Doctor in Gaza: Patients 'lying everywhere'
Doctor: 30 percent of casualties at main hospital on Sunday were children
Doctor: Due to overflow of patients, "people were dying before they got treatment"
At least 485 Palestinians have reportedly been killed in the military operation
GAZA CITY (CNN) -- Gaza's main hospital, already full of Palestinians wounded in the week-long Israeli air assault, reached critical mass on Sunday, according to a Norwegian doctor volunteering at Shifa Hospital.
"We've had a steady stream [of patients] every day, but the last 24 hours has [brought] about triple the number of cases," Dr. Erik Fosse told CNN. "So this day has been extremely busy."
Fosse said he estimated that about 30 percent of the casualties at Shifa Hospital on Sunday were children, both among the dead and the wounded.
The increase in casualties at Shifa followed Israel's's ground incursion into Gaza, which it launched on Saturday night. Fosse said 50 patients were "severely wounded" when an Israeli airstrike hit a food market in Gaza City. Watch Palestinians describe fearful life in Gaza »
"We were operating in the corridors, patients were lying everywhere, and people were dying before they got treatment," he said.
Palestinian medical officials said Israeli forces have killed 37 Palestinians -- both civilians and militants -- since moving into the territory Saturday night. With those deaths, at least 485 Palestinians, including about 100 women and children, have been killed since the military operation began more than a week ago, officials said.
In addition, 2,600 Palestinians have been injured, most of them civilians, officials said.
Most of the casualties are a result of the airstrikes that preceded Saturday night's ground incursion. Shifa is the main hospital in Gaza City. Other hospitals were unable to treat the wounded because of a shortage of supplies and staff.
Israel has said the military operation is a necessary self-defense measure after repeated rocket attacks from Gaza into southern Israel by Hamas militants. Israeli leaders say they are trying to minimize civilian casualties in Gaza.
Last week, Dr. Eyad El-Sarraj, a psychiatrist who runs Gaza's mental health program, said Gaza is headed for "a major humanitarian disaster" unless the fighting ends soon.
Meanwhile, at the Gaza-Egypt border, nearly 25 trucks carrying relief and medical supplies were unable to get into Gaza because they could not get through the Rafa border gate, CNN's Karl Penhaul reported.
Egyptian authorities said the guards who were manning the Palestinian side of the border had abandoned their posts. Aid workers and drivers banged on the gate to protest the closure, but the gate remained shut. Watch "absurd" situation at border crossing »
On Saturday -- before Israel launched its ground incursion -- old Palestinian ambulances carried some of the wounded across the border, where patients were loaded onto modern ambulances. Most of those taken into Egypt were civilians, including a teenage boy with his arm blown off, as well as a 4-day-old baby, who was not injured but needed to be kept on a ventilator and in an incubator. iReport.com: Share reactions to the crisis in the Middle East
About 10 truckloads of donations from Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Turkey and Greece also crossed into Gaza on Saturday. cnn.com |
