Day 666

Stupid Trump sent some food, along with enough ammunition to kill anyone who dares to resist his best friend's starvation plan. He's proud of it and expects us to thank him. Thank you, Mr. President, for killing more than a thousand people while spreading disgusting propaganda about feeding starving children, and for vetoing their right to exist.

Thank you for unleashing hell on an entire people.

Day 666. The emergency departments in Gaza's hospitals are real battlefields. Six hours into my shift, and this is what it looked like..

In just 15 minutes, I confirmed the deaths of five people; two shot in the head, one in the chest, and two elderly patients who didn't make it to the hospital in time. I also treated three children who had fallen from a height, all with suspected traumatic brain injuries. Getting them to a CT scan was extremely difficult, so they were kept under observation.

The emergency department is overflowing with patients and injuries; most of them coming from the aid point targeted by the U.S.-funded occupation. The ICU is full with people shot in the head, not a single bed is available, not even space on the ground.

I performed ultrasounds on two wounded patients, from an aid point, while they were lying on the floor.

Some of my patients needed specialists; one in nephrology, another in vascular surgery, but none were available. One is diabetic, the other in end stage renal failure. Both had low blood pressure.

It's overwhelming. People are everywhere, in the corridors, on the floor. It's chaos.

Just after I finished writing this, I had to deal with two more injuries; a child with a gunshot wound to the neck, and a young man shot in the abdomen.

My brother and friend, the poet Mosab Abu Toha, just texted me; asking if we could transfer his father-in-law to another hospital. He can't be treated at Al-Shifa Hospital, which had been completely burned and taken out of service.

The poor old man suffered a severe brain injury while seeking aid near the Zikim Crossing in northern Gaza. His scan showed bleeding and shrapnel in his brain. An American colleague recommended immediate surgery; but it couldn't happen.

Now Mosab and I are left with the overwhelming urge to get him somewhere, anywhere, that can offer proper care.

If he were somewhere else, he might have survived. He might have been spared this kind of suffering. And the same goes for tens of thousands of other injured patients.

As I was about to share this, I saw a video of a retrieved body, placed inside an aid box. Even the boxes meant to save lives carry the dead! less