"After each war, each ‘escalation’, each wave of protests, we treat people who have been injured by the Israeli armed forces in our clinics and hospitals," says Doctors Without Borders Medical Coordinator, Dr. Natalie Thurtle. "We see on a daily basis the long-term disabilities and pain that this violence causes, and we know that the longer this current round of violence goes on, the more people will be injured, and the more that they will suffer even long after the bombs have stopped."
"The 14-year Israeli blockade on Gaza means that the health system here lacks many of the things it needs to treat people even during normal times. Yet every few years it is called on to deal with a huge influx of wounded: the 11,000 injured during the 2014 war; the more than 7,000 shot during protests in 2018 and 2019; and now the already hundreds injured in bombings and dozens dead since Monday."
Doctors Without Borders, present in the Gaza Strip for over twenty years, stands ready to support the local health authorities to provide vital medical care to those who need it. "The level of violence and injury sustained over the last few days is unbearable and unacceptable. We are deeply concerned for the safety of the civilian population," says Ottens-Patterson.
