When Mohammed Saad learned that his cousin Rema Saad’s family had been killed in an Israeli air strike, he said the news was like a lightning bolt that struck him and his family.
A new round of clashes between The Palestinians and Israel has intensified since Ramadan, with the Palestinian Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) firing rockets at Israel in recent days and Israel responding with shelling and air strikes. On 14 May, it was even reported that Israeli ground forces had entered the Gaza Strip, but the Israeli military subsequently “did not confirm or deny” the news.
To date, the main palestinians killed in the conflict. It was the most bitter clash between the two sides since 2014. Hospitals in Gaza are on the brink of collapse under the new crown outbreak, unable to even treat those injured in air strikes.
A family of five crushed by an empty attack
Rema Saad, 31, lives in an apartment in Gaza City with her 29-year-old husband and two children, Al Jazeera reported Wednesday. In the early hours of May 12, local time, an air strike destroyed their residential building. Mohammed Saad said the family had not received any warning before the air strike.
Rema Saad, who is four months pregnant, and her five-year-old son died at the scene, while her husband Mohammed died shortly afterwards in the intensive care unit, while the body of their three-year-old daughter Maryam has not yet been found at the scene of the attack.
Mohammed Saad told Al Jazeera that she was in contact with Gaza’s fire department and civil defense personnel in the hope that they would help find Mariam so that she could rest by her mother’s side.
He also said that the day before the air strike, Rema also visited her family to congratulate her brother on his engagement, but did not expect to be attacked as soon as he returned home the next day.
The family is now hiding the truth from the mother of Rema’s husband, Mohammed Terbani, for fear of having a heart attack.
According to CCTV News on May 14, the Gaza Strip health department announced on the 14th: Since the outbreak of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Israeli air strikes have killed 119 Palestinians, 27 of whom are minors, and 600 others were injured.
A hospital on the verge of collapse in an outbreak
Before the conflict, hospitals in Gaza, which had been overwhelmed by the new coronavirus outbreak, were now urgently treating wounded people injured in the conflict, leaving the local health system exhausted and nearly collapsing.
Israel’s Haaretz newspaper reported on May 13th that Health Ministry sources in Gaza said the health system in Gaza was still struggling with the new virus and it was difficult to care for the wounded in Israeli air strikes.
One Gaza resident, who did not want to be named, told an Israeli newspaper: “The number of injured is increasing. The bombing took place in civilian areas, so the hospital was already overcrowded. At the same time, the wounded did not have enough blood supply. Everyone here is under pressure. ”
In addition, hospitals face inadequate medical equipment and frequent power outages. A local Red Crescent coordinator said: “It’s a very difficult situation and I can’t put into words the horror. ”
According to the Times of Israel reported on the 14th, an Israeli Defense Ministry official said that the Gaza Strip generator fuel will be exhausted on Sunday (May 16). This is partly because Israel has closed the Kerem Shalom crossing in Gaza, which receives most of its fuel, leaving the Gaza Strip with only one third of its electricity.
At the same time, the new coronavirus outbreak continues to spread in the Gaza Strip and is not effectively controlled. Gaza’s health system is immature, lacks qualified infrastructure, medical equipment and personnel, and most hospitals are not prepared to treat patients. It is reported that Gaza hospitals have been forced to reuse disposable medical supplies because of a lack of medical supplies. Not only that, but the rate of virus transmission is also extremely high because there is no additional space for isolated new coronavirus wards.
