GAZA (Middle East Eye) – When the Zionist regime launched its five-day assault on Gaza earlier this month, Palestinian hospitals were immediately pushed into crisis mode.
Already under-equipped following 16 years of a Zionist-led blockade, medical workers scrambled to evacuate patients receiving urgent care to make way for those wounded from the new air strikes.
Medical supplies and medicine that were already rationed to meet the needs of Gaza’s two million people began to run out quickly.
And with the occupying regime’s closing crossings with Gaza - preventing the entry of fuel, aid, and other supplies - doctors were bracing for the worst.
“This was especially challenging when many homes experienced a high number of injuries [from Zionist air strikes] at the same time,” said Bassam al-Hamadin, assistant undersecretary at the Palestinian Ministry of Health in Gaza.
“In hospitals, we were compelled to halt all surgeries to prioritize the victims of the bombing who required immediate and intensive care,” Hamadin told Middle East Eye.
In five days of bombing, which started on 9 May, the occupying regime killed 33 Palestinians and wounded 190 others. Six children were among those killed and 64 were wounded.
The assault came to a halt on the night of 13 May after Egypt brokered a ceasefire between the regime and Palestinian groups in Gaza.
A large-scale crisis for the enclave’s medical system was avoided, but the depleted hospitals are still struggling, with no hope for permanent recovery on the horizon.
According to Hamadin, the assault severely affected the medical system, leading to a “rapid depletion of crucial resources”.
He said resources that in normal circumstances would last for a month were used up during a single day of the bombing campaign.
“The unprecedented demand, particularly for surgical materials, significantly strained their availability,” Hamadin added.
Before the assault, the Gaza Strip already suffered from a 50 percent shortage of medicines and supplies.