Israel has launched a new military offensive in Gaza and intensified rocket attacks on Palestinian territory. According to Israeli media, the Netanyahu government is preparing for a new large-scale ground invasion.
According to local medical authorities, which are controlled by the terrorist organization Hamas, the rocket attacks also affected the European Hospital in Khan Yunis, killing at least 28 people and injuring over 50. The World Health Organization has sounded the alarm that the last oncology clinic in Gaza has been suspended.
During the rocket attacks, Milena Angelova-Chi, a Bulgarian citizen and long-time anesthesiologist-resuscitator in the UK, was also in the intensive care unit of the hospital with a patient. The explosion was just meters from the intensive care unit and was so strong that the medical teams fell to the ground and everyone was "in shock", the Bulgarian doctor and her colleague told Sky News. DW managed to contact and talk to Angelova-Chi.
Being a doctor in wartime
The doctor arrived in Gaza just a week before the attacks on the hospital with the British charity Ideals, which provides humanitarian aid in regions affected by wars and natural disasters.
The European Hospital was bombed by the Israeli army, which claims that there was a Hamas command center under it. When asked if there was information about Hamas operations in the hospital where she worked, Dr. Angelova-Chi replied that she did not know. "Until this is confirmed by an independent international group of scientists, architects, and forensic experts, I cannot accept it", she points out.
After the medical facility stopped working due to the serious damage caused by the rockets, Dr. Angelova-Chi was transferred to a Palestinian Red Crescent hospital, where she continues to treat patients.
"Yesterday I managed to give anesthesia to a woman who was 28 weeks pregnant, with numerous wounds on her abdomen and massive blood loss - a long and complicated operation. She survived before going to intensive care. The baby was alive during the operation, after that I don't know what happened. I hope he survived", says the anesthesiologist.
"People are skin and bones"
This is just one of the many critically ill cases that the Bulgarian treats. "All my patients are injured by explosives. That's all I see. And they're hungry, my colleagues and my patients. People are skin and bones," she says.
She says her team has food supplies from the UK, but after more than two months of an aid blockade, the situation with food and access to medical supplies is critical. Israel has blocked humanitarian aid deliveries to the Gaza Strip since March 2. NGOs are warning of mass starvation, and Israel accuses UN agencies - such as the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) - of being infiltrated by the Islamist group Hamas.
A private American foundation was supposed to start distributing aid at the end of May. "We're looking at Gaza and we're going to take care of it," Donald Trump told reporters in Abu Dhabi. The UN, however, rejected the plan. "This is a cynical maneuver, a deliberate distraction. A fig leaf for further violence and displacement", said Tom Fletcher, head of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.
Fletcher addressed the UN Security Council and urged it to "act now to prevent genocide". He pointed out that humanitarian aid has not entered Gaza for more than 76 days.
"People are hungry. Every day", UNICEF spokeswoman Rosalia Bohlen told DW. "We have reached a point where there is almost nothing left to eat."
"They want food, everyone just wants food. They want food and for the war to end", says Angelova-Chi. And she adds: "There are only ruins around. People are waiting for death.
"This is a Biblical tragedy."
Milena Angelova-Chi says that her concerns have grown since she was in a Palestine Red Crescent hospital: "There will be no stopping if there is someone who is an important target," the doctor says. "There are bombings all the time and the truth is that hospitals are being bombed."
Despite the difficult situation, Dr. Angelova-Chi is impressed by the dedication of her colleagues on the ground. "There are no conditions here. But my colleagues are incredible - ambulance drivers are always exposing themselves to death because the ambulances are bombed. And my colleagues are doing something with nothing. Their selflessness is immense."
The doctor has no idea how many people are currently in the hospital she is in, as all other medical facilities are full of very serious cases. "There is a lot of sadness, there is a lot of death", she says.
She shares that a dead man was brought to the hospital, as his wife was operated on in the same place. "That's why they brought his body and she saw it. This is a Biblical tragedy that is unfolding right now".
One of the most serious cases that Dr. Angelova-Chi is working on is that of a nine-year-old boy with a severe brain injury. "He is in a coma, a deep coma. I don't believe he will recover, but this is a young brain, hopefully he will improve. I spoke to the boy's grandfather. There was no trace of anger in him. He just thanked me, thanked God. My heart is breaking".
She is determined to stay
Calls have appeared on social networks for Dr. Angelova-Chi to be evacuated, but she is categorical that she has no such intention. "I have no intention of evacuating. I am here to stay", she says.
"I do not want to die and I am not a hero. I do not want this to be perceived as heroism. This is a normal human act - in a Christian way, it is our duty to help our neighbor in need," the anesthesiologist is convinced. "The people who live here have been living this way for years. They are the real heroes, enduring the unimaginable with stoicism," she said.
Israeli strikes on Gaza have killed more than 300 people since Thursday, Hamas-controlled health authorities say. This is one of the most catastrophic periods since the start of the war, which began after a Hamas terrorist attack on October 7, 2023.
The intensified bombing and the complete blockade of humanitarian aid are further raising fears of mass starvation and death. EU Council President Antonio Costa said on Saturday: "I am shocked by the news from Gaza: starving civilians, hospitals hit again by strikes. The violence must stop!" Costa wrote. "The Israeli government must immediately lift the blockade and ensure safe, rapid and unhindered access to humanitarian aid," he insists.
Author: Maria Cheresheva