Crisis takes toll on Gaza's seasoned doctors, medics

[babylonsister]

Crisis takes toll on Gaza's seasoned doctors, medics
By Ahmed Abu Hamda and Dion Nissenbaum | McClatchy Newspapers


GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip — They come in waves, usually not long after a blast rattles the building or a black cloud of smoke rises up over the apartment buildings.

First come the ambulances, careening through Shifa Hospital's crowded courtyard as frenzied medics rush bloody patients through mobs of Palestinians who've come in previous waves to find out if their relatives are alive or dead.

Then come beat-up cars packed with Palestinians injured by Israeli shrapnel: brothers carrying bloodied younger sisters, fathers carrying lifeless sons, uncles carrying wailing nephews.

Shifa Hospital has long been crisis central for the Gaza Strip. In a seemingly endless series of conflicts, the wounded always come here.

Even doctors seasoned in Gaza's many emergencies, however, are reeling from the scale and intensity of the latest Israeli assault, which has killed more than 550 Palestinians and injured 2,500 others in 10 days of fighting.

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[rvablue]

1. A kick back up to the top! n/t