Outside the many makeshift ‘tent hospitals’ scattered across Gaza, rows of body bags lie on the ground. Grief-stricken people move from tent to tent, searching desperately for missing family, torn between the hope of finding them alive and the dread of discovering them among the dead.
Israel’s ongoing military offensive in Gaza has entered its most intense phase yet with the expansion of Operation Gideon’s Chariot, a campaign that has triggered mass displacement, crippled the territory’s medical infrastructure, and pushed Gaza’s civilian population further into humanitarian catastrophe.
Outside the many makeshift ‘tent hospitals’ scattered across Gaza, rows of body bags lie on the ground. Grief-stricken people move from tent to tent, searching desperately for missing family, torn between the hope of finding them alive and the dread of discovering them among the dead.
Israel’s ongoing military offensive in Gaza has entered its most intense phase yet with the expansion of Operation Gideon’s Chariot, a campaign that has triggered mass displacement, crippled the territory’s medical infrastructure, and pushed Gaza’s civilian population further into humanitarian catastrophe.
Advertisement – Scroll to continue
The latest escalation, marked by a sustained wave of Israeli air and ground strikes, has resulted in hundreds of new casualties in the last few days, according to local health authorities.
On Sunday, an Israeli airstrike hit a tent encampment in Khan Younis, a southern city sheltering displaced Palestinian families, killing at least 24 people and wounding dozens. Among the victims were women and children. Several tents caught fire after the attack, exacerbating the suffering of civilians who had already lost their homes in earlier strikes.
Hospitals in Collapse
Dr Khaled Alshawwa, a 31-year-old surgeon in Gaza City, described the conditions as “unimaginably worse by the hour.” Operating in a makeshift tent hospital with minimal supplies and no basic safety, he warned of systemic collapse.
“The operation has triggered a wave of mass casualties for the past few weeks, entire families are arriving in pieces, and the wounded are lying on floors without beds, supplies, or even water. Our patients are starving, literally. Children undergoing surgeries are malnourished and dehydrated. We are seeing post-operative complications like anastomotic leaks due to protein deficiency,” Dr Alshawwa told NDTV, from Gaza City’s Rimal neighbourhood.
“Hospitals are collapsing. I am operating in a field hospital made of tents, which places both the healthcare team and our patients in direct danger. Yesterday, a bullet fell from the sky, pierced the tent, and landed just beside a patient’s friend. Our teams are exhausted, some have been living in the hospitals for days or weeks, risking their lives under constant bombardment to treat the injured,” he added.
Dr Alshawwa told NDTV how he and his peers, given Gaza’s acute food shortage, are often surviving on one tiny can of food a day.
“We are doing our best, but what we are witnessing is beyond a crisis. It is a human catastrophe,” Dr Alshawwa said.
Leave a Reply