Gaza in a ‘race against time,’ Australian doctors say
Australian doctors in Gaza say it could take decades to fully resolve the health effects of Israel’s war on the Palestinian enclave, but they hope a tenuous ceasefire will allow crucial supplies to enter the strip.
Thienminh Dinh, an emergency room doctor from Brisbane who works with Médecins Sans Frontières, said the war had increased rates of malnutrition and amputation among Palestinians, but the mental and emotional trauma from the conflict was “intergenerational”.
He said the charity’s mental health teams were encouraging young Palestinians to draw to help them process what they had seen over the past two years.
“I saw the drawings,” he told AAP.
“There were six-year-olds drawing stick figures lying in blood.”
Dr Dinh recently returned to Gaza to work in hospitals in the area for two and a half months.
He shared his hopes and fears for the region’s future in a series of voice notes he sent to AAP while traveling to the war-torn region.
“I expect to see an emaciated population trying to recover from injuries, without food, without water, without shelter, without access to proper healthcare,” he said.
“With winter approaching, it’s a race against time.”
Doctors have been warning for months that Israel’s aid blockade was causing serious shortages of medical supplies in Gaza.
Research A study published in the Lancet medical journal in early October found that important medicines, including treatments for diabetes, hypertension and epilepsy, were not available in any of the 14 functioning healthcare facilities surveyed.
Dr Dinh said access to prosthetics for amputees was “non-existent” and crutches were also becoming scarce on the strip.
Doctors Without Borders said that an orthopedic surgeon working for the aid organization had also been detained by Israel for nearly a year and had not been released.
Both sides of the war accused the other of violating already shaky ceasefire terms.
Over the weekend, Israel launched airstrikes on what it claimed were Hamas targets, while the terrorist group still has not released the bodies of some Israeli hostages; He argued that they were buried under debris and difficult to access.
Dr Dinh’s colleague Kaylene Tompkins, a hospital manager from Geraldton in Western Australia, said civilians in Gaza were living in deep fear that fighting would restart.
“The extent of the devastation we have seen is beyond words,” he told AAP.
“There is an assumption that people in the Gaza Strip will return to their normal lives. This is actually quite far from the truth.”
Israel has allowed more aid to Gaza since the beginning of the ceasefire, but Ms Tompkins said Médecins Sans Frontières was still struggling to bring in enough medical supplies.
He said there were still “major restrictions” on aid, resulting in many cargo shipments from Egypt and Jordan being delayed.
Ms Tompkins also said the road to recovery for Palestinians was “very long and difficult”, with medical staff dealing with a huge emotional toll.
“Our staff has experienced significant trauma and we will see long-term effects,” he said.
