burns.

[90] Burns to his face, to his hands, his legs.

[91] He's 13, 12, 13.

[92] He was just whimpering.

[93] Whimpering.

[94] Do you try to calm them?

[95] Do you try to talk them through?

[96] Absolutely.

[97] Absolutely.

[98] Absolutely.

[99] What do you usually say to them?

[100] everything is going to be all right even though you know it's not going to be all right you tell them that once the surgery is done their parents will give them the best meal that they like or get them some ice cream or whatever but these kids have been pulled from underneath the rubble a lot of them have seen family being killed there's very little that effectively you can say to them and they're absolutely petrified This six -year -old girl needs an amputation to her foot.

[101] We'll be taking her next to the operating room.

[102] It's just been like that.

[103] This is carnage on an unfathomable scale.

[104] I need to go.

[105] I need to go because the dad of the girl is here and we need to tell him that we need to do the amputation.

[106] So I need to go.

[107] Okay, good luck.

[108] Thank you.

[109] The day after we talked to Dr. Abucita, On Friday, October 27th, all communications to Gaza were cut.

[110] No phone, no internet.

[111] It was about two days before we could reach anyone again.

[112] When we did, it had become clear that Israel had launched a ground invasion into Gaza.

[113] And the doctors we spoke to told us it felt like the war was getting even closer.

[114] Last night was horrendous.

[115] The bombing was just, and very close.

[116] And it was.

[117] Are you worried about the Israeli military coming inside Gaza?

[118] There are forces coming closer to Gaza City now.

[119] This is actually awful.

[120] We don't want this to happen.

[121] Ten days ago, an Israeli airstrike hit an ambulance near the entrance of Shiffa Hospital.

[122] Then, on Friday, the courtyard inside the hospital complex was hit.

[123] Israel maintains that the hospital conceals a major Hamas.

[124] military compound, including passageways hidden underneath.

[125] It says the ambulance it hit, it was being used to transport Hamas fighters.

[126] It also said that Hamas is hoarding fuel.

[127] Hamas has denied all of this.

[128] When we asked doctors about it, some said it wasn't true.

[129] I mean, for me, it's just a narrative to justify targeting the hospital.

[130] I mean, think about it is that under international law, it's still a crime to attack a hospital.

[131] Regardless of who you say is underneath the ground.

[132] Others said they didn't know.

[133] I only deal with patients.

[134] I don't know.

[135] All they knew was their reality in this war, that their corridors were filling up even more with wounded and dying people.

[136] The six children now, they don't have clean water to drink.

[137] I received like water with yellow color.

[138] Just as their supplies were running out.

[139] Some patients may die.

[140] because of infection in the wound.

[141] Why there is infection in the wand?

[142] Because there is lack of antibiotics.

[143] They were running out of disinfectant and were resorting to what they had on hand.

[144] One of the scenes I have witnessed is seeing chloride using in the wiping the floors or wiping the windows.

[145] We use it for the cleaning of wound infection.

[146] As an example, I've seen nurses and doctors using vinegar to treat one infections.

[147] And I am sure it is not enough.

[148] It will not treat anything.

[149] They said they were running out of medicine to operate on people.

[150] MSF, release of photo, it was an amputation of the foot of a little boy on the ground with no general anesthesia.

[151] So he was just given sedative to fall asleep.

[152] Part of what we do is doctors is relief suffering.

[153] And if you can't treat patients with, It's pain control.

[154] It's, I mean, it's intolerable.

[155] They started rationing everything, particularly fuel to run the generators.

[156] So many turned off the lights in their hospitals.

[157] The wards are dark.

[158] The corridors are dark.

[159] The communal areas, the lobby, the stairwells, they're dark.

[160] And so it's a nightmare because you don't know who you're stepping on while you're walking.

[161] Some said they were even operating on people using their first.

[162] phone flashlights.

[163] Do you use light from your phone?

[164] How do you see?

[165] Yeah, yeah.

[166] That's basically it.

[167] That's the trick.

[168] You use light from your phone.

[169] And they worried about how much time they had left.

[170] A hospital without fuel, this hospital without fuel and electricity will turn from a hospital into mass grave.

[171] I'm trying to find fuel for ambulances and electricity.

[172] And some of those we talked to were spending much of their days trying to find fuel themselves, including Dr. Suheb al -Hams, the general director of the Kuwaiti Specialist Hospital in Rafa in the south of Gaza.

[173] I spent my day since 6 a .m. trying to call everyone, called the Norwa, I called International Cross, I called the Minister of the Health.

[174] I'm trying to find her other hospital if they can help me. I will stop my service here.

[175] The patients were dying.

[176] How many calls did you make about fuel today for your hospital?

[177] Lots of cool, just as square.

[178] I spent my day just looking for water, for food, for food, for my medical staff here.

[179] We don't have even a bread for the last two days for the medical stuff.

[180] You don't have bread for the staff.

[181] That's what happening here.

[182] But we are, have no. options.

[183] We cannot leave our patient.

[184] We cannot leave our hospital here.

[185] And what about Hamas, doctor?

[186] You mentioned you're calling the Ministry of Health.

[187] Does Hamas help you with fuel?

[188] Madam, you cannot ask me about Hamas.

[189] I am a doctor.

[190] I am associate professor here.

[191] I am the head of surgery department in the faculty of medicine.

[192] You cannot ask me about Hamas, about jihad, about, you should ask me the medical care.

[193] You can ask Israel what they are doing here.

[194] They are killed of lots of honest people.

[195] I won't answer anyone.

[196] You ask me about the political situation here.

[197] You talk about humanity.

[198] You take about catastrophic situation here in Gaza, Madame.

[199] One thing that we have heard, Dr. You should deal with that.

[200] You should face that.

[201] One thing that we have heard, Doctor, is that there are reports that Hamas had been sitting on a stockpile of fuel in the underground tunnels.

[202] Is that something that you?

[203] you've heard about?

[204] I didn't hear about the Israel occupation.

[205] I didn't hear about that except from the Israeli occupation.

[206] You hear that lots of doctor of professors, consultants and medical students were killed here.

[207] Do you hear about the ambulances that were destroyed by the Israeli occupation?

[208] Do you hear about the hospital that were destroyed the patient?

[209] Do you hear about lots of children and women and pregnant women and honest citizens that were killed by the Israeli cubation and the all war, world that they call them the democracy, the democratic world, just watch us.

[210] Nothing, do nothing.

[211] Just support Israel.

[212] Support Israel.

[213] This is genocide here.

[214] I wonder how they can do this.

[215] This all our life, this all our life, we have dreams, we have children, we have our own dreams.

[216] They saw everything.

[217] They destroyed everything.

[218] I can hear you're angry.

[219] I'm angry.

[220] I am exhausted.

[221] This is a bad dream.

[222] I hope I walked from it.

[223] Just today we received about 12 children and women, pregnant women.

[224] Two of them are pregnant.

[225] There is a hospital date.

[226] They were killed.

[227] And we tried after they killed, we were tried to do cesarean section after they are killed.

[228] at the ER, trying to save their babies, but we cannot do them.

[229] Unfortunately, the fetus was killed also.

[230] We tried to save it.

[231] We tried.

[232] What was it like for you when you discovered you couldn't save the babies inside the mothers?

[233] Just I cried.

[234] The only thing I can do just to cry.

[235] Cry when I fall to sleep.

[236] crying when I'm walking.

[237] Just I cried to her.

[238] Nothing to be done for them.

[239] Nothing to be done.

[240] Nothing to be spoken of the children, one of them, was nine -year daughters.

[241] She lost her mother.

[242] She lost her, all of her family.

[243] And she was shocked.

[244] She was shocked.

[245] No expression.

[246] Just she was silent.

[247] one of the nurses just stay with here till the morning.

[248] And after that, it went with one of her families, one of her cousin.

[249] I hope that her cousin will take care of her.

[250] As the days went on, the war was forcing doctors to make impossible choices.

[251] Who would get treatment and who wouldn't?

[252] Who got anesthesia and who didn't?

[253] Which wounds got disinfectant?

[254] and which did not.

[255] A number of doctors talked about making the most impossible choice of all.

[256] Whom to save and whom to let die.

[257] One doctor told us that it felt as if he was deciding on the souls of people.

[258] Doctors also said that they found themselves in a strange new role.

[259] The hospital is full of children.

[260] Looking after children.

[261] They keep one like running beside me, following me. Please, we want to draw.

[262] Please take photo for us.

[263] Two days ago, we got a patient with no one of her family alive.

[264] Loan survivors of bombings.

[265] She came alone, 11 -year -old.

[266] She was disoriented.

[267] Everyone knows the name.

[268] And she was in the recovery with no beds.

[269] The general manager of the hospital called me and said, I know this is not your case.

[270] But please, can you take care of this little care?

[271] She has no one here.

[272] One doctor said that for children who were too young to speak, the staff would write unknown in marker on their bodies.

[273] Every day, we had a lot of cases like this.

[274] A lot of children, their mothers, their fathers, without families.

[275] Some said their hospitals were starting to feel like orphanages, with children wandering the halls, looking for parents who were no longer alive.

[276] Even there is a new medical term that we are having.

[277] It must be added to medical books.

[278] WCNSF.

[279] Wounded child, no surviving family.

[280] Wounded child, no surviving family.

[281] WC