'We are losing them. There is no blood, no electricity'

AS APACHE helicopter rockets and tank shells smashed into surrounding buildings yesterday, doctors were working at emergency medical stations in Nablus’s mosques while Israel intensified its bombardment of the town’s old city and refugee camps.
The attacks, repeated across the West Bank in Jenin, Hebron and elsewhere, killed 14 in Nablus alone and injured dozens. Among those killed was Muhammad El Aloul, the Governor of Nablus.

Unable to reach her home five minutes away, Dr Zahra al-Wawe pleaded for help over a failing mobile telephone, saying that she could not save the lives of patients dying in front of her because she had neither equipment nor supplies.

“We are in a very critical situation in the old city. We have many, many serious injuries. Four people have died and we are in a critical situation. We are losing them. There is no blood, no electricity and no connection between us and the outside world. Many of them are civilians.”

One of the dead, she said, was an off-duty ambulanceman who had run into the street to rescue a mentally handicapped man, only to be shot by a sniper who was in the surrounding hills.