CAIRO (AP) — This week, shortly after 1:30 a.m., a British doctor visiting a hospital in Khan Younis observed bright missile streaks illuminating the sky before they struck the city. Beside him, a Palestinian surgeon exclaimed, “Oh no. Oh no.”
After a two-month ceasefire, the terrifying reality of Israeli bombings had returned. The experienced surgeon urged Dr. Sakib Rokadiya to proceed to the emergency ward.
In no time, wounded individuals began arriving, transported by ambulances, donkey carts, or carried by panicked family members. The frequency of young victims shocked the medical team.
“It was just child after child, young patient after young patient,” reported Rokadiya. “The overwhelming majority were women, children, and the elderly.”
This marked a tumultuous 24 hours at Nasser Hospital, the primary medical facility in southern Gaza. The peaceful respite provided by the ceasefire, which began in mid-January, was shattered by Israel’s unexpected missile strikes on Tuesday, intended to pressure Hamas into releasing more hostages and amending the truce terms. This day became one of the deadliest in the ongoing 17-month conflict.
The airstrikes resulted in the deaths of 409 individuals across Gaza, which included 173 children and 88 women, with many more injured, as reported by the Health Ministry, which does not distinguish between militants and civilians.
Triage
Nasser Hospital’s emergency room became overwhelmed with casualties, as described to The Associated Press by Rokadiya and Tanya Haj-Hassan, an American pediatrician volunteering with Medical Aid for Palestinians. Injured individuals arrived from a tent camp engulfed in flames due to missile strikes and from residences hit in Khan Younis and further south in Rafah.
One nurse was attempting to revive a boy lying on the floor with shrapnel embedded in his heart. Nearby, a young man sat shivering with a severely injured arm. A barefoot boy arrived carrying his younger brother, approximately 4 years old, whose foot had been amputated. Blood covered the floors, littered with fragments of bone and tissue.
