Israel-Hamas war: Israeli doctor recounts experience

Casualties mount in Israel, Gaza

The death toll of the war between Israel and Hamas has risen to nearly 1,600 on both sides, with many more injured. FOX 5 NY’s Antwan Lewis spoke with a doctor who has been on the front lines of the conflict about his experience.

ISRAEL – Dr. Ron Lobel is the Head of Emergency Services at Barzilai Medical Center in Ashkelon, an Israeli city just 8 miles north of Gaza. 

Over the weekend, Lobel and the hospital’s staff were called into action to treat the unthinkable, after an incursion into Israel by Hamas fighters left hundreds of people dead.

“Usually a mass casualty event, a major mass casualty event in our hospital is 50 injured,” Dr. Lobel said. “We have never dealt with such numbers. Many, many of them that came in were in critical situation.”

According to Lobel, the hospital has treated more than 400 people since Saturday’s attack, many of whom were unable to be saved. 

“People were injured by the rocket attacks, by shrapnel or by direct hits of the of the rockets. Houses collapsed in Ashkelon city and in the cities around. And many, many others were shot directly by the Hamas people that entered the settlements,” Dr. Lobel said.

The hospital itself has not escaped the conflict unscathed either, with staff saying that rockets have destroyed parts of the hospital’s infrastructure.

The fighting also hit close to home for Lobel, with more than a dozen of his neighbors losing their lives.

“17 of my friends and neighbors were murdered, were shot directly by the Hamas people, all of them civilians. All of them. Some of them were children. Others were adults, some old people,” Dr. Lobel said.

According to Dr. Lobel, his hospital is managing as best it can, knowing that this new phase of the conflict likely will not end without much more bloodshed. 

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