PARIS, July 20, 2014 – the international medical humanitarian organization
Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) Monday called on Israel
to stop bombing civilians in sealed-off Gaza Strip.
In a press release issued Monday, Médecins Sans Frontières stated: “Since
the beginning of Operation Protective Edge in the Gaza Strip, the majority of
the dead and wounded in Gaza are civilians and medical workers are also coming
under fire.”
Relating its staff’s first-hand experience in Gaza hospitals, MSF stated:
“Women and children comprised most of the wounded people arriving on Sunday
morning in the emergency room in Al Shifa Hospital in Gaza City, where MSF is
working, following heavy shelling overnight and in the morning in the city’s
Ash Shuja’iyeh neighborhood. MSF personnel witnessed hundreds of people fleeing
the area.”
The international medical humanitarian organization called on Israel “to
stop bombing civilians trapped in the sealed-off Gaza strip, and to respect the
safety of medical workers and health facilities.”
Commenting on the difficulties MSF staff have experienced as a result of
Israeli bombardment, MSF field coordinator in Gaza Nicolas Palarus was quoted
saying: “Shelling and air strikes are not only intense but are also
unpredictable, which makes it very difficult for MSF and other medical workers
to move and provide much needed emergency care.”
Two brothers, eight and four, were among the hundreds of civilians wounded
overnight in Ash Shuja’iyeh. They lay side by side in Al Shifa’s intensive burn
care unit, suffering severe burns from a missile strike on their house.
It was only at dawn that people began to flee the area by foot or in packed
vehicles, and when wounded people were able to reach the hospital either by
ambulance or on their own.
“In the emergency resuscitation room, half of the severe cases died within
minutes, and half required emergency surgery,” said MSF medical coordinator in
Gaza Audrey Landmann.
Relating the unfolding casualties in Gaza and Israel’s attempt to target a
MSF vehicle, it related that in the hospital, MSF also witnessed two paramedics
who had died and two others who were injured while trying to retrieve wounded
from Ash Shuja’iyeh. Separately this
morning [Monday], a clearly identified MSF vehicle escaped an air strike 300
meters away. Israeli authorities had earlier guaranteed secure movements for
MSF from the Erez border crossing to Gaza City, so that an incoming surgical
team could be picked up.
The organization highlighted Israel’s disregard to medical workers. Palarus
said in this regard: “Medical workers and facilities must be respected, and
shooting should not occur at or near ambulances and hospitals.”
Commenting on the exponentially rising number of civilian death toll,
Palarus added: “While [Israeli] official claims that the objective of the
ground offensive is to destroy tunnels into Israel, what we see on the ground
is that bombing is indiscriminate and that those who die are civilians.”
Three families of MSF staff members are sheltering at MSF’s post-operative
clinic in Gaza City. “They have nowhere else to go and crossing the border does
not seem a realistic option,” said Palarus, and added: “United Nations shelters
are now overcrowded and hygiene conditions are extremely worrying.”
In response to the emergency, MSF is supporting Al Shifa Hospital in Gaza
City with a full surgical team, medical equipment and emergency supplies, and
has donated two emergency stocks to the Central Drug Store in the south and
north of Gaza. The MSF post-operative clinic in Gaza City is running at 10 to
30 percent of its capacity because the intensity of the bombing impedes
patients from accessing the facility. Regular MSF activities in Nasser Hospital
in Khan Yunis have been interrupted by the conflict. MSF has been working in
Gaza for more than 10 years, providing medical, surgical and psychological
services. It also responded to the 2009
and 2012 emergencies in Gaza.
K.F./T.R.
