Gaza, through the lens of human rights and healthcare violations

by: los anjalis

Sat Jan 17, 2009 at 16:49:39 PM PST

This is the 2nd of several posts about the direct healthcare and human rights consequences of the conflict.  Videos and interviews with doctors and medical staff in the region will be shared in the upcoming posts, as well as information on legal/illegal uses of chemical and other weapons.  The point is to document and to discuss.  I implore users to discuss this constructively, without personal attacks.

On January 5th, just a few days into the conflict (it continues still today), a Norwegian doctor who arrived in Palestine on New Years Eve discusses his experiences in the hospital he's volunteering in:

"it's like hell here now, and there's been bombing all night, close to 500 people have been killed, and the number of casualties... of which 50 percent are women and children.
"We have been doing surgery around the clock. i just talked to one of my colleagues in the ICU who has not been sleeping for 3 days.  the hospital is overcrowded, we have 6-7 operating rooms and there are injuries you just don't want to see in this world. children coming in with open abdomens and legs cut off. and the only crime they have done is being civilians, palestinians, living in gaza."

"to be honest we came on new years eve in the morning. i've seen one military person.  there are hundreds of civilians that we have seen and treated.

this is an all out war against the civilian palestinian population in gaza... you have to remember that the average age fo the gaza inhabitants is 17 years, it's a very young population, and 80 percent are living below the poverty level set by the UN.

they are able to escape absolutely nowhere. they cannot flee like other populations can in wartime because they are locked in, in a cage. so they are bombing one and a half million people in a cage. you cannot separate between the military and civilian population."

The scene on Sunday at the hospital, a singular and grisly reflection of the violence around it, was both harrowing and puzzling. A week ago, when Israel began its air assault, hundreds of Hamas militants were taken to the hospital. Yet on Sunday, the day Israeli troops flooded Gaza and ground battles with Hamas began, there appeared not to be a single one.

The casualties at Shifa on Sunday - 18 dead, hospital officials said, among a reported 30 around Gaza - were women, children and men who had been with children. One surgeon said that he had performed five amputations.

"I don't know what kind of weapons Israel is using," said a nurse, Ziad Abd al Jawwad, 41, who had been working 24 hours without a break. "There is so much amputation."

"It's so hard when you do it to women," he said, adding grimly that even the devastating 1967 war here was over in six days.

For nine days now, doctors have been battling to keep Shifa running under the most adverse circumstances. Sanitation workers constantly mop up blood while Hamas security officers stand guard. But scant resources are being stretched to a breaking point, and a terrible stench is in the air.

Dr. Mads Gilbert, a Norwegian who was allowed into Gaza last week to give emergency medical aid, and who has worked in many conflict zones, said the situation was the worst he had seen.

The hospital lacked everything, he said: monitors, anesthesia, surgical equipment, heaters and spare parts. Israeli bombing nearby blew out windows, and like the rest of Gaza, here the severely limited fuel supplies were running low.

Oved Yehezkel, the Israeli cabinet secretary, said Sunday that from the information at Israel's disposal, "there is no humanitarian crisis in Gaza."

Many here would dispute that. With power lines down, much of Gaza has no electricity. There is a dire shortage of cooking gas.