Gaza Hospital Evacuation

 

There is an ongoing evacuation operation underway in hospitals all over the Gaza Strip. This Palestinian enclave has a population of over half a million in an area of 141 square miles, about the size of the Isle of Wight. The enclave is therefore highly urbanized. The hospitals there are already overcapacity because of retaliatory strikes against Hamas by Israel (as are Israeli hospitals because of initial Hamas attacks). As a former hospital porter I can understand exactly how dire a situation these hospitals are in. Yesterday, the Israeli government warned Gaza hospitals that they had two hours to evacuate all their patients because the buildings risked being targeted by strike missiles and aerial bombardment. The reason is that Israel suspects Hamas has set up headquarters in some hospitals. At my hospital, the John Radcliffe in Oxford, we often did evacuation drills, but this was moving patients quickly from one part of the hospital to the other in case one area was struck by fire, flood or explosion etc. At no time did we think of a contingency involving the evacuation of the entire hospital. The noble welfare group Médecins Sans Frontières, French for "doctors without borders", protested saying that two hours is not nearly long enough to evacuate all the patients. Israel relented and increased the grace period to eight hours. Source: https://www.timesofisrael.com/liveblog_entry/israel-warns-hospital-in-northern-gaza-to-evacuate-by-6-a-m-rights-group/. However, is this long enough? The difficulty in evacuating a patient is primarily dependent on how serious their condition is. The walking wounded can move themselves; somebody with a minor fracture, burns or lacerations can be transported by trolley or wheelchair, but what about somebody in intensive care? How about somebody undergoing major surgery? What's more, where do they go afterwards? When evacuating seriously ill patients there is really nowhere you can evacuate them to except another hospital. If all the hospitals in Gaza have to be emptied, where do the staff take the patients? It is obvious Israel is preparing for a full-scale invasion of Gaza which will probably happen in the next couple of days. The only way out is through the border with Egypt which is currently tightly controlled. There are large hospitals on the far side of the border that will be able to help, such as the Rafah Central Hospital. Obviously Egypt does not want Hamas terrorists in its midst anymore than anybody else does, but if they don't help then there will be carnage in Gaza and 99% of the people killed will be innocent. I salute my Extremely Proud and Dignified Brother and Sister Porters in both Gaza and Israel; as well as the brave civilian healthcare providers. May this crisis end soon and without further atrocity.