“We have achieved impressive successes and have reached beyond the outskirts of Gaza City.” These are the words used by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to describe the expansion of the ground offensive in the Gaza Strip. Israel’s attacks are having a massive impact on the humanitarian situation and medical care, as aid organizations with which ZEIT ONLINE spoke for this text report. Almost 1.5 million people, around 70 percent of the population, are on the run. The World Health Organization (WHO) warned this week of an impending disaster for human health.
People wait in makeshift tents in front of Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City. © Dawood Nemer/AFP/Getty Images
The Gaza Strip remains cordoned off. Since October 7, the Israeli government has allowed 374 trucks carrying aid supplies through Egypt’s Rafah border crossing, up from up to 500 per day before the start of the war. Drinking water and food therefore have to be heavily rationed.
Hiba Tibi is the country director for Palestine at Care International. ZEIT ONLINE reached them on Thursday afternoon in Ramallah in the West Bank. Shortly before, she lost contact with her employees in Gaza, and her cell phone has apparently been switched off several times in the past few days. For example, Care runs projects with women with disabilities in the Gaza Strip and trains small farmers. The organization also provides humanitarian aid, particularly through mobile clinics that treat emergencies and through medication deliveries.
Al-Shifa Hospital surrounded by darkness because there is no more electricity for the generators © Dawood Nemer/AFP/Getty Images
On the phone, Tibi reports on the desolate water supply: “97 percent of the water from the tap in Palestine is salty or contaminated.” People would increasingly drink dirty and salty water. “We see that the number of diarrheal diseases is already increasing in the emergency shelters, as is the number of viral infections.”
Relatives mourn the death of a civil defender at Al-Shifa Hospital. © Ali Jadallah / Anadolu/ ddp
The electricity supply in the Gaza Strip has almost completely collapsed. Because there is virtually no fuel left, the desalination plants can hardly be operated anymore. Christian Lindmeier, spokesman for the World Health Organization, also reports that, in addition to a lack of medical supplies, electricity and food, water supply is currently one of the biggest problems. Currently there is only about three liters of fresh water per day for every person in Gaza. “And this is not only needed for drinking, but also for hygiene or cleaning food.”
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The Israeli government refuses to allow fuel shipments to the Gaza Strip because it fears they could be intercepted by Hamas. She also accuses Hamas of withholding some fuel supplies from the civilian population. According to the UN refugee agency UNRWA, the Gaza Strip actually needs 130,000 liters of fuel per day, not only to desalinate drinking water, but also to supply hospitals, schools and bakeries.
People who are allowed to leave the country because of a foreign passport wait at the Rafah border crossing. © Ahmad Hasaballah/Getty Images
Due, among other things, to the lack of fuel, a third of the hospitals have already had to close because they rely on generator power after the power supply was interrupted. Last Wednesday, the Turkish hospital in Gaza City also ceased operations. According to Lindmeier, it was the only clinic that could carry out specialized cancer treatments in the Gaza Strip. Lindmeier emphasizes that the situation is not only critical for those who were wounded by bombing raids. “The chronically ill also suffer because they don’t receive care.”
The more than 350,000 people who suffer from cancer, heart disease or diabetes “do not receive adequate care because the hospitals are not functioning, because the route is not safe or because there is a lack of medication.” There are also 500,000 people with moderate or severe mental illnesses. 50,000 pregnant women are also affected and cannot be adequately cared for. Around 130 premature babies also rely on incubators that run on fuel.
A Palestinian woman is carried away in her wheelchair. © Mahmud Hams/AFP/Getty Images
Hiba Tibi from the aid organization Care describes what the lack of care can mean in individual cases: “My uncle stayed in Gaza City because he has kidney problems and goes to Al-Shifa Hospital for dialysis. Normally he gets four hours per session for three days Dialysis. At the moment he’s only getting two days and two hours. That’s obviously a huge problem.” There are also increasing reports of caesarean sections being carried out without sufficient anesthesia. Even after the procedures, there was a lack of painkillers. Christian Katzer, the managing director of Doctors Without Borders, also says that a lack of painkillers and anesthetics is becoming an increasingly serious problem. “Everything has to be rationed. Our colleagues can often only operate under dramatic conditions because there is a lack of painkillers. Because there are so many serious injuries as a result of the bombing, the medication is far from enough.”
Near the Rafah border crossing, people collect what has fallen from a truck carrying aid supplies. © Mohammed Abed/AFP/Getty Images
The Israeli government has repeatedly asked hospitals in the north of the Gaza Strip to evacuate. However, in many cases this is simply not possible due to the severity of the injuries: “We have intensive care patients who we cannot assume will survive such a transport. In the south of the Gaza Strip there are hardly any hospitals with the appropriate medical facilities “says Katzer.
People in Rafah line up for water. © Abed Rahim Khatib / Anadolu/ddp
The fact that around 70 patients have now been brought to Egypt is a positive development, but it is far from sufficient. In addition, the constant bombing made further evacuations more difficult. “It must be ensured that ambulances on the way to the border are not attacked, otherwise we cannot expose our employees to this risk.” Christian Lindmeier from the World Health Organization also told ZEIT ONLINE that the fighting should be stopped immediately “so that new medical personnel can come to Gaza and material can also be distributed there.”
Since the Hamas terrorist attacks, the Israeli army says it has attacked more than 12,000 targets in the Gaza Strip. More than 9,000 people have already been killed, according to the Hamas-controlled Ministry of Health, two-thirds of them women and children. Jason Lee, Save the Children’s country director for Palestine, emphasized in an interview with ZEIT ONLINE that children in the Gaza Strip were already severely traumatized before the latest attacks began. “We have been observing anxiety, depression and aggression among the youngest children for years. The Gaza Strip has never been really safe for children, and now it has become even more dangerous.”
Women bake traditional dough cakes in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip. © Mohamed Abed/AFP/Getty Images
Although death and injury figures cannot be independently verified, they have proven to be largely accurate in past conflicts. The World Health Organization, like many other organizations, trusts the numbers. “We have had good experiences with the Ministry of Health in the past, for example with vaccination campaigns. We see no reason to fundamentally doubt the numbers of wounded, dead and sick. And the question for all of us is: Would we discuss it differently if it “There would be 100 or 200 fewer deaths? I don’t believe that,” says Lindmeier.