Opinion

Gaza hospitals are already overwhelmed. They must not become targets

Israel’s declaration of war must not lead to collective punishment of the people of Gaza, writes the Médecins Sans Frontières head of mission in Palestine

A mother and father rush their injured daughter into Al-Shifa Hospital after an Israeli air strike on Gaza City on Monday night: MSF staff are very concerned to see medical facilities have not been spared by Israel. Photograph: Samar Abu Elouf/New York Times
A mother and father rush their injured daughter into Al-Shifa Hospital after an Israeli air strike on Gaza City on Monday night: MSF staff are very concerned to see medical facilities have not been spared by Israel. Photograph: Samar Abu Elouf/New York Times
Léo Cans
Thu Oct 12 2023 - 05:15

The situation in Gaza is catastrophic; the hospitals are overwhelmed. The number of wounded is extremely high – there is a constant influx into all the hospitals in the Gaza Strip. The medical teams are exhausted, working around the clock to treat the wounded.

The bombardments are very intense. Entire buildings are being destroyed, including one last night right next to the Médecins Sans Frontières/Doctors Without Borders (MSF) office. People might receive a text message in the middle of the night telling them to evacuate their homes, as happened to some of our team members in Gaza. You have to wake up your children in the middle of the night and leave your house, without taking any of your belongings, to get to safety. But very often people don’t know where to go; they find themselves outside in the middle of the night, under a hail of bombs. Where can they find safety?

The latest estimates put the number of displaced people at about 200,000, mainly people who have received those SMS messages and whose homes have been destroyed. They need everything: water, a place to shower, food, a mattress to sleep on. These are varied but basic needs.

An air strike destroyed an ambulance carrying the wounded, right in front of the hospital where we work

Now the Israeli government has decided to completely cut off water and electricity supplies, and the phone network has been badly damaged. This morning, we were unable to reach our teams in Gaza by phone. Inevitably, this all makes it extremely difficult to co-ordinate rescue operations and access the injured.

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In Gaza today, people are terrified. I speak very regularly with our colleagues there. They are very tough people because unfortunately they have lived through a lot of wars, but the current situation is causing them extreme anxiety. They say that this time it’s different: they don’t see a way out and they wonder how it’s all going to end. They are in terrible mental distress. There aren’t words to describe what people are going through.

We at MSF are very concerned to see that medical facilities have not been spared. One of the hospitals we support was hit by an air strike and damaged. Another air strike destroyed an ambulance carrying the wounded, right in front of the hospital where we work. The MSF team, who were operating on a patient, had to leave the hospital in a hurry. We repeat: medical facilities must be respected. This is not something that should have to be negotiated.

MSF is donating essential medicines and medical equipment to the main hospitals in the Gaza Strip. We have also sent surgical teams to two hospitals to help treat the wounded. In the coming days, there will also be a lot of post-operative surgery to be carried out, as most of the wounded we receive will need several surgical interventions before they can be saved. Yesterday we also set up a clinic in downtown Gaza City for people with other injuries, which we will try to keep open if conditions allow.

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Yesterday morning, we received a 13-year-old boy whose body was almost completely burned after a bomb fell right next to his house, starting a fire. These are very complicated cases to treat in such conditions and, when children are involved, it’s very hard to bear.

The intensity of the violence and bombardments is shocking, as is the death toll. The declaration of war must not, under any circumstances, lead to collective punishment of the population of Gaza. Cutting off water, electricity and fuel supplies is unacceptable, as it punishes the entire population and deprives them of their basic needs.

Léo Cans is head of mission for Médecins Sans Frontières/Doctors Without Borders (MSF) in Palestine