EL-ARISH: On a floating hospital near Gaza, doctors aren't just treating physical wounds -- they're providing emotional support too for children and adults haunted by months of terrifying war.
Child amputees and elderly people in wheelchairs are among the patients on the converted ship off Arish, northern Egypt, funded and operated by the United Arab Emirates.
About 2,400 people have been treated at the temporary facility, whose rows of tents below deck hold about 100 patients at a time, says deputy medical director Abdullah al Zahmi.
If that only scratches the surface of the needs of Gaza, it reflects the difficulty of providing aid for the sealed and bombarded territory.
More than 38,000 Palestinians, mostly civilians, have been killed in Gaza since the war broke out nearly nine months ago, according to the health ministry in the territory.
Nine-year-old Yazan is one of those traumatised by the war, after being brought to the hospital about 40 kilometres from Gaza without his parents and having a leg amputated because of his wounds. Al Zahmi jokes with the boy, asks how his parents are doing in Gaza and assures him he will soon have a prosthetic leg fitted.
In the main loading area of the 200-metre ship, ambulances are preparing to transfer patients to a plane to the UAE, where they will receive further treatment.
According to Al Zahmi, they are among those chosen as part of a UAE initiative to receive 1,000 wounded children and 1,000 cancer-sufferers from the Gaza Strip.
Other patients discharged from the hospital are taken to housing designated for them by Egyptian authorities.
For any patients who need further treatment but who are not being flown to the UAE, the Emirates Red Crescent will cover their costs at an Egyptian hospital.
Al Zahmi says the hospital staff have seen "many families who lost their children and people who lost their fathers and mothers, and therefore we understand the tragedies".
"We listen a lot and try to accept, but in the end, no matter how much we console them, the wound runs deep and remains in the memory," he adds. — AFP
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