UK doctors at the only working hospital in central Gaza are worried about patients and staff because there is more fighting between Israel and Hamas nearby.
Deborah Harrington, a doctor who helps pregnant women at al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in Deir al-Balah with the British charity Medical Aid for Palestinians (MAP), said that because of the fighting, fewer staff have been able to work at the hospital for the past two weeks.
She said that around 600 to 700 patients are still being treated at the hospital every day, and many displaced people are staying there or nearby.
“Without enough healthcare staff, it will be a big disaster for people living in Middle Gaza,” said surgeon Nick Maynard to the BBC.
When the BBC asked the Israel Defense Forces about the reports, they said that their forces are 1. 5km (09 miles) away and there is no activity in that area.
Hospitals are specially safeguarded by international laws about humanitarian issues. Every military operation near hospitals needs to make sure that patients, doctors, and other people inside them are kept safe.
On Sunday, MAP and the International Rescue Committee (IRC) said their staff had to leave and stop working because of the Israeli military activity near the al-Aqsa Hospital.
Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the leader of the World Health Organization (WHO), said that they have heard worrying news about more fighting and people being told to leave near the important al-Aqsa hospital. The facility’s director made more than 600 patients and many health workers leave.
He said that al-Aqsa is the most important hospital in Gaza’s Middle Area and it needs to stay open and safe to help save lives.
“He said we can’t let it get worse. It would be wrong to do that when so many people are hurt and suffering. ”
Mr Maynard, a senior surgeon who worked at al-Aqsa’s surgical unit in Gaza for two weeks, said he and his team were instructed to leave last Friday. He spoke to the BBC from Cairo airport.
I was working on a bad injury from an explosion all day. At 3:00, I finished working and found out there was an attack on the special hospital unit. We were told to leave.
Two more doctors said they were told about something that happened in the ICU. Later, they saw pictures of a bullet in the wall of the ICU building on social media, but they didn’t see the incident happen.
The BBC couldn’t confirm the reports. When they were asked about the incident, the IDF said they did not know about an air strike related to that incident.
Another doctor, James Smith, who works with MAP, is now at al-Aqsa. He told the BBC that he heard gunshots on several days.
“He said that the sound could be heard from about 1km to 2km away and sometimes even in the hospital courtyard. ”
The UN said that there was fighting near the hospital on Tuesday.
The health ministry in Gaza, which is controlled by Hamas, said that 57 people had died and 65 had been injured and taken to al-Aqsa hospital in the last day. They didn’t give any more information.
On Wednesday, the Palestine Red Crescent Society (PRCS) reported that six people were killed in an Israeli attack on an ambulance near Deir al-Balah. Four people from the PRCS team and two others in the ambulance were killed.
The Palestinian news agency Wafa said that the attack happened near al-Aqsa hospital and a journalist was killed.
The IDF said on Thursday that they checked the information given to them and found that they did not attack the area mentioned. The IDF follows the rules of international law and does everything it can to reduce harm to civilians.
The BBC checked videos from social media that show smoke and gun noises. We couldn’t figure out who was shooting or where it was happening.
Images on social media also showed papers dropped by the IDF, which told people in some neighborhoods that they were in a “dangerous combat zone” and asked them to leave quickly to stay safe. They did not cover the area right next to al-Aqsa hospital.
The BBC asked some doctors about the leaflets, and they said they were told about them but hadn’t seen them.
Sean Casey, a person from the WHO who helps in medical emergencies, went to al-Aqsa hospital last weekend. He said the hospital is very close to needing to be evacuated.
The IDF said that they did not give a specific order to evacuate al-Aqsa.
Harrington said that two nurses who worked at al-Aqsa’s emergency room were killed in the last two weeks because of the fighting. Another staff member, who had already been forced to leave her home, had her house bombed.
Dr Smith stated that a lot of Palestinian healthcare workers feel that it’s not safe for them to return to the hospital.
“Some people I’ve talked to haven’t returned since Friday for sure. ”
He said that he and his colleagues are worried about the people still in the hospital.
“Many patients at the hospital cannot move, including the elderly, people with disabilities, babies in the neonatal unit, and those recovering from surgery. Also, there are many people who have been displaced from their homes living near the hospital. ”
A lot of really bad injuries
Three UK doctors saw very bad injuries and difficult conditions in al-Aqsa hospital.
Mr Maynard said in the surgical unit, we didn’t have water to wash our hands. “We had to use alcohol gel before doing the surgery. ”
“We didn’t have any curtains to cover the patients in the operating rooms, so we had to use makeshift gowns to keep the patients clean and free from germs. ”
“There were only a few medical tools and not many stitches for sewing,” he said.
Dr Harrington remembered working in the emergency room. There were no beds, so we had to take care of patients on the dirty and cold floor.
“At times, the patients were so far away that the oxygen tubing couldn’t reach them. ” We were inserting chest tubes in very unclean conditions, not giving patients any respect.
She said that they often don’t have morphine or other medicine to relieve pain.
“I can’t stop thinking about a child who came in really burned, their hands were clenching. ” Their head was dark like charcoal, but they were still alive and talking. “We didn’t have any morphine,” she said.
“I can’t forget the memory and the smell of being treated on the floor. ”
Dr Smith, a doctor who helps in emergencies, said that a lot of patients came in with very bad injuries like burns, losing body parts, and deep cuts from shrapnel.
We saw people who had lost their limbs in accidents. I saw a one-year-old child who had two arms cut off and the other two were really hurt.
The UN’s OCHA said that there were heavy Israeli attacks from the air, land, and sea in many parts of Gaza on Tuesday, especially in the Deir al-Balah southern Khan Younis areas.
“The attacks in these areas are causing many people to die and get hurt, and it’s having very bad effects on tens of thousands of civilians. Many of them had already moved to southern Gaza for safety,” it cautioned.
Israel is fighting in Gaza to get rid of Hamas and rescue people that they have taken.
It says it tries to keep civilians safe and blames Hamas for hiding fighters among them.
The war started when Hamas fighters from Gaza attacked southern Israel on 7 October. At least 1,300 people, mostly civilians, were killed and 240 were taken hostage.
More than 23,350 people, mostly children and women, have been killed in Gaza in the past 13 weeks of fighting, as reported by the health ministry run by Hamas.