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Patients in Gaza ‘covered in flies’ with ‘worms coming out of wounds’, says surgeon

Doctors in Gaza are treating patients covered in flies with “worms coming out of wounds”, a surgeon in the north of the strip has said, as the healthcare system continues to collapse.

Dr Tayseer Hassan, a medic at the Indonesian Hospital, said patients are frequently pulled from the rubble following airstrikes with “their bodies scratched and bleeding and full of flies”.

The medics do not have enough supplies to sterilise the hospital, meaning that wounds can then become infected or infested with worms, Dr Hassan said.

“We do surgeries while the injuries are covered with flies. And we have worms coming out of wounds, even after we do the surgery,” Dr Hassan said, speaking to i via Medical Aid for Palestinians.

“Nothing is clean, nothing is sterile. Imagine the horrific consequences. The whole hospital is full of blood and insects, and let me tell you, pandemics. I got infections myself, just from working with patients.”

Gaza has been under siege and heavy bombardment by Israeli forces for nearly a month, following the massacre of 1,400 Israeli citizens by Hamas, the UK-proscribed terrorist organisation which controls Gaza.

The humanitarian crisis is particularly acute in the north of Gaza, which has seen intense air strikes and an Israeli ground offensive, with the Israel Defence Force (IDF) announcing on Monday that it had effectively divided the strip in two.

Aid workers said road damage and regular air strikes meant it was extremely difficult to get supplies to the north of Gaza.

Dr Hassan said the hospital has “no capacity”, adding that injured people are “on the floors, they are everywhere, next to doors, in [hallways]”.

The hospitals are receiving “tens of injured and killed” every hour. Doctors are working 24-hour shifts but are still unable to deliver even “minimum care”.

The surgeon said the most serious patients are being “left to die” because doctors must give resources to those with better chances of survival.

“We are seeing horrific injuries, and the majority are children. The type of injuries we are seeing is not something a human mind can accept or tolerate. When I see these injuries, I wish that the injured and us, the doctors, die, as I think it will be much easier.”

James Denselow, head of conflict at Save the Children, warned that Gaza was becoming “a breeding ground for deadly diseases.”

“We’ve heard reports of people being forced to drink water from untreated wells. Sewage pumping stations reliant on electricity have been forced to close, untreated sewage is ending up in the sea and solid waste is accumulating in the streets,” he said.

The Hamas-controlled Palestinian Health Ministry said that more than 10,000 people have now been killed in Gaza.

According to the UN, 476 trucks of aid have entered Gaza since the start of the escalation, but aid organisations warned the current deliveries “don’t scratch the surface” and are just a fraction of the 100 trucks entering Gaza each day prior to the recent violence.

The deliveries have not included fuel, which has seen hospitals run out of power, doctors ration life support machines and water pumps stop working.

Israel said on Monday that its fighter jets had hit 450 Hamas targets in Gaza in the previous 24-hours.

Civilians were instructed to evacuate north Gaza three weeks ago by Israeli authorities, but not all have been able or willing to leave. It is not clear how many remain in north Gaza, but estimates range from 350,000 to 500,000.

ActionAid warned that those remaining “face death by starvation as food supplies run perilously low”.

“Aid is still trickling into Gaza, but even the small amounts of food and water that make it over the border are barely able to be transported north, as roads have been destroyed in the near constant bombardment,” said Riham Jafari, co-ordinator of advocacy and communication for ActionAid Palestine.

“Cases of dehydration and malnutrition are increasing rapidly.”

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