Medical relief organisation Médecins Sans Frontières (Doctors Without Borders) has described a catastrophic situation at the Al-Shifa hospital in Gaza City, with Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) now less than a kilometre away, according to the latest reports.
MSF says between 40,000 to 60,000 civilians are sheltering at the hospital, while doctors treating hundreds of injured patients, mostly children, are facing a horrific shortage of basic medical needs, with fuel running out.
"It's difficult to put into words," Faris Al-Jawad, Communications Manager for Palestine MSF told RTÉ News.
"Saying it's deteriorated or has become catastrophic is an understatement. It's been catastrophic [for some time]. The healthcare system has collapsed."
Mr Al-Jawad said one surgeon had to amputate the foot of an 11-year-old boy on the floor of the operating theatre without anaesthetic.
"There's no space in the operation theatre. There are people on the floor in the corridors.
"Critical cases often now have to be accepted as not being able to make it because doctors are having to triage and make the awful decisions as to who they can save and who they cannot.
"We have an absolutely miniscule amount of supplies left. There are not enough gauzes or proper creams to deal with the horrific burns that we're treating, which makes pain management an impossibility.
"We often have kids where it's too painful to even give them a treatment for burns."
He said newborn babies were starving because their mothers were not getting enough nutrition to produce milk.
MSF has 300 medical local medical staff working throughout Gaza.
One of the organisation's laboratory technician, Mohammed Al Ahel, and members of his family were killed in an Israeli airstrike on a refugee camp, MSF said.
Today, we are mourning the loss of one of our team members in Gaza, Mohammed Al Ahel, who was killed along with several members of his family on 6 November.
— MSF International (@MSF) November 7, 2023
Mr Al-Jawad said MSF had lost contact with staff at Al-Shifa overnight. "It is extremely worrying because we understand that the [Israeli] ground forces are coming closer and closer to Al-Shifa hospital.
"The last communication we had with our team yesterday was that they were very close. They were extremely worried.
"This morning, we haven't managed to make contact with our team. So we're trying to just ensure they're okay."
Israel continues to bombard Gaza in support of the ground operation. The IDF has repeatedly accused Hamas of maintaining a headquarters beneath the Al-Shifa hospital.
Asked if this was possible, Mr Al-Fawad said: "We are medics. We work in Al-Shifa hospital and we see only civilians, children, mothers, fathers, brothers and sisters, in horrific situations, plus, between 40,000 to 60,000 people taking shelter there."
MSF has described the amount of medical supplies coming into Gaza as "pitiful".
"We know that approximately 500 trucks were coming in prior to the Gaza war daily because the population is deeply reliant on humanitarian aid," said Mr Al-Fawad.
"Now the situation is infinitely more severe, and nothing is barely getting in."
The International Committee of the Red Cross said a convoy of five trucks and two Red Cross carrying life saving medical supplies came under fire in Gaza City yesterday en route to Al-Quds hospital.
As a result, the convoy was re-directed to Al-Shifa hospital.
Meanwhile, Irish citizen Ibrahim Alagha says he and his family, including his three children, are facing an increasing shortage of food and water as they wait to hear if they can exit Gaza through the Rafah crossing.
Mr Alagha told RTÉ News that there were no Irish names on the list of today's evacuees, which include people from Moldova, Romania, Bulgaria, Ukraine, the Philippines and Canada.
The list is published each day online between 2am and 5am. Mr Alagha, who lives in Khan Yunis in the southern Gaza, says local bakeries have no fuel or wheat, and that there are no staples such as rice, pasta or cooking oil in any of the shops.
"My daughter yesterday was crying because she was hungry," he said.
The Israeli Embassy to Ireland has informed RTÉ News that embassy officials, along with the Israeli Ministry for Foreign Affairs, were coordinating with the Irish Department of Foreign Affairs and the Irish Embassy in Israel on extracting Irish citizens.
It said lists of evacuees were given to the Israeli Defence Ministry agency on managing the occupied territories, known as COGAT, and the Egyptian authorities.
The embassy said: "Israel is not preventing any exit from foreigners through the Rafah crossing. Unfortunately we’ve seen Hamas during the weekend deny the option for foreigners to leave, after trying to smuggle some of its terrorists through the crossing."
