Al-Suwayda Hospital Overflows with Dead
Al-Suwayda's last hospital is overwhelmed with hundreds of bodies after a week of violence. Medics appeal for aid amid critical shortages of staff, water, and medicine, calling the facility a "mass grave."
By Kamaran Aziz
ERBIL (Kurdistan24) — The last functioning hospital in the Syrian city of al-Suwayda is overwhelmed with hundreds of bodies, with one medical staff member calling the facility a "mass grave" as the remaining personnel issue a desperate appeal for aid following nearly a week of devastating violence.
The humanitarian crisis has engulfed the Druze-majority city, with the hospital's morgue overflowing and corpses lining the street outside. Dr. Omar Obeid, head of the al-Suwayda physicians' order, reported the facility has received "more than 400 bodies since Monday morning," among them women, children, and the elderly.
The violence, which the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reports has killed at least 638 people since Sunday, erupted between Druze fighters and local Bedouin tribes before Syrian government forces intervened on Tuesday. Rights organizations and witnesses have since accused government forces, who withdrew on Thursday, of committing "grave abuses."
Inside the hospital, an AFP correspondent described corridors filled with the stench of decomposing bodies and a handful of overwhelmed medical personnel struggling to treat a continuous stream of wounded patients.
"It's not a hospital anymore, it's a mass grave," said a medical staff member named Rouba. "There are only nine doctors and medical staff left, and they are working nonstop."
Conditions have deteriorated completely, with no water or electricity and dwindling medical supplies. "The situation is very bad," Rouba said, adding that rescue efforts are impossible. "The bodies are on the streets and no one can go out to get them… There are women, children, people whose identities are unknown, cut-off arms or legs."
The violence has also directly targeted the medical community. Dr. Obeid told AFP that three of his colleagues were killed, including a surgeon, Talaat Amer, who was shot in the head while in his surgical gown at the hospital.
On Friday, the United Nations urged an end to the bloodshed and called for "independent, prompt and transparent investigations into all violations."
