Children’s hospital in Gaza flooded as doctors rush to save babies

On Friday 14 November, while Gaza City was at the mercy of heavy rain, the Patient Friends Hospital turned into a scene of horror and nightmare. The entire ground floor, dedicated to paediatric care, was suddenly flooded, becoming a place no one could have imagined: a waiting room for patients turned into a deep pool, with medical equipment floating above the mud and water:

 

View this post on Instagram

 

A post shared by أنس جمال الشريف (@anasjamal44)

Patient Friends Hospital flooded

Inside the floor, children, some of them malnourished due to years of Israel’s genocide, were trapped by the water. Their small cries mingled with the rain’s roar in a heartbreaking scene.

One man, an employee or a parent, carried a baby in his arms and an oxygen tank on his other shoulder, trying to cross the flooded water to safety. Every step was fraught with danger, and every breath was precious.

Hassan al-Shaer, the Patient Friends Hospital director, stood on the ruins of the floor and described the situation:

This is the only hospital for children in Gaza… The entire floor is flooded with medical equipment. We tried to save what we could, but the lack of equipment and the siege are hampering all our efforts.

The medical staff tried with all their might to pull the children to the upper floors, while water seeped between their feet and respirators got stuck in the mud. Some children were on the verge of losing their lives, while others clung to what remained of their families and nurses or doctors who refused to leave them.

Weakness of infrastructure

The low point was not just rain, but a stark test of the weakness of the infrastructure and the extent of the suffering that Gaza has endured for years. Here, in the children’s hospital, the tragedy of the entire city was embodied: children in need of food, medicine, a safe place to sleep, and protection from the rain that threatened their lives as it had since birth.

Amidst the mud and water, there was a small glimmer of humanity: the voices of the medical staff at the Patient Friends Hospital who never stopped trying to save every child, and the embrace of parents hugging their children, whispering to them:

We are with you… we will not let anything take you away from us.

In Gaza, the rain reveals the fragility of everything, but at the same time, it reveals the resilience of the human heart in the face of adversity, even if that resilience is found in muddy puddles, amid the mud and the voices of young children.

Featured image via the Canary