In the early hours of the week, around 1:30 a.m., the silence of Gaza was shattered by a sudden barrage of explosions. A British doctor visiting Khan Younis stood on a hospital balcony, witnessing the night sky illuminate with missile streaks before they descended upon the city. Beside him, a Palestinian surgeon murmured in despair, urging that they head to the emergency ward as the reality of the recent ceasefire collapse sunk in.
After a two-month cessation of hostilities, the devastating bombings resumed. The necessity to act quickly was evident to Sakib Rokadiya, the visiting doctor. Soon, the hospital was inundated with victims, transported by any means available—ambulances, donkeys, or carried by distraught family members. It was particularly the influx of children that shocked the medical staff.
“The influx was heartbreaking—child after child, young, innocent lives,” noted Rokadiya. “A vast number were women, children, and elderly.” This marked the beginning of a frantic day at Nasser Hospital, Gaza’s largest medical facility in the south, as Israeli airstrikes obliterated the ceasefire established in mid-January. This breach, intended to pressure Hamas over hostage dealings and truce adjustments, quickly escalated into one of the fiercest days of conflict in a war now 17 months old.
The onslaught claimed the lives of 409 people in Gaza, of whom 173 were children and 88 were women, while hundreds more sustained injuries according to the Health Ministry of Gaza. The fatalities did not distinguish between combatants and civilians. With over 300 injuries arriving at Nasser Hospital alone, the medical facility, already compromised due to earlier air raids, struggled to cope with the surge. Shortages of critical medical supplies, including antibiotics, were exacerbated by an Israeli blockade on imports initiated after the ceasefire’s expiration.
In the chaotic emergency ward of Nasser Hospital, as recounted by Rokadiya and Dr. Tanya Haj-Hassan, an American pediatrician with Medical Aid for Palestinians, the wounded poured in. These included refugees from incinerated tent camps and residents of obliterated homes in areas like Khan Younis and Rafah.
“There was chaos as I tried to determine who needed immediate surgery or could be prioritized for lifesaving treatment,” Haj-Hassan explained. One nurse struggled to revive a child with heart shrapnel; another held a young boy missing a foot, with the floor stained by blood and debris.
Doctors faced excruciating decisions, repeatedly assessing which cases had the faintest hope for survival. Often, wounds were hidden—a seemingly simple complaint of discomfort on breathing led to the discovery of internal bleeding, or shrapnel buried deep in a child’s brain.
Operating rooms worked at full capacity, with surgeons like Dr. Feroze Sidhwa from California, swiftly attempting to salvage lives. Sidhwa immediately encountered a perfunctory task—comforting a father whose daughter, a child of merely three or four years, was beyond aid. Despite his efforts in performing back-to-back surgeries, outcomes were often grim.
A similar fate met many others, as evidenced by Dr. Khaled Alserr’s account—his expertise overwhelmed by tragedies so personal that he identified his in-laws among the deceased. Heartbreakingly, Sidhwa recalled the stark disparity compared to his prior experiences, such as during Boston’s 2013 Marathon bombings, where local hospitals lacked even comparable patient volumes.
Within the beleaguered hospital, the tenacity of the staff shone through. Supportive gestures, like sharing precious sips of water or clearing bloodied remnants, highlighted an unbreakable camaraderie amid their own grief.
The ongoing airstrikes, which claimed additional lives including prominent Hamas members, intensified the pressure on Hamas from Israeli proclamations to prod for concessions in hostage negotiations. Despite assertions that civilian casualties were unintended, the devastation in Gaza spoke volumes.
In the corridors of Nasser Hospital, the pain lingers in the eyes of those like the little girl who lay paralyzed on one side, her mother by her side, both suffering immeasurable losses. “The magnitude of devastation is incalculable,” Haj-Hassan reflected. “Such atrocities defy human comprehension and challenge our beliefs in the world’s humanity.”