Inside Sheba Medical Center, thousands of doctors and nurses are working around the clock to treat the floods of patients who have been critically injured since Hamas’s onslaught on the Middle Eastern country, Al Arabiya English has been told.
Al Arabiya English has been told many have been shot at point blank range. Both soldiers and civilians are being treated from wounds inflected by bullets and grenades.
“It is hard to look at the faces of patients,” said Steve Walz, international spokesperson for Sheba Medical Center, on the outskirts of Tel Aviv. “We have a lot of critically wounded people. They are severely traumatized.”
The center – which was Israel’s first military hospital before becoming one of the country’s largest civilian hospitals – has 10,400 employees, 1,800 doctors and almost 3,000 nurses working across the site, which is has about 2,000 hospital beds. The center is currently at 90 percent capacity, with many of the patients being treated victims of the attack carried out by Hamas on Saturday and following onslaughts from the terrorist group.
As of Tuesday morning, 186 wounded people have arrived at the center, dozens are in a “very critical condition”.
“They have soldiers with bullet wounds, shrapnel and injuries from grenades all over their body depending on the battle they were in. We have civilians exposed to battle, some of them were shot at point blank range, some were hiding and still shot. I’ve heard stories that were really horrible. It’s hard to look at people in their face – they are literally traumatized. We even have doctors – who are rocks – that broke out crying.”
“They have sons who are in army and their friends have died. We keep a stiff upper lip, but we know what’s going on outside hospital. We try and block it out and get on with our job.”
“They are beyond speechless about how people can walk in streets, and someone can shoot them point blank. It’s hard for people outside the country to fully grasp this.”
However, Walz said the center was prepared for the onslaught of cars, ambulances and trucks delivering the injured to their emergency rooms.
“We have been preparing for this for a while – we go through drills throughout the year to prepare for these occasions, for military attacks from Gaza,” he told Al Arabiya English. “I have been here for six years; we have never been through a year here without missiles coming down.”
“This is something we are constantly drilling and preparing for here, the tragedy that has occurred and continues to occur – we were prepared for. We were not caught by surprise.”
Walz said has been “incredible” since the attack is the sense of unity among the country’s medical community and from citizens themselves.
“Medical staff continue to come to work, despite some of them having lost family or friends.”
Many had known victims of the Nature Party, near Kibbutz Re’im close to Gaza, which became one of the first targets of Palestinian gunmen who crossed into Israel early on Saturday in the biggest and most brutal attacks on the country in decades.
“Some of our doctors and nurses have lost loved ones, we all have family and friends who knew someone at that party,” said Walz. “But yet we continue to work together in harmony. There is a unity of purpose here.”
A blood donation appeal also saw “hundreds of Israeli citizens walking through the doors to donate.”
“In fact, so many people donated blood we don’t need any more at the moment – that’s how incredible the response has been,” said Walz. “We have also had have dozens of volunteers who have come in, offering food to families of wounded and soldiers.”
“It has been heartening to see this in the midst of such tragedy.”
Walz said doctors and nurses have been left “heartbroken” at some of the stories shared by patients, and their family and friends.
“All I can say is everyone is working hard,” he said. “It’s a tremendous challenge on an emotional level. We are prepared for even worse. We have actually been told to prepare for worst. We remain willing and able but it’s heartbreaking. All of us have some connection to this.”
“We are all in this together.”
Walz said, currently, the hospitals are in “good shape” when it comes to medical supplies.
“But we know going forward, if the situation deteriorates – and that possibility exists – the greatest thing we will deal with is – as one of the largest rehab hospitals we – is that we will probably need more equipment for rehab.
“But right now, there is a great unknown.”
On Tuesday, Israel’s military said it had bombed 200 targets in the Gaza Strip to wipe out Hamas fighters in the area.
This comes after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed to take vengeance on Gaza in an offensive against Hamas militants following the surprise operation on Israel.
“What we will do to our enemies in the coming days will reverberate with them for generations,” he said in a nationally televised statement.