A surgeon who treats Palestinians at one of the last functioning hospitals in the Gaza Strip said the local population was “on edge” due to constant drone attacks.
Dr Tiziana Roggio, an Italian plastic surgeon who works at St George's Hospital in London, first arrived in Gaza on May 12 with a team of four other doctors from London.
For a month, Dr. Roggio will volunteer at Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip, treating patients with blast injuries and burns using limited medical resources.
In recent days, attacks have hit the entire Gaza Strip, and Israel has ordered the evacuation of residents of Khan Yunis.
Dr Roggio said Nasser Hospital was located just 1.5km from the designated red zone and expressed concerns about the fate of patients if the hospital was evacuated.
“If this hospital closes, many patients will die because they will have nowhere to go,” Dr Roggio told PA news agency from the operating room at Nasser Hospital.
“This is the largest hospital in Khan Younis, it has a lot of patients, intensive care units, oxygen generators, diagnostic rooms and operating rooms where complex surgeries such as vascular surgery can be performed.
“If this hospital closes, the only facilities left will be tent hospitals.
“While these hospitals are functioning, they do not have the facilities to support intensive care unit patients or perform complex surgical procedures.”
Dr Roggio, who travelled to Gaza from London with the humanitarian organisation International Disaster & Emergency Aid with Long-term Support (Ideals), said the situation in Gaza was much worse than she had expected.
“It was quite shocking. I was told that it is much worse now because the population is really at its last limit,” she said.
“Every day there are drones flying over our heads, and sometimes it becomes unbearable because they are so noisy.
“It’s very warm now and I want to keep the windows open, but it’s impossible and it creates a lot of tension.
“I can't keep track of time because I don't even know what day it is.”
Dr. Roggio mentioned that she heard “loud explosion sounds” on Tuesday morning after an Israeli drone struck the area.
“Yesterday morning, I think we were bombed early. We were asleep at about 5:30 in the morning and the whole building was shaking,” she said.
“We heard this huge explosion and everyone ran out, and planes were flying over our heads and dropping bombs in an area that was very close to us.”
Sourse: breakingnews.ie
