2024-07-04
Reporters and MSF staff describe the human suffering in Gaza as the worst they’ve ever observed
By Beverley Dight, a member of the Green Issue Editorial Team
I was horrified when I recently read in the Haaretz newspaper that when a CNN News Reporter, Anna Damon, went to Gaza she said "I saw the death of the human soul."
Haaretz reported that after having spent years in some of the most blood drenched and depressing locales on the planet Damon was nonetheless surprised by Gaza.
"Death, destruction, refugehood, humanitarian crisis. These are the things we are used to accepting as part of the reality of war. But in Gaza I also saw the death of the human soul. The Gazans are zombies. Deaths of souls, psychological wreckage at that scale I've never seen anywhere.
At a certain point I went through Rafah, and the streets were filled with refugee tents, people, and there were hardly any vehicles because there's no fuel, and transportation is via carts and donkeys, and people were moving through them slowly. It took us 2 hours to cover a distance that normally would take 10 minutes. And all this time I looked at the faces of the people passing by us, and was shocked because they just looked. dead."
Damon described one encounter. A woman told me that "my son, who's 7, screams every night. I keep being afraid he'll have a fit. He's been like this ever since he saw his sister's head blown up,"
In the May edition of The Pulse, the newsletter of Medecins Sans Frontieres, Doctors Without Borders, Australia, the perilous mental and physical health of the people in Gaza was discussed.
MSF describes itself as “an independent medical humanitarian organization for more than 50 years. We work alongside local staff in over 70 countries, delivering essential medical care for people affected by conflict, epidemics, exclusion from healthcare, and for people caught in the aftermath of natural disasters. Our purpose is to save lives.
Because we are independent and don't accept government funding, donations are a lifeline. They help us remain neutral and impartial, able to deliver medical care to people who may otherwise be cut off. We believe everyone has a right to medical care no matter who or where they are"
MSF reported that in Gaza "people are under the threat of aerial bombardment. On top of this, Gaza's once 36-hospital strong healthcare system has been decimated. Without access to proper medical care, people are now facing death from disease and starvation. These are Gaza's silent killings.
MSF has observed a stark deterioration in people's health conditions in Rafah. As a result of the siege on Gaza, malnutrition is emerging with alarming speed among adults and children despite being almost entirely absent prior to October 2023. Our teams have also seen a rise in untreated chronic diseases and the threat of disease outbreaks linked to the dire living conditions.
The mental health of the community is in tatters, with most people having experienced extreme levels of violence and loss. In some cases, people have resorted to over-sedating family members with severe mental health conditions to keep them safe from harm while living in overcrowded shelters."
MSF psychologist Scarlett Wong, from Sydney, shared this letter in a three-week placement in Gaza in March and April as mental health activity manager. She says the war in Gaza is the worst humanitarian disaster she has worked in:
“There is no comparison to what I have seen here in Gaza. In other crises people can flee; suffering is not usually so intentionally man-made. In Gaza hospitals are targeted. Doctors, nurses, psychologists, paramedics, humanitarians and patients are killed. Hundreds of thousands of innocent civilians, killed. This is the only context I've been where lifesaving aid is minutes away, but denied.
It's surreal that 40 minutes drive away, over the border wall, people are eating at restaurants, going to school and work and living relatively normal lives, while here entire neighbourhoods are flattened, civil infrastructure is destroyed, and people are starved.
In Rafah there is the stifling sense of being trapped, unable to escape. Nowhere feels safe. High-tech drones circle above flimsy makeshift shelters, above barefoot children who fled their homes six months ago and now have outgrown their shoes.”
UNICEF has estimated there are around 17,000 children who are unaccompanied or separated from their families. 'Rafah is crammed with people and there is no space or safe place to provide shelter for these children. Nor are there any resources - or enough surrogate parents - to care for all of them.
The entire community is traumatized, with images embedded in their minds of what they have lived - including being tortured, and watching their loved ones executed - while the international community seems unable to intervene or stop the onslaught. As I write this there is the impending threat of Israel's planned incursion of Rafah, which would be catastrophic.
Our Palestinian colleagues roll up their sleeves every day and work tirelessly, despite their own immense grief and loss. Many are living in makeshift tents crammed with 50 other people; some only have the clothes they were wearing when they left their homes. They work under the constant sounds of tanks, missiles, quadcopters and Apache helicopter fire every day and night. They have moved me with their dedication and kindness for every child and adult who seeks our services.
Palestinians desire a life and a future. If this horrific violence can happen to them, it can happen to us. If the international community cannot succeed in enforcing a ceasefire, our belief in the legitimacy of international law should be seriously questioned."
MSF reported that a healthcare worker, anonymous, said: "I feel lost, I don't have a home. My home and my city were destroyed. Every place I had memories in is destroyed. It is like I never existed. We have been annihilated. Our past is erased and our future is destroyed. I just want the war to end. I want to go back to Gaza City. I want my beautiful Gaza back. Our suffering is being live-streamed, but the world watches in silence. We have been failed."
When I sent this MSF report to the Prime Minister, I concluded with a poem:
“What you do to the least of My people, that you do to me.
When I feel abandoned by the world, slaughtered and starved,
Will you gather courage
And stand by my side
Or will you turn your back on me?'
Header Photo: One area of the destruction of Gaza by Israeli air attacks.
[Opinions expressed are those of the author and not official policy of Greens WA]