What can we know about when aid can enter Gaza?
The American Heartland, the United States, and the Middle East: Is Israel War-Middle-East? Monica Ramah, a U.S. Medical Volunteer, Says ‘There’s No More
She said that a ceasefire would enable them to finish their mission, allow new help to come in, and allow for their safe return home.
Everyone was hoping for a cease-fire. (Israel says it is rejecting a sustained ceasefire because it needs to eliminate Hamas’s military capability.)
“So you see how sad this is?” he said in the interview. “I mean this patient is only like about 60 years old. We will not do this in the U.S. as you know, but this time of war and lack of resources that we are forced to do this.”
Monica was back at the intensive care unit at the hospital on Thursday after only partially recovering from the gastroenterology illness that left her dehydrated, dizzy and nauseous.
“Every day that that crossing is not available and usable for humanitarian assistance, there’s going to be more suffering, and that’s of deep concern to us,” he told reporters. We urge the Israelis to open that crossing immediately so that aid can be brought to those in need.
The US wants the only crossing that can handle large numbers of trucks to open immediately, a White House spokesman said on Friday.
Gaza Relief Operations Runs on Fuel: The Last U.S. Medical Volunteers in Gaza Reveal How Draculously Touched a Man’s Jaw
The head of the U.N.’s relief operations, Andrea De Domenico, told the French press agency AFP that amount of fuel was needed each day to maintain operations.
The Israeli military on Friday in an apparent response to the concerns said it had transferred more than 52,000 gallons of fuel to be made available to international organizations in Gaza through Kerem Shalom crossing into southern Gaza.
Jeremy Konyndyk, president of Refugees International, said that the aid operation runs on fuel. “That means water can’t be pumped, lights can’t be kept on in hospitals, vehicles cannot distribute aid. If the aid operation collapses, then the fuel is cut off.
According to United Nations data, the number of aid trucks entering Gaza hit a peak last week since October: Aid trucks entered Gaza through the two main border points, the Kerem Shalom and the Rafah crossing. But since Sunday, no aid trucks have entered Gaza from either entry point, even after Israel said that it had reopened the Kerem Shalom crossing on Wednesday.
Scenes of horror are conveyed in clinical descriptions at one of the last functioning hospitals in Rafah, as U.S. medical Volunteers grapple with the effects of Israeli military operations in Gaza.
“They tried to suture up the hole in the heart — they couldn’t,” Dr. Usman Shah, from California, explains to Dr. Ammar Ghanem about a patient wounded in an explosion. Ghanem, a vice president of the Syrian American Medical Society, is overseeing the intensive care unit and made a video on Friday of his conversation with Shah.
The two are members of a team of U.S. and U.S.-trained doctors who arrived in Rafah 10 days ago as part of a medical mission organized by the Palestinian American Medical Association. Now, nearing the end of the mission, with Israel closing the main border crossing, they are unable to leave.
Shah, dressed in blue scrubs, relates in an even voice how the jaw of one of the patients crumbled under his hand when he touched him. In the only visible sign of distress, he massages his temple and briefly closes his eyes as he tells the story.
‘Prioritizing Patient Lives‘: Israel’s Challenges in Addressing the “Destructive Conflict” in Gaza after the World Central Kitchen
Many local physicians and nurses have had to evacuate their families because of the border closing, making it difficult to come to work in the country, according to Ghanem.
There are some patient lives that I have to prioritize. When I say ‘prioritizing patient lives’ I mean I know that term but I never used it before until I came here,” he said in an interview with NPR by video call from Rafah.
One of the two videos sent to NPR from the hospital shows Ghanem pointing out a case in which his colleague’s brain was visible after an 18-year-old woman with a skull fracture. He said they did not have drugs strong enough to keep her sedated.
He said they stopped treatment for a woman suffering from acute pancreatitis after two days because she required continued oxygen that might support several other patients.
Ghanem, who did not want the hospital identified for security reasons, estimated that two to three patients a day die in the intensive care unit because of lack of supplies or equipment.
Part of the problem is that items critical for hospitals are banned by Israel which says they can be used by Hamas for military purposes. The items on the list of items it considers dual-use include some water treatment materials.
The list does not cover all items that are reportedly banned. Save the Children stated that it has had shipments rejected by Israel because they contained sleeping bags. An Israeli legal center, Geisha, has compiled a list of items that have been reported by organizations to have been rejected, including fishing rods and plastic sheets for tents.
After the killing of seven workers in Gaza from the U.S.-based World Central Kitchen last month, Israel, under U.S. pressure, pledged to allow in more aid, improve coordination and to safeguard humanitarian staff.
Save the Children and Care were among the seven major international aid organizations that issued a statement this week stating that pledges have not been fulfilled.
“Humanitarian actors see no significant improvement from Israeli authorities in addressing the dire challenges to prevent life-saving aid for Gaza’s 2.3 million residents,” the statement read.
Israel ordered the voluntary departure of 1.3 million people in sectors of the Egyptian border. But for many there is no where to go.
The communications officer for the agency said families were setting up tents in graveyards and on sidewalks. She said others had moved to the beach, where there is no clean water and no sanitation.
Oxford professor Dr. Nick Maynard, a surgeon from England who traveled to Gaza three times on medical missions since the start of the war, said most of his time over Christmas was spent operating on major explosive injuries to the chest and abdomen. He said on his last trip that malnutrition in trauma cases had increased.
Many patients with abdominal surgery had terrible repercussions from their surgery, including the abdominal wall breaking down, because of inadequate nutrition and the fact that they were not well-fed. “Literally their intestines end up hanging outside.”
Maynard said two of his patients, girls 16 and 18 years old, died last week because of their extreme lack of nutrition.
“We’re at a tipping point right now,” said Dr. John Kahler, co-founder of MedGlobal, a U.S.-based medical aid organization. He said Palestinian children before the war were getting only about 80% of the calories they needed. The effects of consistent deprivation are showing up seven months into the war.
“It’s at that time that the immunological system begins to break down,” he said. It’s at that time where infections will start.
The invasion of Rafah by Israel and the Western world: What’s happening in the epoch of reunification?
Several Western and Israeli officials say that Egypt is complicating things by trying to force Israel to stem the invasion of Rafah, which they think is being put up by Egypt.
We thank you for your patience while we check access. If you’re in Reader mode, you should exit and log into your Times account or subscribe to The Times.
