An Irish-Palestinian surgeon has told of the horrific conditions in Gaza where he, his wife and three children are sheltering in the Al-Shifa hospital.
Dr Ahmed Al Mukalati said on Friday that conditions at the hospital were overcrowded with no hope of evacuation. Between 100 and 200 patients were arriving every day with no hope of going home as there were no homes to go to. Patients were in the corridors and on seats when there were no beds available.
The hospital was working with fewer than 30 per cent of its healthcare personnel. In his department there were only two surgeons taking care of 200 patients, operating on at least 10 cases per day.
Although it had been a difficult decision to make, he had decided not to leave Gaza.
“I feel that I’m badly needed,” he told RTÉ Radio’s News at One.
It had been a hard decision as the embassy had tried to arrange the family’s evacuation. The plan had originally been for his wife and children to leave, but now his wife was saying that she wanted the family to stay together.
“Currently, they are with me in my office as most of the family are in Ireland. They live there between Dublin and London and Leeds. So there is no one here. So my wife and the kids are here.”
Dr Al Mukalati said that his young daughter had overheard his conversation with the Irish Embassy about the possibility of evacuation. Even if his wife did decide to leave it was unsafe to move from Gaza to the south.
“Yesterday, they bombed two ambulances. So the people feel it’s unsafe to move from the middle of Gaza to the top of Gaza, the borders are there.”
His daughter told him she wanted to go and said that once the war was “finished” they could all meet again in Dublin.
“She is a seven year old girl who was raised in London ... she keeps asking me when they will open the borders, can I travel? So we decided as a family to stay with each other and to face the challenges we face here.”
Dr Al Mukalati’s wife is in her second month of pregnancy and cannot access any treatments for morning sickness. The family was not able to access proper food and were getting a minimum of one proper meal every two to three days, he said. There was no access to proper food as bakeries had been bombed and restaurants and supermarkets were closed.
When asked about Israeli allegations that Hamas was hiding under hospitals, he said no one was carrying guns in the Al-Shifa hospital where there were now 50,000 people.
“You can’t see a single military person. No one is carrying guns at all.”
He was happy for any of the media to come and explore the hospital.