Palestinian public-health authorities say doctors are struggling to treat hundreds of people injured in Israeli airstrikes on Gaza as medical supplies run short in hospitals on the verge of collapse.
Public hospitals have canceled nonemergency surgeries and transferred Covid-19 patients to private clinics to free up resources to treat trauma cases. Even so, at Al-Shifa, the largest hospital in Gaza, patients often endure long waits for treatment or must share scarce beds, doctors said.
“We can’t keep up,” said Mohamed Ziara, an emergency room doctor and surgeon at Al-Shifa. Dr. Ziara said that in the crush of critically wounded people, surgeons sometimes must decide to amputate an injured limb rather than attempt the time-consuming process of saving it.