On November 1, Portland Healthcare Workers 4 Palestine (HCW4P-PDX) joined the National Actions by HCWs in cities around the world to demand that their hospitals and health systems take urgent and immediate action to protect healthcare in Gaza. Healthcare Workers (HCWs) read a statement authored by Doctors Against Genocide calling for an end to the genocide and to protect life and healthcare in Gaza. Several HCWs then shared their experiences from working in Gaza during the past year and why HCWs are obligated to act now to protect life.
The statement comes in the wake of unprecedented and systematic destruction of the Gaza healthcare system through a series of more than 500 attacks on Gazan healthcare facilities since October 7, 2023. We have seen the destruction of nearly every hospital in Gaza, the incarceration, torture, and killing of healthcare professionals, and the horrific scenes of patients tethered to IV lines murdered or burned alive in their beds. Children have been maimed and shot by snipers, their bodies riddled with bullets, and are being systematically starved. The very foundation of healthcare in Gaza is being systematically dismantled.
Recent reports confirm that medical missions are now banned from entering Gaza, and the northern part of Gaza is being completely shut down: no journalists, no doctors, no food, no fuel, and no aid are being allowed in. These severe restrictions have made it impossible to deliver even the most basic medical services. According to the Palestinian Ministry of Health, over 1000 healthcare workers have been killed and hundreds more have been illegally detained and currently in prison. Every hospital has been bombed and the health system is in total collapse. More than 20,000 children have been murdered, hundreds of thousands have been displaced multiple times and starved.
“When I was there in the spring, our support at Al Adwan Hospital was so needed and appreciated by the local health care teams who were working nearly 24/7 with hardly any supplies. They were exhausted, under- resourced, and starving then– it is unimaginable how it is now as they are alone and under siege with Israeli military tanks and soldiers surrounding the hospital. In recent communications, they tell us there are no blood products left so there is no way to care for the wounded patients who are bleeding to death. With no fuel, the respirators have shut down and ICU patients are dying. These HCWs are heroes and they are truly exhausted. International volunteer HCWs are a vital lifeline to the local medical staff.”
-Dr. Ahmed Ebeid, Anesthesiologist from Portland who volunteered in Gaza during the winter and spring 2024.
A recent UN inquiry has found that Israel deliberately decimated the Palestinian Health system in Gaza, which amounts to war crimes and “crimes of extermination.” And, in less than a month since Israel started invading Lebanon, nearly 100 healthcare facilities and at least 5 hospitals in Lebanon have been shut down due to Israeli attacks.
Israel’s year of genocide in Gaza has killed over 42,000 people, including approx.17,000 children. Over 100,000 people have been injured. More than 40% of the casualties in Gaza have been children. Although these numbers are shocking enough and represent the highest number of deaths and casualties in any recent conflict, research published in the medical journal, Lancet, finds that these numbers are likely an underreporting of the true level of death and injuries. UNICEF is calling Gaza “the most dangerous place to be a child in the world”. “WCNSF–Wounded Child No Surviving Family” is now a common slogan written on the bodies of injured young children, sole survivors in their families, as they are rescued.
Beyond the direct attacks on healthcare facilities and health workers, the global rules of international law and human rights have been decimated by Israel’s now escalating assault on Gaza. We cannot be silent as the humanitarian horrors increase through imposed starvation and indiscriminate bombings in Gaza and now also in Lebanon. The risk of a wider war looms over the entire Middle East.
- KBOO