“Every Day Is a Breaking Point”: North Gaza Desperate for Medicine, Fuel, Food, Water & Shelter

AMY GOODMAN: This is Democracy Now!, democracynow.org, The War and Peace Report. I’m Amy Goodman.

As Israel is intensifying its siege on northern Gaza, Doctors Without Borders said in a statement Friday five of its staff members were trapped in Jabaliya. One of its members reported about 20 people were killed in an airstrike on Al-Yemen Al-Saeed Hospital.

For more, we go to Dr. Samer Attar, who has volunteered four times as a surgeon in north Gaza with Doctors Without Borders and other groups, most recently in June. Dr. Attar has worked in north Gaza at Al-Awda Hospital, like we just heard from one of its directors, and Kamal Adwan Hospital. He has also worked in south Gaza at European Hospital, Nasser Hospital and Al-Aqsa Hospital.

Can you describe, Doctor, what you are hearing on the ground, as we just listened to the director of Al-Awda and how desperate the situation is in Jabaliya?

DR. SAMER ATTAR: Every day the — every day the news is desperate. Every day you wake up to text messages and videos from nurses and doctors who I worked with, who we all worked with. And even last night we got the horrifying videos of people being bombed and burned alive in front of Al-Aqsa Hospital. So every day is a breaking point. Every day is a desperate rush for food, water, fuel and medicine and shelter.

AMY GOODMAN: I wanted to go to the Kamal Adwan Hospital. And this is a clip of a doctor who was there describing what’s going on on the ground within this hospital, where you, Dr. Samer Attar, have also worked.

DR. HANY HAMAD: [translated] What is happening is a process of attrition, a siege and artillery shelling. Tanks are present, and the occupation forces are stationed at the walls of these schools. They are surrounding Shadia Abu Ghazala School, Al-Faluja School and Hafsa bint Omar Government School. The army is now at the rear walls of these schools. We hope the world intervenes to lift the siege on the Jabaliya camp, find solutions for the wounded, and provide the necessary medical supplies to these injured people.

AMY GOODMAN: That’s Hany Hamad, a doctor, describing what’s happening. And now we’re going to go to a doctor inside the Kamal Adwan Hospital, Dr. Hussam Abu Safiya, the director of the hospital, in another video.

DR. HUSSAM ABU SAFIYA: [translated] We are facing a new challenge and a catastrophic situation that will worsen in the coming hours if there is no fuel supply for emergency services. We are now talking about a sensitive department that provides advanced health services, and we have 24 hours left. It’s not just Kamal Adwan Hospital; Al-Awda in the Indonesian Hospital are also on the verge of running out of the remaining fuel. We are facing a genuine health disaster if fuel is not delivered, as it would result in a catastrophe. We hope there will be attentive ears that will listen to us and assist in enhancing health services.

AMY GOODMAN: Dr. Hussam Abu Safiya, director of the Kamal Adwan Hospital, describing what’s going on in his hospital. Dr. Samer Attar, you worked there, as well as other places in north Gaza. Explain what’s actually happening, Israel dividing Gaza, the north off from the rest of Gaza, and what this means for the people inside, and the targeting, in particular, of these hospitals.

DR. SAMER ATTAR: Yeah, I know the people in that video. I worked with them. They’re just truly remarkable.

But when we worked in the north, I mean, that whole area has always been cut off. When you work in that area, you feel cut off from the rest of the world. You might as well be at the top of Mount Everest, because they’re always waiting for fuel, they’re always waiting food. Some days we had — we just didn’t have the equipment we needed to do what we needed to do, so no gowns, no drapes. Instruments weren’t sterile.

There would be so many people trying to get through the front door after a bombing attack, there’d be no place to step. The floors would be smeared with blood and body parts, and you’d be stepping over dead bodies to try to get to the living. And most people died. I mean, some days the most you could do was just hold people’s hand and look them in the eye as you watch them die, either because they were malnourished, they were starving, or we had no blood to give them. Every day it felt like that. Every day in the north felt like that.

And the directors there only got a chance to breathe once a shipment of fuel and medicine and food came in. And that was always a — that was always a Hail Mary. That was always — always felt like it was last minute. And now that it’s really cut off and they’re not getting supplies in, they’re not getting fuel in, they’re not getting medicines in, they’re not getting food in, now they’re really desperate, because before — before, people would arrive last minute. They would arrive before the point of no return. And nada seems to be happening.

AMY GOODMAN: And can you talk specifically about the children in these hospitals, the number of children who have died, who are maimed, who have had amputations — well over a thousand now are alive but amputated — the situation there, and this latest situation where one of the hospitals was the site of what was supposed to be a vaccination program today?

DR. SAMER ATTAR: Yeah, that’s — I mean, you leave all of them behind. That’s the hard part. You hate to see anyone suffer or die, but when you’re just seeing innocent kids, it’s — it’s not just the physical wounds, too. I remember one little girl. She was caught in an airstrike, and she was buried alive for 12 hours next to her dead parents. And then she got dug out, and we had to perform emergency surgery on her leg. There was another little girl, 5 years old. She came in with both legs just mangled after an explosion, and the mom was begging us not to amputate her legs. And we both knew the — we both knew her legs weren’t going to make it, but, I mean, those are the conversations we have to have. And I remember another 7-year-old girl came in with her arm just missing. Her arm was just — it was blown off. And the surgeon across from me, just a very stoic, unemotional, strong, resilient surgeon, just broke down in tears. Just he had had it after six months, just couldn’t take it anymore.

So, that toll is very exacting. I mean, the physical wounds, you can get to heal. You can get an amputation wound to heal. But it’s the psychic scars of seeing your parents buried alive, or you’re buried alive, and they’re dead, and you’re looking at them. Everyone in Gaza, every bed you go to, has a horrifying story of loss, of losing a home, losing a loved one, losing a limb, losing an eye. And it never ends. And just every day you wake up to more and more of it. And that’s just what makes it so horrifying.

AMY GOODMAN: I wanted to play a clip from your New York Times opinion short documentary that you created, Dr. Samer Attar, in your diary of two weeks volunteering in Gaza.

DR. SAMER ATTAR: The World Health Organization has documented 450 attacks on the healthcare system since October 7. The staff of this hospital told me they were stripped to their underwear and handcuffed. And after one attack…

HOSPITAL STAFF: They killed them by gunshot, two hygienists and one nurse.

DR. SAMER ATTAR: I’m sorry.

Israel says Hamas hides in these facilities.

This is the entrance to the emergency room of Indonesian Hospital, which is currently nonfunctional.

When this hospital was bombed, it was reported that at least a dozen people were killed. But that’s a massive understatement, because when this CT scanner was destroyed, countless Gazans were given a death sentence. This patient, this patient, both of these patients, every single one of these patients needs a CT scan to diagnose their injury.

DOCTOR: For this patient, in normal situation, we need to brain CT.

DR. SAMER ATTAR: So, just keep an eye on him and make sure nothing bad happens. And if it does, we do our best?

DOCTOR: We cannot do anything.

AMY GOODMAN: As we begin to wrap up, Dr. Samer Attar, that is a clip from an editorial, video editorial, you did for The New York Times. And here, you’re also talking about medical workers being shot and handcuffed. Explain.

DR. SAMER ATTAR: Yeah, hospitals should be safe. Hospitals represent havens for communities. They represent a community’s capacity to heal and recover. And it’s not a political issue. It’s a medical one. Hospitals shouldn’t be targeted. Hospitals shouldn’t be used for military purposes. They should be places where, if you’re sick or injured, you can go and be treated without having to worry about being bombed in the hospital or in front of the hospital. I mean, I can’t emphasize that point any more than just having said what I said.

AMY GOODMAN: Well, I want to thank you very much for being with us, Dr. Samer Attar, volunteered four times as a surgeon in north Gaza with Doctors Without Borders and other organizations, most recently in June. He is a surgeon at Northwestern Medicine in Chicago.

This is Democracy Now!, democracynow.org, The War and Peace Report. When we come back, we go to Tel Aviv to speak with the Israeli journalist Meron Rapoport, and then we’ll talk about Israel’s attack on UNIFIL. Stay with us.