Doctor Just Back from Gaza: The Health System Has Totally Collapsed Due to Israel's Genocidal War

this is democracy Now democracynow.org the Warren peace report I'm Amy Goodman with Juan Gonzalez in Gaza the healthc Care Systems barely functioning eight months into Israel's devastating assault in a statement Monday gaza's Health Ministry warned the few remaining hospitals still partially functioning could completely shut down if diesel generators needed for electricity are not replaced or maintained soon the ministry said it expected a number of generators at hospitals to fail because Israel's preventing the entry of necessary very spare parts Health Facilities that Supply things like oxygen and Refrigeration for medicine are facing a complete shutdown which the health Ministry said in a statement quote means certain death for the sick and injured and the complete end of Health Services end quote in addition to severe shortages of electricity medical supplies and equipment as a result of the Israeli blockade gaza's hospitals have been hit by Israeli air strikes repeatedly over the last eight months World Health Organization said this week since October 7th there have been more than 460 Israeli attacks on gaza's Health Care System affecting over 100 Health Facilities more than 37,000 Palestinians have been killed in Israel's war on Gaza with thousands more missing under the rubble and presumed dead a staggering 85,000 people have been wounded for more we're joined by Dr James Smith emergency medical doctor just back from Gaza spent nearly two months there treating patients at trauma stabilization points you masasi and Rafa also worked in the emergency rooms of alaka hospital and der balah and ala Hospital in newat he left Gaza Friday he joins us today um we welcome you to democracy now if you can start off Dr Smith by talking about the situation that you're hearing from the doctors even in the few days since you have left particularly particularly after the attack onat um which was considered the wor first um killing in 6 months uh over 270 Palestinians killed this weekend so many of them were brought to um so many others who were injured um it's believe something like 700 brought to the hospital where you work to alaxa thanks Amy the the situation in Gaza and certainly um in the middle area of Gaza where I was working uh until the 5th of of June um remains catastrophic um the the the intensity of violence that Israel has meted out against the Palestinian people uh the the the barbarity of it all um continues to you know you feel that you've seen the absolute worst and the very next day it gets worse again um the the the massacre in nerat on Saturday was certainly the worst of the violence uh that that those neighborhoods have seen since the start of the genocide back in uh the beginning of October 274 Dead uh killed rather as you've mentioned uh approximately 700 injured I would expect that in the coming days we will hear of more people who have who have died who have succumbed to injuries that were sustained uh as a result of Israeli air strikes and the Israeli uh ground incursion in that area uh as a result of the the collapsed Health Care system as you mentioned there are no fully functional hospitals any longer in Gaza and no Health Facilities that are able to absorb the sheer uh scale of of need now and and Dr Smith you your your second trip now to Gaza this one lasted nearly two months could you talk about how conditions changed over that period of time has there been any Improvement in the arrival of of supplies to these hospitals or the the food situation uh give us a sense of what you saw so to be absolutely clear the situation deteriorates day on day uh this is the sort of fallacy of of humanitarian access or the veneer of a of a humanitarian system um there is no improvement in any conditions in Gaza this over fixation on the number of trucks that are entering into Gaza or rather the number of trucks that uh the Israeli state has permitted to enter into Gaza is a distraction from the the the violence and its many manifestations uh we have almost the entire population of the Gaza Strip now forcibly displaced uh the majority of those people no longer have homes to return to entire cities and I have seen them myself canun Gaza City other neighborhoods parts of Rafa now that have been completely destroyed uh homes schools clinics that have been vaporized to dust concrete and sand um there has been absolutely no improvement in any of the basic conditions that are required to sustain human life in Gaza at the present time and how how are you able to uh even administer especially for those who are who require emergency surgery of the of the Wounded who come in uh talk to us about your direct experience with these kinds of uh these kind this kind of medical support perhaps if I speak to you about my my last day in Gaza at at Alexa Hospital on the 5th of June so I was working in the emergency room that day uh we had several uh electricity blackouts during that time we were treating patients on the floor of the emergency room by torch light uh we had one young boy who came into the ER uh with an open femoral fracture bleeding profusely from his uh left upper leg very very severe injury um he had been injured as a result of an Israeli air strike um the orthopedic surgeon a junior doctor very competent but nevertheless still a junior doctor came down to treat him um and without any anesthesia because there wasn't any had to pull and splint his leg in order to stabilize him and to to sustain his life long enough to get him into the O um the hospital now has five ORS but you have a surgical team or several surgical teams that are working 24/7 there is no rest for the surgeons in these hospitals and the scrub nurses working alongside them um phenomenally difficult conditions we have an emergency team that are frankly the most dedicated doctors nurses uh and Allied health professionals that I have ever had the privilege of working with but the conditions in which they are working were unsustainable eight months ago now it it is it is just a testament to the Shia determination of the Palestinian people uh and the desire of Palestinian healthcare workers to administer care to the Palestinian people that these hospitals are able to function in any way whatsoever SMI you've been talking about um the effects of the bombing of people who survive and being brought into the hospital what about the issue of hunger um uh UNICEF just came out with a report saying nine out of 10 children in the Gaza Strip are experiencing severe food shortages if you can talk about what that means and that how that affects them long term if they survive and also the lack of clean water and drinking sewage water uh leading to diseases like for example chalera So Hunger is rif across the Gaza Strip there is uh a a fixation of sorts among epidemiologists and and uh uh distant uh Public Health experts in the the the terms of malnutrition but but hunger is rif um as I've mentioned already uh Israel maintains complete control over what and who enters into and out of Gaza they are able to manufacture the conditions of life or rather of death in Gaza um and they have complete control over how much food Aid or how much food enters into Gaza in my final weeks in Gaza I was struck that um commercial trucks from Israel were given precedents of access over the humanitarian Aid trucks so in the south of Gaza we saw uh several markets in which there were uh several fresh fruit and and and fresh vegetable Commodities um bearing the slogans of Israeli uh companies um but very limited food Aid that was able to enter into Gaza on several occasions the big un agencies said that they would have to stop food Aid distributions it was incredible to me that the very state that was uh uh starving people and inflicting such violence upon them was then bringing in food uh that of course people can't afford to buy anymore uh and that people those who could were were having to pay for for food from uh as I say the very States the very economy that is that is trying to strangle the Palestinian people um to your other point about access to clean water um sanitary conditions the smell of of of sewage was was Rife throughout uh every camp that I passed through in Gaza from Rafa to can Yunis and into Gaza City uh several instances of sewage overflowing on onto the street in all of the locations I worked across Gaza um and all of the hospitals I visited including in the north of Gaza and Gaza City we saw patients who were suffering um from very severe bouts of um acute watery diarrhea um major outbreak of hepatitis A which is spread as a result of poor sanitary conditions and of course all of those things together hunger lack of access to nutritious food uh the impact of a lack of clean uh drinkable water on uh physical health is is catastrophic it will certainly have a major impact on all those people who are suffering as a result of other health or trauma related problems as well one we're not able to hear you uh uh uh Dr Smith can you hear me yes we can yeah uh yes I can hear you you you mentioned that you traveled all around uh the different uh parts of Gaza did you have any interactions at all with the isra Israeli Defense Forces did they enter into the hospitals or did you have any uh interactions with them at checkpoints we had to pass via the uh checkpoints that the Israelis have constructed that have now severed across uh the North and South of Gaza from the East to the West um we interacted with uh the Israeli occupation forces during uh those movements uh they were incredibly frightening experiences during one of those Convoy movements uh one of the Palestinian drivers that was working for a UN agency was uh detained stripped naked and taken away by the Israeli occupation forces um very very frightening very unpleasant um and yes I I I saw and have heard stories of um incredibly horrific uh encounters between uh the Israeli Ground Forces at those checkpoints and the Palestinian people um some of whom are are still trying to move from north to south and finally um doctors who have died uh we interviewed Dr hamam Alo months ago uh who was one I asked him why he didn't leave as he talked about the intense bombing he said he didn't get his medical degree to Desert his patients he went home to um help his family uh and his house was bombed um you then have Dr Adnan Alber head of Orthopedics at alifa hospital in Gaza City who was arrested and died in an Israeli prison as we wrap up Dr Smith as you leave Gaza after two months what about the doctors being imprisoned doctors and nurses and staff being killed these are all the most egregious and horrific war crimes and as I've mentioned it was phenomenal to see the determination of my Palestinian colleagues who will not uh abandon the Palestinian people or Palestine at this most horrific moment in their history uh it it's it's tragic Beyond tragic that so many pal pal inian healthcare workers that so many Palestinians have been killed um during the course of this ongoing genocide and it's even more horrific that that this violence is allowed to continue Dr James Smith we thank you for being with us uh in 20 seconds uh the UN Security Council has just passed a resolution put forward by the US for ceasefire Hamas has just accepted um us said Israel was accepting though Netanyahu has said other things about that your message to the world I think I said this back in January when I spoke to you Amy the violence must end and once the violence has ended the real work of the pursuit of peace and justice for the Palestinian people must continue

Channel: Democracy Now!

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Keywords: Democracy Now, Amy Goodman, News, Politics, democracynow, Independent Media, Breaking News, World News

Id: Z2f38ZxhYLg

Length: 14min 22sec (862 seconds)

Published: Tue Jun 11 2024