Hospitals in Gaza are struggling to respond to the surge of injured patients pouring in one day after Israel broke the ceasefire with Hamas.
In addition to firing a series of airstrikes into Gaza that killed more than 400 people and injured hundreds, the Israeli military says it has launched a “targeted ground operation” in the region, returning troops to areas in central and southern Gaza they had retreated from during the two-month ceasefire.
Dr. Razan al-Nahhas, an American emergency room physician on her second medical mission in Gaza, said she has witnessed firsthand the impact of the ongoing attacks on Gaza as a volunteer at the Al-Ahli Hospital in Gaza City.
“It’s just non-stop, one ambulance after another,” Dr. al-Nahhas said. “Pure chaos.”
4 questions with Dr. Razan al-Nahhas
What sort of injuries and scenes are you seeing on the ground?
“As far as who I’m seeing, I’m seeing all ages — females, males — but mostly children, followed by women. And the children come in with really severely devastating injuries. Because they’re so tiny, these blast injuries … the rubble, it crushes them. So really severe brain injuries to young children. Early this morning, we had a huge piece of shrapnel lodged in this child’s chest — I believe he was 7 — and literally penetrated through into the lung cavity. He had to go immediately to the operating room.
“A lot of abdominal injuries, extremity injuries, amputations … The most unimaginable things — things that I never saw and I never expected to see in my life. We don’t have the ability to deliver the appropriate care that we would otherwise in any other environment.”
How has Israel’s blockade of aid going into Gaza impacted hospital operations?
“We’re feeling that both when it comes to medical supplies and food. There is no food … I mean that’s like the most minimal consideration when there are bombs dropping from the sky. But I’m seeing children that are coming in and they’re skin and bones. So even if I were able to save the 6-month-old or this 1-year-old’s life, wound healing requires adequate nutrition. I know just by looking at them that their little, fragile, malnourished bodies are not going to be able to heal or recover from any injury — it could be the most simple wound. They’re probably going to die because their bodies are not capable right now of wound healing and recovery.
“As far as medical supplies [go] … oftentimes I’m taking care of patients with my bare hands because we’ll have one box of gloves and it’ll run out. Something as simple as laceration staplers — I brought three with me for me to use on patients, and within a couple of hours, they were done.
“And there’s no beds. So even once you have all of these patients, where do they go? Where do you place them? There’s no beds. There’s only one CT scanner in the entire northern part of Gaza right now. The line for CTs is two to three hours. I’ve had multiple patients that I send over to CT, they don’t come back and I ask, ‘Where’s the patient?’ I find out they died on the table or they died waiting for their scan.”
Were Palestinians taken by surprise by Israel breaking the ceasefire agreement?
“Truly, from my perspective, there was no ceasefire. From the day I arrived to Gaza, we’ve had daily attacks, quadcopter attacks — whether they were explosions or gunshots from the quadcopters — and we had multiple martyrs. So even prior to the ceasefire officially collapsing, we were dealing with cases on the daily. It was actually a very scary, eerie feeling because there’s this supposed ceasefire, but yet nowhere is truly safe.
“I took care of a young boy who just went to fill a jug of water and he got attacked in an area that is not near the border, that is not considered an unsafe area. Because of that, I think no one really, truly felt like the ceasefire was going to hold. I think there was this feeling that at some point everything was going to collapse.”
What are you hearing from Palestinians on how they’re feeling in this moment?
“They’re angry at the world — they’re angry at the Arab world, they’re angry at the Western world. I’m taking care of innocent civilians. I’m not taking care of militants. I don’t see militants. I see children and babies and women. And they are so angry and they are so upset with everyone in the entire situation. They feel like their lives and their blood is worthless, that no one cares. So many times people have asked me,
“Where is humanity?” And the answer is, it’s gone. There is no humanity …
“And now that we’ve seen the attack of international workers, that’s further confirmation that nowhere in Gaza is safe, both for the local people and for the foreign aid workers that are here. So whether you’re in a hospital, whether you’re in a guest house that supposedly de-conflicted in a safe zone, no area is safe and everyone is at risk. It’s quite terrifying.”
This interview has been lightly edited for clarity.
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Hafsa Quraishi produced and edited this interview for broadcast with Peter O’Dowd. Quraishi adapted it for the web.
This segment aired on March 19, 2025.