Doctor Raphaël Pitti, an anesthetist-resuscitator, has worked in Syria since 2012 in areas besieged by the Damascus regime and its Russian ally, and in Ukraine since 2022. With the Union of Medical Care and Relief Organizations (UOSSM International), he trains medical staff in war zones. Accompanied by some 20 doctors in coordination with the Palestinian doctors' association Palmed, the humanitarian doctor worked in the Gaza Strip for two weeks, lending a hand to the staff at the Gaza European Hospital in the south of the enclave. Le Monde met him on his way out.
It was chaos. First because of the presence of 25,000 people who have taken refuge in the surrounding area. They are crammed into shelters made of bits and pieces. There are around 6,000 people inside the hospital during the day and even more at night when the bombardments are most intense. The hospital, which had a capacity of 400 beds, now has 900. The wounded and their families wander around, idle and in shock. Corpses in body bags lie against a wall, waiting to be buried. Life is reorganized in a microcosm. Women bake bread in the corridors, children play ball, there are three tailors and a cobbler. People have been unable to take anything with them and are crammed together in total promiscuity. The hospital has become a kind of refuge ship. But no one knows for how long.
It is close to nothing. In southern Gaza, apart from the European Hospital, only three hospitals are still functioning. During our mission, the Al Nassr Hospital in Khan Yunis was surrounded for 11 days by the Israeli army, preventing the passage of patients, before being evacuated definitively. All of Gaza's hospital directors have been arrested by the Israeli army, interrogated, and apparently tortured on the pretext that they are pro-Hamas. The tension is permanent. The bombardments are getting closer and closer. The European Hospital has been hit by shrapnel and the blast has blown up the dropped ceilings. The International Red Cross fears it will soon have to declare an order to evacuate the area.
There is no sorting on entry. The mass of patients to be cared for suffer from acute and seasonal diseases. Because of the catastrophic hygiene conditions, there are a huge number of respiratory problems, illnesses linked to cold, damp, lack of water, toilets and food, and we have to contend with multiple infections. With each bombardment, we receive a wave of wounded and dead. There are also many victims of sniper fire, particularly women and children. They are usually shot in the head, sometimes in the abdomen, and arrive at the hospital still alive. The bullets used are intended to wound, not to kill. The bullet goes in and out. The aim is to create overcrowding in hospitals, forcing people to come and collect the wounded, thereby exposing them to further gunfire.
You have 55% of this article left to read. The rest is for subscribers only.