Hundreds of patients desperately need his help, but he can no longer do anything for them. He is Palestinian-British surgeon Ghassan Abu Sitta, who told his team that it was time to leave the last fully functioning hospital in Gaza City, Al-Ahli Hospital, which is shaking from the fire of Israeli tanks and has no anesthetic supplies for surgeries.
Speaking to Reuters on Friday, a day after leaving the hospital and walking to Al-Nuseirat Camp in central Gaza, he said, "It was a real nightmare, leaving behind 500 injured, knowing you can do nothing for them anymore; that was the most heartbreaking thing I have ever had to do."
He wrote in a post on the X app, "I am no longer able to perform surgeries at Al-Ahli Hospital. The hospital has now effectively become a first aid center. Hundreds of injured patients cannot undergo surgery now. They will die because of their injuries."
Israel has ordered residents in the northern half of the Gaza Strip, which includes Gaza City, to evacuate as it continues its campaign to eradicate the Hamas movement that governs the territory. All hospitals in the north have ceased functioning.
The Gaza Health Ministry stated that as of November 16, only nine hospitals out of 35 were operational in the Strip, even partially. The ministry reported that the confirmed number of Palestinian deaths has surpassed 11,500, including at least 4,700 children.
Gaza's hospitals have been overwhelmed and suffered from shortages since Israeli forces began their campaign to eliminate Hamas following the group's attack on Israel on October 7, which Israel claims resulted in the deaths of 1,200 Israelis.
Abu Sitta, in an online call, said, "Al-Ahli Hospital is filled to capacity with the injured, and we worked all night (Wednesday). By the early hours of Thursday... we realized that we had run out of anesthetic supplies, and we had to stop the operating room."
"The hospital is filled with the injured," he said, adding that he and his team had specifically been busy treating casualties after an Israeli airstrike hit a nearby mosque and after Israeli forces besieged and entered Al-Shifa Hospital, the largest hospital in Gaza.
He mentioned that a message received by Al-Ahli Hospital indicated it was also surrounded by Israeli tanks. Reuters could not immediately verify the situation inside and around Al-Ahli Hospital. The Israeli army claims that Hamas has tunnels and command centers beneath and adjacent to some hospitals, a charge that Hamas denies.
During his five-hour journey from the hospital to the refugee camp, Abu Sitta said he saw "scenes of destruction" and bodies lying in the streets. He added that patients needing treatment remained at Al-Ahli Hospital, and another hospital in northern Gaza was unable to take them.
"Basically, there is no hospital functioning in all of northern Gaza right now," he said. Abu Sitta intends to take a break for now. "We were performing surgeries non-stop last week since the siege of Al-Shifa Hospital. I have decided that I need to sleep until I figure out what I want to do next," he said.
