In Gaza, the constant buzz of bombardments and drones makes for a grim soundtrack for local health workers. From Al-Mawasi, the beach strip in Gaza where Israel has forced hundreds of thousands of people to flee, you can literally see the gun ships, described Javid Abdelmoneim, a physician and Doctors Without Borders (MSF) staff member who recently returned from a mission in the Strip. “You learn to differentiate the sound of the quadcopters from the Apaches and the gun ships, you can see the missiles and the jets, and you can hear the gunfire – all day.”
This experience is shared by health workers in Gaza and the rest of the population. Abdelmoneim and other international health volunteers, who supported healthcare provision in this part of occupied Palestine over the past months, found no space for nurses, doctors, and other healthcare personnel to at least partially recuperate from the trauma of operating under constant threat from Israeli attacks for almost ten months.
One of the few things that international teams can do in those circumstances is to share at least some of the workload. “How am I supposed to tell my colleague that I’ve had a bad day after seeing a child dying, which unfortunately happens in medicine sometimes, when I know he has seen 20 of them die over the past three days?” asked Ahmad Yousaf, a pediatrician, reflecting on a mission he recently completed with MedGlobal in Gaza.
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The pressures extend beyond the operating rooms and hallways of Gaza’s remaining hospitals. Volunteers like Abdelmoneim and Yousaf observed health workers living in fear of seeing family members among the mass casualties admitted throughout July. Considering that Gaza is a close-knit community, it often turned out their fear is founded: many of Abdelmoneim’s and Yousaf’s colleagues were in the wards when they heard their sisters, uncles, or children had been killed by Israeli forces.
The number of casualties from Israeli attacks on schools and refugee camps last month led to several waves of mass casualties beyond the capacities of health facilities. “We stood between children’s bodies on the floor in different stages of death and dying, and realized there is nothing we can do,” Yousaf described.
Children and women constituted an overwhelming part of those casualties. Hospital staff were unable to save many due to the lack of essential medical materials, water, and fuel in all hospitals, caused by ongoing impediments to the delivery of humanitarian materials by Israeli authorities. Due to fuel shortages, hospitals sometimes cannot pump water for days, adding to the extraordinary traumas already inflicted.
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Palestinian health workers have faced this situation non-stop since October 7. While the presence of international teams provides some support, their arrival and work in Gaza are further complicated by the occupying forces. Coordinating a medical mission to the Gaza Strip is far more challenging than any other mission to a conflict area, as participants of the press conference where the two doctors spoke agreed. Arrival and departure dates constantly change, Yousaf stated.
This uncertainty makes it less likely for health volunteers to join missions, as planning ahead is impossible. Considering that all medical missions enter in coordination with the United Nations and can only offer a few spots per organization, mission coordinators are forced to choose which experts to send — determining which services they can provide.
International organizations must decide, for example, whether to send an intensive care professional or someone who specializes in water and sanitation. Given the amount of trauma caused by bombings and shootings, and the spread of skin infections, diarrhea, and the re-emergence of polio, it seems like an impossible choice, Abdelmoneim noted. Yet, in practice, because of Israel’s impositions and persistent attacks, it’s a choice many are forced to make, resulting in even less care being available in Gaza.
People’s Health Dispatch is a fortnightly bulletin published by the People’s Health Movement and Peoples Dispatch. For more articles and to subscribe to People’s Health Dispatch, click here.
