Gaza's Doctors Speak: We Need an Avalanche of Solidarity
by Matthew Philips and Dae-Han Song
Funded and armed by the United States, the Israeli bombardment is destroying Gaza's medical system. Between Oct. 7 and Nov. 16, the attacks have killed over 200 medical workers and damaged 36 health facilities including 22 hospitals. Most of this destruction is in the north: only 4 small hospitals (out of the 24 before the attacks) are operating in the north. As the number of hospital beds has declined from the pre-siege 3,500 to the current 1,400 beds, hospitals in the south are overcrowded, understaffed, and short-supplied to handle the mounting casualties. 75% (1.7 million people) of Gaza’s population are internally displaced. Of the more than 14,000 people killed so far, 67% are women or children.
On Nov. 21st, No Cold War held a webinar on the “Urgent Medical Crisis in Gaza” featuring Dr. Mustafa Barghouti (a member of the Palestinian National Council) calling in from the West Bank and Dr. Aed Yaghi (director of Palestinian Medical Relief Society in Gaza) calling in from Gaza. They were accompanied by doctors that had worked in Gaza: Dr. Hanne Bosselaers (Medicine for the People) in 2013 and Dr. Mads Gilbert who had worked multiple times and was also waiting in Egypt to go into Gaza again; and those waging solidarity struggles with Palestine: Dr. Rupa Marya (Do No Harm Coalition in the USA) and, the moderator, Wim De Ceukelaire (People’s Health Movement). Their words offered not only a glimpse into the death and destruction inflicted by Israel upon people in Gaza but also offered a glimpse into the heroism of the medical workers that risk their lives to save and care for their patients and the "avalanche of solidarity" needed today.
Killed At Any Minute
Calling in from Gaza, Dr. Aed Yaghi started by saying how “we don't know if we will be alive after a few minutes or not.” He explained that no place in Gaza, including UN shelters, is safe. Dr. Yaghi estimates that about “35,000 are injured…with 6 to 8,000 Palestinians still under the rubble.” The situation is worsened not only by the lack of medical supplies, including medicine, pain relievers for surgeries, and ambulances—only “6-7 ambulances are operating between Gaza city and the northern area” – but also the shortages of food, water, and even “milk for babies.” As Dr. Hanne Bosselaers explains, even when she was working there in 2013, “6 years after the siege on Gaza…they already had the lack of medicine.” She explained how “the killing of health care workers was there since the beginning” and that rather than collateral damage it is “a real strategy to cut people from needed health care.” In fact, Gaza has been under Israel’s blockade since 2007, which, currently, not only prevents the 2.2 million people living in Gaza from fleeing the bombing or sustaining themselves, it also prevents doctors from adequately treating the tens of thousands that have been wounded or are dying.
Calling in from the West Bank, Dr. Mustafa Barghouti elaborated on Dr. Yaghi’s points. He explained how of the 55,000 pregnant women in Gaza, 5,500 of them will be giving birth, with some of them having given birth in the streets. Furthermore, he explained the possibility of infections and epidemics such as diarrhea due to a lack of clean water and overcrowding. He predicted that “we are absolutely sure there will be an outbreak of measles because all the vaccination programs have stopped for more than 46 days.” Dr. Barghouti’s descriptions point to a collapsing medical system: many of the “1,200 people who are in need for kidney dialysis” have or will die due to shortage of fuel and that “cancer [patients] have already died and will die because there is no sufficient no treatment whatsoever.” Despite the great need, patients are not allowed by Israel to “leave Gaza and come to the West Bank or Jerusalem.
Israel’s Three War Crimes
Dr. Mustafa Barghouti explains how Israel is committing three war crimes: genocide, ethnic cleansing, and collective punishment. With regard to the first, he explains how if one considers the “people missing under the rubble” we are talking about possibly as high as 19,000 people killed with perhaps twice that amount of seriously wounded. He reiterates the need for an “immediate ceasefire” and “immediate pressure on all the governments to initiate a ceasefire.” According to Dr. Barghouti, Israel’s “first aim is to totally destroy the infrastructure in Gaza City and the North to make it impossible to live there.” This would result in the “complete and total ethnic cleansing of the north and center of Gaza” which are both essential for the survival of the Gaza Strip. Finally, collective punishment is carried out through a punishing and brutal blockade. Dr. Barghouti explains how Gaza, where 80% of the population survives on humanitarian aid, should have received 26,000 trucks of aid, but has had to survive on 1,100. And most importantly, “they’re not allowing fuel to go and flow into Gaza.”
Yet, despite hospitals being bombed Dr. Rupa Marya, from the United States, criticizes US medical institutions for not having “stepped up to say ‘Stop bombing hospitals!’ even though this is a flagrant violation of international law against the Geneva Conventions that specifically protects our spaces of our healing work.”
An Avalanche of Solidarity
Throughout the call, the speakers from the West Bank, Gaza, and those who have worked there spoke about the medical colleagues they lost. During the call, Dr. Mads Gilbert, from Norway, received a text message notifying him that a colleague had just been killed in the latest hospital attack. It’s clear from their stories that medical workers are risking their lives every minute, every day in order to save those wounded or dying. A doctor from Gaza, who had participated via a voice recording, described doctors dealing with the lack of fuel by using battery powered lights to conduct surgeries. In response, and drawing upon his multiple years working at Gaza, Dr. Gilbert spoke about how medical workers have always displayed strength, composure, and resourcefulness in each of the past sieges. He observes how in contrast to health care in capitalist systems “the national struggle in Palestine is the glue that keeps them together because they’re in this for a greater cause.”
Ultimately, the ceasefire is necessary, but that is just the beginning. As Dr. Gilbert states, "The root causes of all that we see is the occupation of Palestine…the colonial apartheid policies of Israel need to be addressed." Stopping at simply demanding a ceasefire would make us “complicit in only mopping the blood up from the floor and patching the wounds.”
As Dr. Gilbert explains: achieving this involves “an avalanche of solidarity to meet the avalanche of human suffering in Gaza;” this avalanche of solidarity needs to be made concrete through action and is “needed very fast because as the hours pass by more and more people will die from preventable causes.”