Video by Egypt revolutionary media group shows scenes of distress at Gaza City's main hospital

A video by Mosireen (website), the independent media and citizen journalism collective born during the Egyptian revolution, shows the disturbing and horrifying scenes in Gaza City’s main hospital amid the ongoing Israeli bombardment of the Gaza Strip.

The video, titled “A Night in Gaza Under the Bombs,” was shot on 18 November, the fifth day of the Israeli attack during the visit by 500 Egyptians in solidarity with the Palestinian people of Gaza, who spent the night at al-Shifa hospital.

The video contains some disturbing scenes, including severely injured and dead children, and distressed family members. Medics speak about their struggle to cope with the large flow of casualties amid shortages of medical supplies that were already scarce before the Israeli attack began on 15 November.

At 2:15, the power can be seen going off in the hospital, an example of the chronic electricity problems in Gaza.

A medic describes an attack near the hospital which caused damage to the building.

At 3:00, a father describes his heavily bandaged and unconscious young son being blown out of his mother’s lap by an explosion and flying up toward the ceiling. The father described running with his son amid continuous bombing but “thank God we found an ambulance.”

At about 8 minutes, a mother describes how her six-year-old son, lying in the bed next to her, had been playing, when “all of a sudden we saw his blood.” She said, “in the last war, his brother was killed.”

Toward the end, the video features scenes of destruction in Gaza shot from a moving vehicle against audio recordings of bombing and drones recorded by Rana Baker.

At the end, captions note, “Up to the time of the video’s production, 137 Palestinians had been killed in the ongoing attacks, including 34 children, and 1,100 people injured, including 310 children.”

“Gaza will be victorious, Palestine will be victorious, Greetings to Palestine from the heart of the Egyptian revolution,” the message at the end of the video states.

“Constant fear”

Today is the 8th day of the Israeli bombardment. In a 20 November update on the situation, UNRWA, the UN agency for Palestine refugees stated:

The population lives in constant fear; there is no safe space remaining in Gaza, as the targeting of residential buildings by the IAF continues. Intensive tank fire in the border areas, creating panic among the population, caused increased civilian displacement.

Over 50 per cent of the population in Gaza is below 18 years of age. These are children who have been constantly exposed to violence. The additional severe military escalation that is currently ongoing will only add to their already-existing psychological trauma.