Medical teams in Gaza Strip exhausted dealing with large numbers of patients' injuries: Doctor

By Nur Abu Iyshe

GAZA, Palestine (AA) - A British doctor of Palestinian origin said medical teams in the Gaza Strip are exhausted, dealing with large numbers of patients.

“The medical staff (at the European Gaza Hospital in the city of Khan Younis) is very exhausted, and the emergency department always receives patients with difficult and complex cases,” Basil Badir, an orthopedic specialist from the team IDEALS, affiliated with the Islamic Aid charity organization in the UK, told Anadolu in an exclusive interview.

Badir, who arrived in the city of Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip on Dec. 25 with four doctors, stressed that health teams in Gaza are exhausted, especially those working in hospital emergency departments.

He said the role of the British medical team is to “try to alleviate the suffering of their colleagues working in the medical field in Gaza, even if only in a small way.”

Describing doctors in the Gaza Strip as “real heroes,” Badir noted that patients transferred from the northern Gaza Strip to its southern part due to incomplete treatments face difficult health complications.

“Before the hospitals in the north of Gaza were closed, many patients who had received partial treatment were forcibly sent to the southern part. These individuals are experiencing serious health problems due to the incomplete treatment,” he added.

Emphasizing the challenging health situation at the European Gaza Hospital, where there are at least 900 patients and injured people, Badir said this number is twice the normal capacity during regular times.

He said his accompanying health team has been visiting the Gaza Strip periodically for about 13 years, around eight to nine times a year, focusing on surgical areas.

Last Sunday, the Director-General of the World Health Organization, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, described the destruction of the health system in the Gaza Strip as a “tragedy” on X.

At least 150 Palestinians were killed and another 286 wounded in the past 24 hours as Israeli forces continued their onslaught in the besieged Gaza Strip, the Health Ministry in the blockaded enclave said Sunday.

The Palestinian death toll from the Israeli army's ongoing attacks on Gaza since Oct. 7 has risen to 21,822, with 56,451 wounded, the ministry said.

Israel has launched relentless air and ground attacks on the Gaza Strip following a cross-border attack by the Palestinian group Hamas on Oct. 7.

Authorities claim the Hamas attacks have killed around 1,200 Israelis.

The Israeli onslaught has left Gaza in ruins, with 60% of the enclave’s infrastructure damaged or destroyed and nearly 2 million residents displaced amid acute shortages of food, clean water and medicines.

*Writing by Esra Tekin in Istanbul