Dealing with trauma victims is central to the medics’ work at a field hospital in Rafah, in southern Gaza, set up by the United Arab Emirates government.
But at this mission dubbed “Operation Gallant Knight 3,” they are also seeing the consequences of the local health systems falling apart and the poor, crowded conditions that are leading to infectious diseases and other problems sweeping through communities.
“Someone came with an injury to his head and worms coming out of the wound,” the hospital’s medical director, Dr. Abdallah Al-Naqbi, said. “We can’t explain what kind of environment they were exposed (to), and medically I can’t explain how dirty was that situation. Even our surgeon was shocked.”
Inside the hospital it is almost calm, with organized staff efficiently caring for their patients, in wards, intensive care units and operating rooms. But the war is ever present.
Within 15 minutes of CNN arriving, there is a loud crack of a nearby airstrike. The doctors don’t even flinch. “That’s real life,” said Al-Naqbi, adding that they hear at least 20 strikes a day. “I think we got used to it.”
Soon, a man and a 13-year-old boy, both with missing limbs due to the bombing, are wheeled in. The notes handed over from the paramedics were smeared with blood. The teams worked quickly to replace the bandages that were being used as improvised tourniquets.
“Not a single patient came to me with a proper tourniquet,” Al-Naqbi said, explaining that properly stopping blood loss was critical to saving lives.
The Israeli military says that since October 7, it has hit more than 22,000 targets in Gaza – an enclave just about 25 miles long and seven miles wide – far surpassing anything seen in modern warfare in terms of intensity and ferocity.
Even as more nations called for a ceasefire, one young patient in the Emirati field hospital questioned bitterly whether anyone was really concerned enough.
Lama Ali Hassan Alloush and her family followed orders to leave northern Gaza and seek shelter in the south. But then their shelter was struck. Now, she is in hospital, her right leg amputated.
“The world isn’t listening to us,” she said. “Nobody cares about us, we have been dying for over 60 days, dying from the bombing, and nobody did anything.”
Read more about a CNN team's visit to a field hospital in southern Gaza to see firsthand the suffering of Palestinian children.
