International Courant
After I began finding out nursing at Al Azhar College, I knew I needed to work at al-Shifa Hospital. It was my dream.
It was the biggest, most prestigious hospital within the Gaza Strip. A few of the greatest docs and nurses in Palestine labored there. Numerous international medical missions would additionally present coaching and care there.
Many individuals from the north to the south of the Gaza Strip sought medical assist from al-Shifa. The hospital’s identify means ‘therapeutic’ in Arabic and it was certainly a spot of therapeutic for the Palestinians of Gaza.
In 2020, I graduated from nursing faculty and tried to discover a job within the personal sector. After a lot of short-term jobs, I ended up at Al-Shifa as a volunteer nurse.
I actually loved my work within the emergency room. Day by day I went to work with ardour and optimistic power. I met sufferers with an enormous smile, hoping to alleviate a few of their ache. I’ve at all times loved listening to sufferers’ prayers for me in gratitude.
There have been a complete of 80 nurses within the emergency division – each men and women – and we have been all pals. A few of my greatest pals have been even colleagues on the hospital. Alaa was one among them. We labored shifts collectively and went for espresso outdoors of labor. She was a ravishing woman, very form and liked by everybody.
A photograph of Alaa, the writer’s late good friend, who was killed by the Israeli bombardment of Beit Lahiya; this was taken on June 29, 2022 (due to Hadeel Awad)
It was friendships like that and the camaraderie among the many employees that helped me get via when the battle began.
From day one, the hospital was flooded with victims. After my first shift ended that day, I stayed within the nurses’ room for an hour, crying about all the pieces we had been via and all of the wounded individuals I had seen undergo.
Inside days, greater than a thousand wounded and martyrs have been hospitalized. The extra individuals got here in, the more durable we labored to save lots of lives.
I by no means anticipated this horror to last more than a month. However that did occur.
Quickly the Israeli military referred to as my household and informed us to depart our house in Gaza Metropolis. I used to be confronted with a troublesome selection: be with my household throughout this horrific time or be with the sufferers who wanted me most. I made a decision to remain.
A photograph of the writer taken on October 9, 2023 at al-Shifa Hospital (courtesy of Hadeel Awad)
I stated goodbye to my household who fled south to Rafah and I stayed behind at al-Shifa Hospital, which turned my second house. Alaa additionally stayed behind. We supported and comforted one another.
In early November, the Israeli military informed us to evacuate the hospital and laid siege to it. Our medical provides started to dwindle. Gasoline for our electrical energy turbines, which saved life-saving tools working, was shortly working out.
Maybe probably the most heartbreaking second was once we ran out of gas and oxygen and will not hold the untimely infants in our care within the incubators. We needed to transfer them to an working room the place we tried to maintain them heat. They have been struggling to breathe and we had no oxygen to assist them. We’ve misplaced eight harmless infants. I bear in mind crying for a very long time that day for these harmless souls.
Then on November 15, Israeli troopers stormed the complicated. The assault got here as a shock. As a medical facility it ought to be protected underneath worldwide legislation, however that clearly didn’t deter the Israeli military.
Simply earlier than the raid, our authorities informed us that they’d obtained a name that the Israelis have been about to storm the medical complicated. We shortly closed the emergency division gate and gathered inside across the heart nursing desk, not realizing what to do. The following day we noticed Israeli troopers surrounding the constructing. We could not go away and medical provides have been working low. We struggled to supply remedy to the sufferers we had with us.
A photograph of a single meal shared by a number of nurses in the course of the siege of al-Shifa Hospital (courtesy of Hadeel Awad)
We ran out of meals or water. I bear in mind feeling dizzy and virtually passing out. I hadn’t eaten in three days. We’ve misplaced a lot of sufferers on account of the siege and the Israeli invasion.
On November 18, Dr. Mohammad Abu Salmiya, the director of al-Shifa, got here to inform us that the Israelis had ordered the evacuation of the whole medical complicated. If I had had a selection, I’d have stayed, however the Israeli military left me no selection.
A whole bunch of us, docs and nurses, have been compelled to depart, together with many sufferers. Solely about twenty workers have been left with bedridden sufferers who couldn’t be moved. Dr. Abu Salmiya additionally stayed behind and was arrested a couple of days later. He disappeared for the subsequent seven months.
I’m going south along with dozens of colleagues on Israeli orders. Alaa and some others defied these orders and headed north to their households. We walked many miles passing Israeli checkpoints, the place we needed to await hours till we discovered a donkey cart that might take us a part of the way in which.
After we lastly arrived in Rafah, I used to be extraordinarily glad to see my household. There was a lot crying and aid. However the happiness of being with my household was shortly overshadowed by surprising information.
Alaa was capable of return to her household in Beit Lahiya, who had been displaced in a college shelter. However when she and her brother went to their deserted home to retrieve some belongings, an Israeli missile hit the constructing they usually have been martyred.
The information of her loss of life got here as an enormous shock. A yr later, I nonetheless reside with the ache of shedding my pricey good friend – one of many sweetest individuals I’ve ever recognized, who liked serving to others and who was at all times there to consolation me in troublesome moments.
A photograph of the emergency division of al-Shifa Hospital, taken on October 31, 2023 (courtesy of Hadeel Awad)
In March, Israeli troopers returned to al-Shifa. For 2 weeks they rampaged via the hospital, leaving loss of life and destruction of their wake. There was not a constructing left within the medical complicated that was not broken or burned down. From a spot of therapeutic, al-Shifa was remodeled right into a cemetery.
I do not understand how I’ll really feel after I see the hospital once more. How will I really feel realizing that the place of my greatest skilled achievements and fondest moments shared with colleagues has additionally turn into a spot of loss of life, enforced disappearances and displacement?
Now, greater than a yr after shedding my office, I reside in a tent and take care of the sick in a makeshift clinic. My future, our future is unsure. However within the new yr I’ve a dream: to see Al-Shifa because it was once: grand and exquisite.
The views expressed on this article are these of the writer and don’t essentially replicate the editorial place of Al Jazeera.
Al-Shifa was a dream and a nightmare | Israeli-Palestinian battle
Africa Area Information ,Subsequent Massive Factor in Public Knowledg
