A British obstetrician who spent two weeks volunteering at the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in central Gaza says she feels “desperate … ashamed, and shocked that we’re doing this to fellow humans.”
Dr. Deborah Harrington told CNN’s Christiane Amanpour she traveled to the strip at the end of December as part of a team led by the International Rescue Committee and Medical Aid for Palestine. Most of the patients Harrington attended to in the emergency department were children.
Every day she saw “a horrendous mix of [children with] open fractures, partial amputations, open chest wounds, horrendous lacerations from shrapnel to the sort of chest.”
Harrington, who has visited Gaza since 2016, also painted a dire picture for pregnant women and babies in the enclave.
“There is no antenatal care for women… and the women I saw were really severely anemic,” she said. “Many women can never even reach a hospital to give birth.”
At least 20 out of 22 hospitals identified by CNN in northern Gaza were damaged or destroyed in the first two months of Israel’s war against Hamas, from October 7 to December 7, according to a review of 45 satellite images and around 400 videos from the ground, as well as interviews with doctors, eyewitnesses and humanitarian organizations. Fourteen were directly hit, based on the evidence collected and verified by CNN and analyzed by experts.
The Hamas-run Ministry of Health in Gaza says Israel “has deliberately targeted 150 health institutions, putting 30 hospitals and 53 health centers out of service, and targeting 122 ambulances.” CNN cannot independently verify these numbers and CNN has reached out to the Israeli military for comment.
