Thomas,who is based in Jerusalem,said traumatic limb fractures,abdominal injuries and severe head trauma were among the most common injuries doctors were treating,with 60 per cent of patients women and children.
MSF has donated two months’ worth of emergency medical reserves to Gaza’s Al-Awda hospital,however it is fast running out,with the organisation reporting three weeks’ worth of critical supplies being used in three days.
The United Nations said that 260,000 people,more than one in ten residents of Gaza,had been displaced because of Israeli airstrikes,with the number expected to rise further.
Ayman Qwaider,who was born and raised in Gaza but now lives in Perth,has more than 55 family members living in the heart of Gaza City,including nine siblings and their 10 children. After four days of relentless airstrikes,he said his family had nowhere to go.
“You could easily leave your home and get killed. You could stay at home,and you get killed as well. Either way you are ... at risk of losing your life.”
Qwaider said one of his sisters was a midwife at Gaza’s main hospital,where she had assisted in the emergency caesarean birth of a baby on Tuesday from a young Palestinian mother extracted from the rubble of a destroyed building.
He said a school in the middle of the Gaza,where another sister is a teacher,had been struck by a rocket,despite being a shelter for refugee families.
“They were ... warned by Israeli forces to leave their homes,to go to the cinema or the school. And then the school was bombed,” he said.
Qwaider,who has lived in Australia for 10 years,said his family was forced to evacuate a house in the Rimal neighbourhood on Tuesday night (local time) before massive Israeli airstrikes reduced much of the district to rubble,destroying shopping malls,restaurants and residential buildings.
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The United Nations World Food Program has launched an emergency operation to provide critical food assistance to more than 800,000 people in the region,distributing ready-to-eat food to 73,000 people on Monday.
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More coverage of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict
- Surprise attack:Hamas terrorists fired up to 5000 rockets from Gaza into Israel on October 7,triggering a declaration of war.Read our guide to the militant group and why it’s at war with Israel.
- The Iron Dome explained: How did Hamas breach Israel’s sophisticated anti-ballistic missile system? And why didn’t Israel’s intelligence servicessee these attacks coming?
- Tragedy in Israel:A 66-year-old Sydney woman has been killed and is thefirst known Australian casualty. Foreign Affairs Minister Penny Wong says the woman’s family in Israel and Australia is receiving consular assistance.
- What’s next:International editor Peter Hartcherjoins thePlease Explain podcast to analyse the escalating conflict in the Gaza Strip - and explain why a much bigger conflict is afoot.