Volunteer Doctor Details Dire Conditions at a Gaza Hospital

I spent two weeks at Al Aqsa Hospital, and I think it’s fair to say I wasn’t remotely prepared for what I was going – what I saw. I saw the most appalling atrocities. One child that I’ll never forget had burned so bad you could see her facial bones. We knew there was no chance of her surviving that, but there was no morphine to give her. So, not only was she inevitably going to die, but she would die in agony. Some days we didn’t have any surgical gloves, so we had to wash previous ones. Sometimes we had no surgical drapes. Many days we had no morphine. Knowing that actually a lot of those resources were probably in depots somewhere or maybe in lorries queuing up outside at Rafah but could not be distributed. And this is what is so urgent about the need for a cease-fire is, the only way that aid that’s being delivered to Gaza – and we welcome every bit of aid – the only way that aid is going to get to where it’s needed is if there is a cease-fire.