Doctor documents experience at Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza

ISTANBUL

Fadia Malhis detailed to Anadolu the difficulties she faced while working at the Al-Shifa Hospital in the Gaza Strip, which was targeted by sieges, raids and attacks by the Israeli army.

Malhis, who returned home after studying in Türkiye, worked as an obstetrician-gynecologist at the Al-Shifa Hospital for nearly 25 years, but had to go to make a desperate escape to Egypt when the hospital was rendered unusable. From Egypt, she went to Türkiye.

She said she came back from the brink of death many times and that she could not hold back tears when she left Gaza.

She moved from the West Bank, where she is from, to work at the hospital in the coastal enclave since 2001 because her husband is from Gaza.

‘When the attacks started, we realized that this was not like the others’

Malhis said she woke up at dawn on Oct. 7 to the sound of thousands of missiles. “Actually, we did not expect something so big to happen. We thought it would be like the old conflicts. When the genocide started six hours later, we realized that this was not like other attacks.”

She went to the hospital as the attacks continued to threaten thousands of wounded and pregnant women under difficult conditions.

Israel bombed places that should be protected by international law in the initial attacks, she said. “Israel first started bombing schools, mosques and hospitals. Fifty to 60,000 civilians took refuge in Al-Shifa Hospital because Israel bombed people hiding in mosques.”

She said Israel provided Gaza with electricity for eight hours per day before Oct. 7, and since, doctors have been forced to deliver babies in the neonatal department of Al-Shifa Hospital with the help of generators because of the restrictions.

“It was very difficult to heat the babies in the incubators since winter had started. Babies who had no one and survived the massacre were coming to us. What was the sin of those innocent babies?” she asked rhetorically. “A baby who came to us was found in a tree. Imagine the pressure of the explosion was so great that it threw the baby from its crib to the tree in front of the house.”

‘My daughter, son-in-law and grandchildren survived the attack’

Malhis said soldiers surrounded their neighborhood in November and her family was under siege in Rimal for one month — their house was constantly shaking like an earthquake from tanks and bombs.

“When a tank bombarded our house while we were under siege, we fled downstairs. We realized that Israeli soldiers were approaching us. The Israeli soldiers raided our house, stripped the men to their underwear against the wall and told us to leave without looking back. I thought I would never see my son and son-in-law again. My son was released after a short time, but my son-in-law is still in prison,” said Malhis.

‘We gave birth with phone lights’

Malhis said her family went to the hospital with their daughters and grandchildren. They had to leave their homes in tears.

They found a place to stay in a small room in a warehouse because tens of thousands took refuge at Al-Shifa Hospital.

“They gave me three mattresses and three blankets. I was both working in the emergency department of the hospital and staying there,” she said.

Babies were delivered under difficult conditions because of the bombing of the delivery room. Malhis said staff built a small operating room in the boiler room.

She said she performed surgeries and deliveries under very difficult conditions. “Sometimes we had to deliver babies with telephone lights. In the first days, there was not even water, the hospital was unusable,” she said.

“We had to leave the hospital after the attack on Al-Shifa”

Malhis said the hospital was rendered unusable after an after in February and her family had to leave, noting that they took shelter in a very small house in the Es-Sahabe region with her children.

They struggled with hunger and diseases in the Es-Sahabe region and were left to survive by making flour from barley eaten by animals.

Malhis noted that her daughter was pregnant during the attacks and gave birth by c-section under very difficult conditions, “Since Al-Shifa Hospital and other hospitals were bombed, I went to my granddaughter’s birth myself and performed the surgery without painkillers,” said the doctor.

She said that her family eventually crossed to Egypt because of the birth and famine, but Egypt did not allow them to cross a long and “deadly” road to get to that country for some time.

“There was only one street to get out of Gaza, and Israeli soldiers were shooting at anyone who crossed it. We tried five times and they attacked us each time. At the last time, during the changing hours of the Israeli soldiers, we left Gaza through that street, saying, ‘We will either die here or we will pass through here.’ We walked 10 kilometers (6 miles).”

A third attack on Al-Shifa Hospital coincided with the day she left Gaza, leaving Malhis very sad. She cried when she first heard that the hospital was destroyed.

Malhis had a heartfelt thank you to the “governments, peoples and friends who prayed, helped and supported” her family through the ordeal.

“May Allah have mercy on our martyrs and grant a speedy recovery to those injured. May He free those who are captives. I hope that this blood will stop first. We have always loved the Turkish people. Everyone is trying to help as much as they can,” she said.

*Writing by Efe Ozkan

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