In its annual report, the Gaza European Hospital has revealed that 20% of Palestinians who were shot by the Israeli army, during the Great Return March processions of the Gaza Strip, in 2018, were children, and more than half of them were shot with live fire.
The report stated that 20% of the wounded were shot by Israeli soldiers in the head, neck or chest, leading to the death of 75 children, and added that 92% of the medical procedures on wounded children were bone and vascular surgeries.
It also stated that the medical teams in Gaza managed to save many of the wounded from undergoing amputations in their lower limbs, as only 24 amputations were performed.
Raed Abdul-Razeq, the head of the Patients’ Services Department at the hospital, stated that surgeons have performed 1,682 surgeries on wounded Palestinians, adding that 58% of the surgeries were orthopedic, 34% were vascular, while the rest were neurological, or in the chest, nose, ears and eyes.
He added that most of the injured children underwent at least two surgeries, due to the seriousness of their wounds.
According to the report, soldiers shot 1,169 Palestinians, including 43 women, while 59 of the wounded were placed in intensive care units, and 567 others were placed in surgery wards.
609 of the wounded Palestinians, including 242 children, were shot with live rounds, while the rest were either injured after being directly shot with Gaza bombs, or by shrapnel, in addition to those who suffered the severe effects of teargas inhalation.
