After nearly 100 days of constant bombardment by Israel, the conditions in Gaza's few hospitals still in operation remain catastrophic.
"There is no morphine left," said American physician Dr. Seema Jilani in an audio message distributed by The aid organization International Rescue Committee (IRC) on Thursday.
Jilani had just returned from a two-week mission for the IRC at Al-Aqsa Hospital in the central Gaza Strip.
"We are treating patients on the brink of death that have agonal gasping, we are treating them with Midazolam which is an anti-anxiety-medication, which does not offer pain medication," said the doctor.
"Often, medicine can do no more for patients than relieve them of pain." But in Gaza, even that is no longer the case, dying people cannot be given any relief.
"There is no death in dignity when you are lying on the ground of an emergency room in Gaza, and you do not have morphine, you do not have movable oxygen left in the hospital."
According to Jilani, it is only thanks to "absolutely heroic nurses, volunteer physicians and doctors" that the Al-Aqsa hospital is still functioning at all. But even so, it will only be able to operate for a few more days, she added.
According to the latest figures from the Gazan health authority, 23,469 people have been killed and a further 59,604 injured as a result of the Israeli military operations since the start of its war on the Palestinian territory.
