DaysofPal- A Spanish emergency physician who volunteered in Gaza’s hospitals for four months has described harrowing scenes of children suffering amid the ongoing Israeli genocidal war on the enclave, saying the conditions he witnessed were “unbearable.”
Dr. Raúl Encinas Jarrio, an emergency and anesthesia specialist, recounted his experience in an article published by the Spanish daily El Pais.
He wrote that since arriving in Gaza in April, he lost count of the number of children who had been amputated, burned, or disfigured.
He said many children arrived at hospitals alone after their families were killed in airstrikes.
Among the cases he described was a six-year-old girl wearing a shirt printed with sheep, whose amputated and charred arm he had to move to treat her; despite his efforts, she later died.
“Many died before our eyes despite our desperate attempts to save them,” he said.
The doctor noted that hospitals routinely received dozens of civilians wounded by sniper fire, tank shells, mortars, and drone strikes, often while queuing for humanitarian aid.
“In a single morning, we treated more than 200 wounded, most of them women and children. Their numbers overwhelmed us, and many died waiting for help,” he recalled.
Encinas said his priority was always to save children, including a one-and-a-half-year-old girl who was shot in the chest while in her mother’s arms at a food distribution center.
He also described the devastation among his colleagues, many of whom lost relatives in the bombardments.
One nurse, Ahmed, known for his smile despite his suffering, was killed along with his three children when their tent was bombed.
He criticized the U.S. and Israeli-backed relief administration in Gaza, calling its name “disgustingly misleading.”
Encinas concluded that life in Gaza is unlivable, adding that “Others may decide whether this is genocide or not, but I traveled Gaza length and breadth, and I know one thing: life there is impossible.”
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