In Gaza, Hospital Procedures without Anaesthetics Prompted Screams, Prayers

A wounded Palestinian man lies on a bed in Shifa hospital in Gaza City May 17, 2021. REUTERS/Mohammed Salem Acquire Licensing Rights
A wounded Palestinian man lies on a bed in Shifa hospital in Gaza City May 17, 2021. REUTERS/Mohammed Salem Acquire Licensing Rights
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In Gaza, Hospital Procedures without Anaesthetics Prompted Screams, Prayers

A wounded Palestinian man lies on a bed in Shifa hospital in Gaza City May 17, 2021. REUTERS/Mohammed Salem Acquire Licensing Rights
A wounded Palestinian man lies on a bed in Shifa hospital in Gaza City May 17, 2021. REUTERS/Mohammed Salem Acquire Licensing Rights

The little girl was weeping in pain and screaming "Mummy, Mummy" while the nurse stitched up her head wound without using any anaesthetic, because none was available at the time at Al Shifa Hospital in Gaza City.

That was one of the worst moments nurse Abu Emad Hassanein could recall as he described the struggle to deal with an unprecedented influx of wounded people and a dearth of pain relief medication since the war in Gaza started a month ago.

"Sometimes we give some of them sterile gauze (to bite on) to reduce the pain," said Hassanein.

"We know that the pain they feel is more than someone would imagine, beyond what someone their age would stand," he said, referring to children like the girl with the head wound.

Arriving at Al Shifa to have the dressing changed and disinfectant applied to a wound on his back caused by an air strike, Nemer Abu Thair, a middle-aged man, said that he was given no pain relief when the wound was originally stitched up.

"I kept reciting the Quran until they finished," The Associated Press quoted him saying.

The war started on Oct. 7 when Hamas fighters burst through the Gaza Strip's border fence with southern Israel. Israel says Hamas killed 1,400 people and abducted 240, in the worst day of carnage in Israel's history.

Israel responded with an air, sea and ground assault on the densely populated Gaza strip which health officials say has killed more than 10,800 Palestinians.

Mohammad Abu Selmeyah, the director of Al Shifa Hospital, said that when very large numbers of injured people have been brought in at the same time, there has been no choice but to deal with them on the floor, without adequate pain relief.

He gave as an example the immediate aftermath of an explosion at the Al Ahli Arab Hospital on Oct. 17, when he said some 250 injured people arrived at Al Shifa, which has only 12 operating theaters.

"If we had waited to operate on them one by one, we would have lost many of the wounded," said Abu Selmeyah.

"We were forced to operate on the ground and without anaesthesia, or using simple anaesthesia or weak pain killers to save lives," he said.

Procedures that have been performed by staff at Al Shifa under such circumstances have included amputating limbs and fingers, stitching up serious wounds, and treating serious burns, said Abu Selmeyah, without elaborating.

"It is painful for the medical team. It is not simple. It is either the patient suffers pain or loses his life," he said.

At Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis, in the south of the Gaza Strip, director Dr Mohammad Zaqout said there had been a period early on in the war when anaesthetic supplies ran out completely, until aid trucks were allowed in.

"Some procedures were carried out without anaesthesia, including Caesarian sections on women, and we were also forced to operate on some burns that way too," said Zaqout.

He said that staff did their best to alleviate patients' pain with other, weaker medications, but this was inadequate.

"This is not the ideal solution for a patient inside an operating theatre, who we want to operate on with full anaesthesia," he said.

For the first 12 days of the war, no aid was allowed into Gaza. On Oct. 21, a first convoy of aid trucks came in through the Rafah Crossing on the strip's border with Egypt. Since then, several convoys have entered, but the United Nations and international aid groups say the aid provided is nowhere near the scale needed to mitigate a humanitarian catastrophe.

Zaqout added that while the shortage of anaesthesia had been eased at his own hospital thanks to aid deliveries, there were still severe shortages at Al Shifa and at the Indonesian Hospital, both of which are in the heavily bombarded north of the strip.

 

 

 



Israel’s Messages Behind Strikes on Beirut’s Southern Suburb

Men stand at the scene of an Israeli strike on a building in Beirut's southern suburbs on April 1, 2025. (AFP)
Men stand at the scene of an Israeli strike on a building in Beirut's southern suburbs on April 1, 2025. (AFP)
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Israel’s Messages Behind Strikes on Beirut’s Southern Suburb

Men stand at the scene of an Israeli strike on a building in Beirut's southern suburbs on April 1, 2025. (AFP)
Men stand at the scene of an Israeli strike on a building in Beirut's southern suburbs on April 1, 2025. (AFP)

Israel’s latest airstrikes on Beirut’s southern suburb, known as Dahiyeh, have moved beyond mere retaliation for rocket fire, signaling a shift in the rules of engagement. By targeting the area twice in less than a week, Tel Aviv has effectively abandoned the informal understanding that had kept the suburb off-limits since the ceasefire took effect in November.

The escalation raises questions about how Lebanon’s government and Hezbollah will respond and whether this marks the beginning of a more intense phase of conflict.

Pressure to normalize ties

Observers close to Hezbollah believe Israel’s strikes are aimed to increase pressure on Lebanon to engage in normalization talks.

Brig. Gen. Mounir Shehadeh, former Lebanese government coordinator with the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL), suggested that the rockets fired into Israel last Friday—which prompted the initial Israeli response—ultimately served Israeli interests.

“It was evident that these were crude, suspicious rockets, giving Israel the pretext it needed to strike deep into Lebanese territory, specifically Dahiyeh,” Shehadeh told Asharq Al-Awsat.

He pointed to Tuesday’s assassination of a Hezbollah member in the Dahiyeh strike, describing it as a significant escalation. “Unlike last week, there was no pretext for this attack,” he said. “This confirms that Israel’s objective is to pressure Lebanon into normalization.”

Shehadeh argued that the US and Israel are working to push Lebanon into political negotiations involving diplomats and politicians rather than military representatives.

“There are also growing efforts to force Hezbollah into making internal concessions, particularly to disarm in areas north of the Litani River,” he added.

He stressed that Israel is sending a clear message: no location in Lebanon is off-limits, and it will continue to act whenever and wherever it sees fit.

A different perspective

Retired Brig. Gen. George Nader offered a different interpretation of the escalation. He believes Israel does not need excuses to carry out its attacks, but argues that Lebanon should avoid giving it any justification.

“We have failed to implement international resolutions, particularly Resolution 1701, and we continue to insist that Hezbollah’s disarmament requires national dialogue,” Nader told Asharq Al-Awsat.

He questioned the relevance of such discussions, given that Lebanon’s previous government had already signed an agreement calling for the disarmament of armed groups and the dismantling of their military infrastructure, starting south of the Litani River.

“As long as the situation remains unchanged, we should expect Israeli violations and attacks to intensify,” he warned. He also cited explicit US warnings that Lebanon could face cuts in military aid and even sanctions if it fails to implement the agreement.

“We are at a crossroads,” Nader said. “Either Hezbollah acknowledges the shifting regional and international dynamics, helps the state assert full sovereignty over Lebanese territory, and surrenders its weapons—or Israel will continue the aggressive approach we are seeing today.”