Doctors are struggling to treat thousands of Palestinians injured by Israeli forces during Friday's protests along the Gaza-Israel border.

Hospitals in Gaza have declared a state of emergency due to a severe shortage of supplies.

Al Jazeera's Hoda Abdel-Hamid reports from Gaza. </s> Doctors are struggling to treat thousands of Palestinians injured by Israeli forces during Friday’s protests along the Gaza-Israel border.

Hospitals in Gaza have declared a state of emergency due to a severe shortage of supplies. </s> • act to allow seriously wounded Gaza residents access to emergency medical care in Israel or passage to the West Bank/East Jerusalem;
• to establish a special emergency procedure designed to facilitate immediate entry for wounded Gazans to access urgent medical care in Israel, the occupied West Bank, or beyond.

Two young men are in danger of losing their legs if they remain in Gaza hospital; Al Mezan, Adalah petition Israeli Supreme Court after Israeli military took four days to reject transfer requestIsrael is refusing to let two young Palestinian men-who were seriously wounded by Israeli military gunfire as unarmed protesters during demonstrations in Gaza-travel to the city of Ramallah in the occupied West Bank for urgent medical care.Adalah - The Legal Center for Arab Minority Rights in Israel and Al Mezan Center for Human Rights filed a petition to the Israeli Supreme Court yesterday, 8 April 2018, demanding Israel let the two seriously wounded young men leave the Gaza Strip.The two men -- Yousef Karnaz, aged 20, and Mohammad Al-'Ajouri, aged 17, both from Gaza-were wounded when Israeli troops fired on them during the 30 March 2018 Land Day protests.Since Shifa hospital does not have the required medical tools to save their legs, it referred both men to Al Istishari Arab Hospital in Ramallah on 1 April 2018 and a request to exit Gaza and transfer to Ramallah was submitted to the Israeli military's Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT) that same day.However, COGAT did not respond and Adalah and Al Mezan sent an urgent letter on 4 April requesting authorization for their immediate passage from Gaza to Ramallah. On 5 April, Adalah was informed that COGAT refused the patients' requests.Adalah Attorney Sawsan Zaher wrote in the Supreme Court petition that "there is no substantive justification for rejecting the request of the two petitioners, who are both confined to the ICU in critical condition. The rejection of their request is an expression of indifference to the amputation of their legs."Continued Israeli refusal to allow Karnaz and Al-'Ajouri access to urgent medical care constitutes a violation of their right to life and health and is a violation of international humanitarian law, international human rights law, and Israeli constitutional law anchored in Basic Law: Human Dignity and Liberty.Hospitals in Gaza are struggling to deal with upwards of 1,990 wounded by Israeli snipers, live ammunition, tear gas from drones, among other kinds of excessive force. Doctors report they are running out of medicine and supplies to treat patients.On 1 April 2018, Adalah and Al Mezan sent an urgent letter to Israeli Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit, Chief Military Advocate General (MAG) Sharon Afek, and COGAT Commander Major General Yoav Mordechai, demanding that they:The letter was written in response to three cases of seriously wounded Gazans seeking medical care outside of Gaza who were denied entry by COGAT."The Israeli authorities must not use the guise of security to delay the medical transfer of persons who have been incapacitated due to serious injury and who do not pose a security threat. The injured must be given a chance to live. Without appropriate care available in Gaza, due largely to the illegal closure that maintains the movement restrictions on all patients, this is ultimately an issue of the fundamental right to life," said Issam Younis, Director of Al Mezan. "Incontrovertibly, all of Gaza's patients hold the basic human right of access to medical care."The human rights organizations' stressed in the letter that, in urgent circumstances, it is not feasible to operate according to Israel's standard procedures for patients,and that immediate exit from Gaza must be permitted in order for wounded to receive medical care.critically concerning the rights to life and health, and under international humanitarian law. Preventing the entry for medical care of individuals wounded by Israeli military gunfire is a violation of Israel's obligations as an occupying power - and a violation of both international and Israeli law," Attorney Zaher wrote in the letter. Read the Al Mezan-Adalah petition [Hebrew] </s> The Palestinian Ministry of Health in Gaza announced that 105 Palestinians have been seriously injured by Israeli occupation forces since March 30 during their participation in demonstrations of the March of Return.At a news conference in front of Al-Shefa Polyclinic, Ashraf Qedra, the ministry's media spokesman, said:Qedra explained thatThe ministry reported that 129 citizens have been injured in the head and neck.The ministry has also documented the injury of 176 people in upper body parts, and 1027 in the lower part of their bodies, according to Qedra.He continued: "The ministry has also reported that 51 people have been injured in the abdomen and chest, and 68 have been injured in the basin."Qedra explained that there have been aboutHe also mentioned that there have been about 12 injured medical staff members, and the ministry recorded that four emergency and civil defence vehicles have been directly targeted.In a speech during the news conference, Mounir Boursh, director general of pharmacy at the ministry, said that the continued arrival of large numbers of martyrs and injured people is "a great challenge for medical staff, as these cases drain huge quantities of medicines and medical supplies in different sections of the hospitals."He added: "The lack of continuous medical supply and the regular reception of martyrs and injured people in hospitals and health centres have led to an unprecedented scarcity of medicines."Boursh explained that there is a shortage of about 232 medicine types in the main list of the Ministry's stores, with a deficit of 45% in the medicines storage.The Ministry's stores suffer from a severe shortage of medical supplies, asBoursh called on the international humanitarian relief organisations to "support the health sector in Gaza so that it can carry on its services to the sick and injured people."Since March 30, Palestinians have been gathering near the border siege between Gaza and Israel as part of their participation in peaceful demonstrations of the March of Return demanding the return of Palestinian refugees to their towns and villages from which they were displaced in 1948. </s> GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip — Raed Jadallah belonged to an exclusive club — a small band of surfers who escaped the claustrophobia of blockaded Gaza by riding the waves of the Mediterranean. Now he’s immobile, a metal fixation device clamped to his left leg after an Israeli bullet fractured his femur in two places.

The 25-year-old plasterer from a seaside refugee camp said he doesn’t know when he’ll be able to walk again, let alone surf.

“Sea and surfing are everything to me,” he said on Wednesday, a day after being discharged from the hospital, his lower body covered by a blanket as he rested on a sofa at his home.

Jadallah is among 1,297 Palestinians shot and wounded by Israeli soldiers, including snipers, during the past two weeks of mass protests on the Gaza-Israel border, according to a computerized count by the Gaza Health Ministry. An additional 1,554 Gaza residents have been treated for tear gas inhalation or injuries by rubber-coated steel pellets.

An Associated Press look at Gaza’s health system found crowded hospital rooms lacking basic supplies, detailed electronic records of gunshot victims and dozens of people still suffering from serious wounds. Some acknowledged approaching Israel’s border fence during the protests and throwing stones, though they say they were otherwise unarmed. The surge of patients has severely taxed Gaza’s clinics and hospitals.

In addition, 33 Palestinians have been killed during this period, including 26 in border demonstrations. The latest casualties came on Thursday, when Israel said it bombed Hamas militant targets in the Gaza Strip, killing one Palestinian and wounding another.

The Israeli military has disputed the Gaza count of wounded, saying that at most dozens were struck by Israeli fire, but it has not offered supporting evidence.

Fares Akram is an Associated Press writer. </s> GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip (AP) — Raed Jadallah belonged to an exclusive club — a small band of surfers who escaped the claustrophobia of blockaded Gaza by riding the waves of the Mediterranean. Now he's immobile, a metal fixation device clamped to his left leg after an Israeli bullet fractured his femur in two places.

The 25-year-old plasterer from a seaside refugee camp said he doesn't know when he'll be able to walk again, let alone surf.

"Sea and surfing are everything to me," he said on Wednesday, a day after being discharged from the hospital, his lower body covered by a blanket as he rested on a sofa at his home.

Jadallah is among 1,297 Palestinians shot and wounded by Israeli soldiers, including snipers, during the past two weeks of mass protests on the Gaza-Israel border, according to a computerized count by 5he Gaza Health Ministry. An additional 1,554 Gaza residents have been treated for tear gas inhalation or injuries by rubber-coated steel pellets.

An AP look at Gaza's health system found crowded hospital rooms lacking basic supplies, detailed electronic records of gunshot victims and dozens of people still suffering from serious wounds. Some acknowledged approaching Israel's border fence during the protests and throwing stones, though they say they were otherwise unarmed. The surge of patients has severely taxed Gaza's clinics and hospitals.

In addition, 33 Palestinians have been killed during this period, including 26 in border demonstrations. The latest casualties came on Thursday, when Israel said it bombed Hamas militant targets in the Gaza Strip, killing one Palestinian and wounding another.

The Israeli military has disputed the Gaza count of wounded, saying that at most dozens were struck by Israeli fire, but it has not offered supporting evidence.

In a response Thursday, the military did not refer to its previous challenge of the figures of wounded Palestinians. It said that it "contends with terrorist organizations that are trying to turn the area between Israel and the Gaza Strip into a combat zone, above and below ground," near Israeli communities.

The casualty figures are at the heart of an intensifying debate over the military's open-fire orders, branded as unlawful by rights groups because soldiers are permitted to use potentially lethal force against unarmed Palestinians approaching the border fence.

Israel has accused Gaza's Hamas rulers of using the protests as a cover for carrying out attacks, including a possible mass breach of the border fence, and says it has a right to defend its sovereign border. It said Thursday that "the tools used by the Israeli military include warnings, riot control measures, and as a last resort, live fire in a precise and measured manner."

The protests have been organized by Hamas, but have also been fueled by widespread despair among the territory's 2 million people. Gaza has endured more than a decade of border closures, imposed by Israel and Egypt after the Islamic militant group seized the territory in 2007, a year after winning Palestinian parliament elections.

More bloodshed on the border is likely, with organizers calling for protests to continue until mid-May and Israel saying it won't change its rules of engagement.

Already, the recent surge of patients with gunshot wounds has severely taxed Gaza's clinics and hospitals.

Gaza's health system has been buckling under years of shortages of essential medicines and equipment caused by the blockade and Hamas' power struggle with the rival Palestinian Authority, doctors say. The West Bank-based Palestinian Authority accuses Hamas of selling medicines it sends, while Hamas accuses it of delaying medicine shipments.

The violence comes at a time when 40 percent of basic medicines are no longer in stock in Gaza hospitals, according to the World Health Organization. Equipment is also in short supply. At Gaza's main hospital, Shifa, half of 200 available fixators had been used up for bones broken by bullets, officials said.

Doctors carefully manage scarce resources, said Ayman Sahbani, the spokesman and emergency room director at the Shifa Hospital. Those with relatively simple soft-tissue gunshot wounds are treated and sent home the same day to make room for the most serious cases and new arrivals, he said.

Earlier this week, 64 patients with complications from gunshot wounds — mainly sustained in large protests on two consecutive Fridays — were still hospitalized, filling up orthopedic and surgery wards.

A majority suffered either open, compound or multiple fractures, or damage to blood vessels, said Sahbani, adding that there is concern about permanent disability in some cases.

"A noticeable number of the gunshot injuries comprise an exit point larger than the entry point," he added. The Israeli military did not respond to questions about the type of ammunition used by its snipers, but such wounds could be consistent with rifle fire.

The European Hospital in southern Gaza received 100 people with gunshot wounds last Friday, including 78 who remained hospitalized this week, said spokesman Yehiyeh Nawajha. Among the wounded are four women, he said.

Jadallah, the surfer, was among those shot last Friday. He said he had been throwing stones about 15 meters (yards) from the fence and was just leaving when he was shot.

He said he had been drawn to the protests by the organizers' slogan of a "Great March of Return" to destroyed Palestinian communities in what is now Israel. Hamas leaders have sent mixed signals about a possible border breach, which Israel says it will prevent at all costs.

Two-thirds of Gaza residents, including Jadallah, are descendants of Palestinian refugees who fled or were forced from their homes in the 1948 war over Israel's creation.

"We want to return to our land," Jadallah said.

At Shifa, 17-year-old Mohannad Hamouda was in agony from a gunshot wound to the back.

He was hit March 30 while running from tear gas and gunfire toward protesters who had approached the fence. With his parents at his bedside, he would not say whether he was throwing rocks or had gotten close to the frontier.

Hamouda had joined the protests over the objections of his parents. "I was bored, life is grinding here," he said.

Doctors said they were concerned about bullet fragments near his spine and feared surgery to remove them could cause permanent paralysis.

The Gaza Health Ministry runs a data collection system known as "e-hospital."

Detailed injury reports are entered from field hospitals, clinics and Gaza's main hospitals, with patients identified by name, ID number and type of injury. The system eventually detects and removes any duplicates that might occur if a patient is transferred from one hospital to another, said ministry official Hani al-Wehidi.

For example, 82 people were initially admitted to a north Gaza hospital, but four names were later removed to avoid double counting, he said.

He said the count is transparent and reliable. "Anyone can come and see our work," he said.

The U.N. children's agency, UNICEF, has sent more supplies to Gaza hospitals, including 27 essential drugs and medical supplies, including saline and glucose, critical for treating serious injuries.

An Israeli group, Physicians for Human Rights Israel, is sending eight Arab doctors from Israel to Gaza in anticipation of more injuries on Friday. It also will deliver insulin syringes collected by Israeli volunteers in a Facebook campaign.

The group called the Palestinian health care system "one of the major victims" of Israel's blockade.

Copyright 2018 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. </s> Gazans reported explosions so massive they seemed to turn night into day overnight Friday as Israeli aircraft began pounding the Gaza Strip since the evening in response to Hamas reportedly firing some 30 rockets toward the Israeli city of Sderot.

The Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) said it destroyed 80 Hamas targets in the operation, which had been somewhat expected since a week ago the began staging an unprecedented build-up of forces along the Israeli-Gaza border fence. Sporadic bombings continued through Saturday morning.

A terrorist group operating in Gaza which often acts independently of Hamas called Islamic Jihad implicitly claimed responsibility for the rocket fire, issuing a statement saying it "can no longer stand idle before the continued killing of innocents and bloodshed by the Israeli occupation".

In the immediate aftermath of the most intense part of the overnight bombings there were no reports of casualties on either side, however, the air raid follows one of the deadliest days in weeks as on Friday 5 Palestinians were reportedly shot by Israeli snipers near the border fence.

Throughout the night Friday Israeli media reported that multiple Israeli settlements in the south of the country had most of their residents staying in bomb shelters. But on the Gaza side it was chaos as frequent explosions rocked the strip and there were broad power outages.

And notably Palestinian authorities have blamed the IDF for a direct strike on an Indonesian-sponsored hospital in the northern Gaza strip — which appears to be confirmed in images and video uploaded to social media.

Damage can be seen inside the hospital with damaged ceilings and windows, but there were no reported casualties from what Israeli generally defended as a legitimate retaliatory strike — laying the blame on Hamas.

The IDF official Twitter account issued a statement, though not specifically naming the hospital incident: "Hamas deliberately positioned it next to schools, a hospital & a mosque. For Hamas, nothing is sacred."

The Israeli military further released footage of massive strike on the "Hamas Security Services Headquarters" while claiming "We warned the building's occupants to evacuate several times prior to the strike," according to the IDF spokesperson.

Though IDF statements have blamed Hamas for the Friday rocket launches, other statements also identified Islamic Jihad as the culprit, which often acts independently of Hamas. But Israel holds Hamas, which has been in control of the strip since 2007, responsible for all acts of aggression not matter who launched the attack.

A separate IDF statement further laid blame on Syria and Iran: "The Assad regime & Iranian Quds Force are behind the Islamic Jihad rocket attack," according to the IDF spokesperson.

In continuation of demonstrations which have gone largely unabated since last Spring's "great return march" protests, thousands of Palestinians gathered at five locations along the border fence, where they clashed with Israeli troops reportedly hurling firebombs and other incendiary devices. Israeli security forces responded with tear gas and live fire, and by the end of the day killed five Palestinian demonstrators. </s> ASHKELON, Israel — Loren Amar was watching TV with her father around midnight when an air-raid siren warning of incoming rocket fire blared through their working-class neighborhood in southern Israel.

Their old apartment had no in-house shelter, so they huddled in the stairway just before a rocket from Gaza slammed into the building next-door, sending shrapnel and debris flying into their bedrooms — and the 29-year-old Amar to the hospital with shock symptoms.

"The walls shook and the hallway filled with white smoke. It felt like an earthquake," she recalled Tuesday, a hospital identity tag still wrapped around her wrist. "The electricity went out and we didn't know whether to go up or down. I was hysterical."

It was the first lethal rocket attack from Gaza in years, and yet the only fatality was a Palestinian laborer from the West Bank. Two Israeli women were critically wounded.

In just 24 hours, Gaza militants fired more than 450 rockets and mortar shells into southern Israel, the most serious escalation since a 50-day war between Israel and Hamas in 2014. Israel responded with a wave of airstrikes it said targeted militants.

Residents angrily demanded the government restore calm for good, even if that means another war. Yet many people wearily expressed a sense of helplessness, as successive governments fail to come up with an effective policy to bring quiet to the Israel-Gaza frontier.

Hamas militants seized Gaza in 2007, triggering an Israeli-Egyptian border blockade that has choked the territory of 2 million people. Israel refuses to lift the blockade unless Hamas disarms, a demand the militants refuse. The volatile standoff has produced repeated rounds of violence, including indiscriminate Gaza rocket fire at Israeli border towns.

Word late Tuesday that Gaza militants agreed to a cease-fire was unlikely to sway people's minds that there is no long-term solution to the Gaza conundrum.

"I don't know how you stop this thing. Nothing helps. Whatever you do it always comes back," said Shlomit Hayat, 38.

She noted that the deadly violence came just days after Israel allowed Qatar to deliver $15 million in cash to Gaza to alleviate its economic hardship and after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he'd do everything he can to prevent an "unnecessary" war.

The latest fighting was triggered by a botched Israeli raid into Gaza on Sunday that set off clashes resulting in the deaths of seven Palestinian militants, including a local Hamas commander, and a senior Israeli military officer. Palestinian militant groups said the rocket barrage was a message to Israel that such incursions have a cost.

Gazans have similar fears when fighting breaks out. While Israel says it has confined its airstrikes to military targets, hundreds of Palestinian civilians have been killed in the three previous wars. For many in Gaza, the latest outbreak of fighting brought back fears that no place is truly safe in the densely populated territory.

On Tuesday, an Israeli airstrike destroyed a six-story residential building in the Rimal neighborhood of Gaza City that housed a kindergarten on its ground floor. Israel said the building was used by Hamas for military purposes — a charge denied by residents.

"All the people here are civilians, children and families," said Mamdouh al-Shurafa, a building resident. "When we are bombed in the middle of the city, where can we go?"

Israel and Hamas have fought three wars since the group seized Gaza from the internationally-backed Palestinian Authority in 2007. In the most recent war, over 2,200 Palestinians were killed, more than half of them civilians, and tens of thousands were left homeless. Seventy-three people, most of them soldiers, were killed on the Israeli side.

Israel's Iron Dome rocket-defense system and advanced warning networks have provided a large degree of protection from the rockets, which killed some 30 civilians in the decade prior to the 2014 war. Casualties have dropped considerably since then and a proliferation of rocket-proof safe rooms in newer buildings has allowed many Israelis to feel much safer in their own homes.

But this week's onslaught showed the system is not foolproof. The overnight rocket that slipped through penetrated the roof of a four-story apartment building, leaving the entire structure pockmarked, its windows blown out and the balcony shutters hanging limply.

Emergency forces evacuated a critically wounded woman to hospital. Only an hour later, a neighbor sifting through the rubble discovered the other wounded woman and the dead man. "I heard a murmur and then I saw a hand reach out," said Shlomi Lankry.

Relatives in the West Bank town of Halhoul identified the dead man as 48-year-old Mahmoud Abu Asbeh. A married father of six, he would typically sleep in Ashkelon during the week and return home for weekends.

"The rockets don't have eyes to see, they hit randomly, and this happened randomly, it was unintentional," said his father, Abdel Hamid Abu Asbeh. "Last night he told me the rockets are falling like rain. He said: 'May God protect us,' as if he expected something."

Those around the building were at a loss to describe the shock of a rocket landing in the heart of their neighborhood.

"It's like Russian Roulette," said Elie Mozes, 57. "It just comes out of nowhere."

Back at home after her stint in the hospital, Amar said she was at a loss to prescribe a solution. With glass strewn across her bed and holes blown through her hanging laundry, she said all she knew was that something had to be done.

"If anyone still lives in a fairytale that there will be peace here they need to snap out of it," she said. </s> (CNN) Days of heavy airstrikes have left Syria's rebel-held eastern Aleppo without a single hospital operating at full capacity, the Syrian American Medical Society told CNN on Saturday.

A number of major trauma hospitals were knocked out of service during recent attacks, according to the medical society.

However, activists working in the city said up to five other hospitals in eastern neighborhoods are still functioning.

"For the first time, eastern Aleppo is out of hospitals operating at full capacity," said Dr. Mazen Kewara, director of the medical society's Turkey office. "There are remaining medical facilities, but they are not operating at full capacity."

One of those hit was a children's hospital, forcing staff to evacuate babies to safety.

Hospitals are desperately needed as an estimated 250,000 people remain trapped while the Syrian regime bombards the city's rebel-held east, which faces dwindling reserves of food, fuel and medical supplies.

On Saturday, at least 38 civilians were killed by the extensive bombardment of eastern Aleppo, according to the Syrian Civil Defense, a volunteer group also known as the White Helmets. The barrage included 250 airstrikes and more than 2,000 artillery rounds.

Powerful video footage that the activist group Aleppo Media Center posted online showed what it said was the immediate aftermath of a bombing at eastern Aleppo's M2 hospital on Friday evening.

A man covered with dust and blood is carried past a body toward a stairwell filled with rubble and splintered wood. Another bandaged, dust-covered patient follows holding what looks like his own IV drip. Patients confined to bed are given face masks to cope with the dust.

A man who appears to be a doctor tells the cameraman, "Everyone in the hospital got injured, even already injured patients have been injured again, God help us."

Another man who seems to be a doctor says the hospital was bombarded, and there has been a direct hit on the intensive care unit, which he says was full of patients, "(especially) those who were transferred from hospitals that have been struck today morning and yesterday evening."

He says staff have had to transfer patients to other hospitals when they don't even know if they are operational, adding "the material damage is so huge in the hospital, unbelievable horror among patients and the medical staff, the ambulances outside can't rescue patients, people can't rescue each other, people are afraid of coming to the hospitals."

The humanitarian group Doctors Without Borders condemned the airstrikes, saying entire hospitals, electric generators, emergency rooms and wards have been destroyed in eastern Aleppo in more than 30 attacks since July.

"It is not only MSF that condemns indiscriminate attacks on civilians or civilian infrastructure, including hospitals, but also humanitarian law," said Teresa Sancristoval, emergency coordinator for the group also known as Médecins Sans Frontières.

"The message is simple, and I don´t know how to say it any louder: Stop bombing hospitals."

In Washington, national security adviser Susan Rice said in a statement: "The United States condemns in the strongest terms these horrific attacks against medical infrastructure and humanitarian aid workers. There is no excuse for these heinous actions."

An activist with the Aleppo Media Center told CNN on Saturday that up to five hospitals are now operating in the northern Syrian City.

The group said there were minor injuries to patients and staff at the M1 surgical hospital after artillery shelling and airstrikes that caused major fires Friday.

At a second facility, the al-Hakim children's hospital, the group told CNN that medical crew and children were evacuated with no injuries and that all babies survived the attacks.

The UK-based monitoring group the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said Saturday that some hospitals struck in recent airstrikes were out of service for a time but are now operating to some extent.

Syria's grinding five-year conflict has devastated the city, divided between government-controlled areas in the west and rebel positions in the east.

Moscow has sought to distance itself from the latest blitz, with Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov saying this week that the Russian air force had not carried out the Aleppo strikes, according to state-run news agency Tass.
Gazan hospitals declare a state of emergency owing to the thousands injured.