Al-Shifa surgeon no longer wants to see injured people
Just a few days ago, employees were still describing the Al-Shifa hospital as a "death zone". They speak of countless injured people and unclear prospects. A surgeon now describes the situation at the facility's operating tables.
Ahmed Abunada "doesn't want to see any more injured people". At the beginning of November, the surgeon left the Al Shifa Hospital in the city of Gaza. He has now been able to leave the Gaza Strip via the Egyptian border crossing at Rafah and was received by German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier on Friday after his arrival in Germany along with other Palestinians with German passports. The 47-year-old says that he simply could no longer stand the conditions in Gaza's largest hospital.
The week he left the hospital, the situation became unbearable, says Ahmed Abunada: "We had no electricity, no water and no oxygen. But you can't operate without oxygen". After the start of the war between Israel and the radical Islamic group Hamas, he was repeatedly faced with difficult decisions, says the head doctor of Al-Shifa's Department of Vascular Surgery: should he let "this man" or "this woman" die; no time to patch up a severely injured child, i.e. amputate - "these are very difficult decisions for a doctor to make".
Ahmed Abunada studied in Germany and part of his family lives in Hesse. He himself has lived in Gaza for eight years with his wife and four children. One of them was injured before they left. Some of his relatives have remained in the Gaza Strip, including his 85-year-old mother, who had to flee on foot to the south of the Palestinian territory. He is very worried about her.
"I worked there as a doctor, I didn't notice anything"
He leaves largely uncommented the fact that the Israeli army's attacks on the Gaza Strip are a reaction to the major Hamas attack on Israel on October 7, in which, according to Israeli figures, around 1,200 people were killed and around 240 others were displaced. Regarding the accusations by the Israeli army that Hamas had a command center in his hospital, Ahmed Abunada says only briefly: "I worked there as a doctor, I didn't notice anything."
The 47-year-old says he hopes that the international community will see "both sides" in the war and, above all, take into account the "humanitarian and human issues".
Despite the ongoing Israel-Palestine conflict, particularly the war between Israel and Hamas, the condition at Al Shifa Hospital in Gaza's Gaza Strip continues to be dire. Ahmed Abunada, a surgeon at the hospital, recently left due to the lack of basic necessities such as electricity, water, and oxygen, making it impossible to operate. He also spoke about the challenging decisions he had to make, such as deciding who to prioritize for treatment, amidst the influx of injured people.
Source: www.ntv.de
