2024-03-04 22:40:00
Gaza health system is “completely destroyed,” warns Palestinian-American doctor in Rafah
A Palestinian-American doctor spoke to CNN from Rafah on Monday regarding his experience treating patients with traumatic injuries in tents in the southern Gaza city.
“Here, the health infrastructure was completely destroyed. We are essentially the only trauma center and we operate out of tents to take care of any traumatic injuries as well as medical emergencies,” Dr. Mohammad Subeh, a California emergency physician, told CNN’s Michael Holmes, adding that people are dying for treatable ailments such as diabetes and hypertension.
“It’s a night and day difference… In terms of our facilities in California, we have the ability to divert patients from hospitals when we are at capacity, where it is dangerous to care for them.”
He said the contrast was also highlighted by the lack of access to medical supplies.
“We don’t even have alcohol swabs if I need to get an IV. I need to clean your skin very well to make sure I don’t introduce any infections… everything is stopped at the borders,” she said.
“You do what you can with the limited resources you have and as an emergency physician, trying to work creatively to find solutions quickly to stabilize people and try to save lives,” he said.
Subeh said there had been a “systematic and deliberate destruction of every element of infrastructure” in Gaza.
Israel has repeatedly said its war is once morest Hamas and that it does not deliberately attack civilians.
But Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has promised to press ahead with a military operation in Rafah, where more than a million people are sheltering following fleeing fighting in other areas of Gaza.
Numerous governments and aid agencies, including the UN, have called on Israel not to proceed, citing the risk to civilians.
A total of 30,410 people have been killed and 71,700 injured in Gaza since October 7, according to the latest figures published by the Gaza Ministry of Health on Sunday.
CNN cannot independently confirm the figures due to a lack of international media access to Gaza.
This Sunday, Vice President Kamala Harris called for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza, saying that people in the region are starving in the face of “inhumane” conditions and urging Israel to do more to “provide immediate aid to the people of Gaza.” making one of the strongest pushes made by a US official to date.
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