It should not have been necessary to amputate. But at the hospital in Al Awda in northern Gaza, there is no vascular surgeon, a specialist in vascular surgery. The doctors had hoped that the patient could be sent to another hospital further south. But the ambulances from the World Health Organization (WHO) did not pass through Israel’s checkpoints. – Five days passed. And the leg … You know … Without a vascular surgeon, our team had to perform an amputation on this patient, says hospital director Mohammed Salha by phone from Al Awda hospital in the far north of Gaza. Salha should not really be there, the Israeli army (IDF) believes. But like other doctors and employees at the hospital, the hospital manager refuses to comply with the military’s evacuation order. – If we follow the evacuation order, people will die in the streets. Women who give birth will die with their children, says Salha to news. – So we refuse to evacuate. People in the north and the patients need us. Not leaving the patients One week ago, the IDF launched a new ground offensive in northern Gaza. They are particularly concentrating on Jabalia, the suburb north of Gaza City, where the Al Awda hospital is located. This is the third time the IDF has entered the area during the war. Since the last time, this spring, Hamas has flourished again, the army believes. In addition to ground attacks, Israel also bombs from the air. In the last week, around 150 people have been killed in Jabalia, according to the health authorities, writes Reuters. – The situation is dangerous. No one knows when one will die. They bomb everywhere and from all sides, says Salha, who says that her sister was injured when Israel attacked the neighbour’s house. He also says that a few days ago Israel shot at the hospital with a quadcopter, a drone. news has asked the IDF to comment on the incident. They haven’t replied. A new patient is taken by ambulance to Al Awda Hospital. The picture was shared by the hospital on Facebook on 7 October. Photo: Al Awda hospital / Facebook A constant flow of new injured means that doctors have to discharge patients prematurely. But many who are hospitalized are too injured to move. – If they want to evacuate the doctors, they have to evacuate the patients first, says Mohammed Obaid, senior doctor in orthopedics at Al Awda hospital, to news. Obaid currently has around 40 hospitalized patients. To leave them would be “inhumane”, he believes. Mohammed Obaid at the Al Awda hospital in northern Gaza. Photo: PrivatMohammed Obaid at the Al Awda hospital in northern Gaza. Photo: Privat Almost half a million in the north Obaid believes that several amputations could have been avoided with the right equipment and surgeons. In addition to vascular surgeons, they do not have a neurosurgeon, someone who can operate on injuries to the brain and spinal cord. – Many people with head injuries die because no one here can treat these cases, says Obaid. It is not only staff at the Al Awda hospital who have refused to flee. At least 400,000 people are trapped in northern Gaza, according to the UN Refugee Agency. They lack food, water, medicine and fuel. The situation at the hospital is no exception. – It’s on and off. On and off, says hospital manager Mohammed Salha about the generator he uses to run the hospital. Actually, he only has enough fuel to run it for one more day. But this way he hopes to thin it out to maybe three or four days. – Cut off and isolated Further south on the Gaza Strip, the Norwegian orthopedist Geir Stray Andreassen is worriedly following the situation in the north. – We have a lot to do, but the amount of patients is manageable. It’s not like in the north. There they are unable to keep their heads above water. Too many patients come in, says Andreassen on the phone to news. Orthopedist Geir Stray Andreassen at the European Hospital in Khan Younis in southern Gaza. Photo: Private Orthopedist Geir Stray Andreassen at the European Hospital in Khan Younis in southern Gaza. Photo: Privat Andreassen is a project advisor at NORWAC (Norwegian Aid Committee). In the last ten years, he has been to Gaza 20 times. Three of them in the last year. This time he is at the European Hospital in Khan Younis. Andreassen is keeping his fingers crossed that the WHO’s will get through the checkpoints. Otherwise, he fears the consequences for both the patients and staff at the hospitals in the north. – They are completely cut off and isolated. Eventually they will run out of supplies and food. Then they are in a terrible situation, emphasizes Andreassen. Ambulances denied passage For the past week, UN convoys of ambulances have tried to cross into northern Gaza to pick up injured patients in the hospitals. But Israeli soldiers have not allowed them to pass the checkpoint in the center of the Gaza Strip. UN employees have, among other things, talked about the situation in a post on Instagram. The IDF says the ambulances were stopped as a result of “security concerns”. But on Saturday afternoon, they allowed emergency aid going to Kamal Adwan Hospital, another hospital not far from Al Awda, to pass the checkpoint. A man mourned on Saturday family members who were killed in an attack against Jabalia. The bodies are wrapped in white cloths and placed in the boot of a van. Photo: OMAR AL-QATTAA / AFP – The IDF will continue to act in accordance with international law to provide and enable humanitarian aid to Gaza’s residents, especially health workers, the IDF writes in an email to news. Although this is the IDF’s third military operation in Jabalia and the surrounding area, several things indicate that this one may be different. Israel may be embarking on a “scaled down” plan to clear the area of Palestinians, according to a report published in the Israeli newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth. People fled from the areas north of Gaza City on Saturday 12 October. Photo: OMAR AL-QATTAA / AFPPeople fled from the areas north of Gaza City on Saturday 12 October. Photo: OMAR AL-QATTAA / AFP Ethnic cleansing Israel has no plans to hand the area over to the Palestinians again. That is what the well-known Israeli commentator Gideon Levi believes in the newspaper Haaretz. He believes that Israel is planning to expel the Palestinians from northern Gaza, and that the evacuation order is part of this plan. In that case, it is about “ethnic cleansing” of Palestinians, says Dag Henrik Tuastad, Senior Lecturer in Middle Eastern Studies at the University of Oslo (UiO). – What is being talked about is a plan to create a buffer zone in the northern areas. But that means removing the Palestinian population from the areas. And it is de facto ethnic cleansing, says Tuastad to news. Senior lecturer Dag Henrik Tuastad believes that Israel may be in the process of expelling the Palestinians from northern Gaza. Photo: Alf Simensen / NRKF Senior lecturer Dag Henrik Tuastad believes that Israel may be in the process of expelling the Palestinians from northern Gaza. Photo: Alf Simensen / news But it is not only employees at the Al Awda hospital who refuse to comply with the evacuation order. Many of those who live here have already fled at least once. Guerrilla warfare – It is more difficult to threaten people to leave the northern areas now than it was in the past. People think they are going to die anyway, so they might as well die here, says Tuastad. Despite the destruction and bombing, it is also not obvious that Israel will be able to wipe out Hamas, one of the stated goals of the war. In the chaos and anarchy, many in Gaza hope that Hamas can maintain law and order, according to Tuastad. Several hundred leaflets ordering people to flee were dropped over Jabalia on 6 October Photo: OMAR AL-QATTAA / AFP At the same time, it is difficult for Israel to know who the Hamas fighters are. – Hamas has turned to guerrilla warfare. It is difficult to identify fighters when they are not in the tunnel systems and in areas where civilians have been evacuated from, says Tuastad. – Now Hamas is to a greater extent among the civilians. And you don’t know who has a police function, who are political or local leaders and who is in the Al Qassam brigades, says the Middle East professor, referring to Hamas’s military wing. Interested in abroad? Listen to the foreign affairs editor’s podcast: Published 13.10.2024, at 17.12
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