American doctors: Israeli occupation has deliberately destroyed health sector in Gaza
GAZA, Feb. 01 (YPA) – American doctors who served in hospitals and different areas in the Gaza Strip confirmed that the extent of the destruction caused by the Israeli occupation in the Strip is unprecedented in other conflict areas.
This came during their talk to journalists at the United Nations headquarters on Thursday, following their meeting with UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres.
Dr. Thaer Ahmed, a Palestinian physician currently working in Chicago, explained that he served at Nasser Hospital in southern Gaza in January 2024. He said that targeting health workers has become a routine for the occupation.
He added that Hussam Abu Safia, the director of Kamal Adwan Hospital and a prisoner of the occupation, experienced great suffering, as he lost everything and buried his son with his own hands, but despite that, he remained committed to his humanitarian duty.
The American doctor called for the immediate release of Dr. Abu Safiya from the occupation prisons. He warned that the absence of Israeli tanks or forces from Gaza does not mean that deaths will stop, indicating that the continued shortage of medical supplies will lead to the death of more people.
Dr. Thaer also explained that the ceasefire agreement, which included a plan to establish a medical evacuation mechanism, has not been implemented yet, which further exacerbates the crisis.
Aisha Khan, a doctor at Stanford University Hospital in the United States, said that she has served in about 30 places around the world, but she has never seen anything like what she saw in Gaza.
Dr. Khan explained that children between the ages of 5 and 6 arrived at the hospital with gunshot wounds or shrapnel wounds.
She warned of the risk of children dying from hunger even without bombs falling on Gaza, stressing the urgent need to evacuate 2,500 children to avoid their death within a few weeks, in the absence of a system to implement the evacuation.
In turn, Dr. Firouzeh Sidwa said, “I have never seen a place like the Gaza Strip in my life, because what happened was terrible,” indicating that the health system was directly targeted and that every hospital in the Strip was attacked.
Sidwa stated there were 250 patients at the European Hospital during her time there, half of them children, indicating that one in every 20 health care workers in Gaza was killed by the Israeli occupation forces.
Dr. Mahmouda Sayed said that Guterres pledged to focus on the situation of the Palestinian doctor Abu Safia and facilitate medical evacuations. She explained that she tried to treat children who were shot in the head with almost no medical supplies.
Since October 7, 2023, the occupation has destroyed 34 out of 38 hospitals, both governmental and private. This has left only four hospitals functioning at limited capacity despite sustaining damage while facing a critical shortage of medicines and medical equipment, according to the latest data from Gaza’s government media office.
The Israeli raids also put 80 health centers completely out of service, in addition to destroying 162 other medical facilities. Medical personnel in Gaza were directly targeted, as the government media office documented the martyrdom of 331 health sector workers, including three who were executed inside the occupation’s prisons.
YPA