French doctors lament health, humanitarian crisis in Gaza Strip

By Hafsa Alami

PARIS (AA) – After returning Tuesday to Paris, a delegation of French doctors described the desperate situation they had encountered in the besieged Gaza Strip amid continued attacks and a blockade by Israel.

After spending days in the city of Rafah, the doctors went to the European Hospital in Khan Younis – considered the only hospital in service in southern Gaza.

The Palmed Association of Palestinian Doctors in Europe sent the first humanitarian medical mission to Gaza from Jan. 22 to Feb. 6, led by Raphael Petit, a former military doctor and specialist in war medicine.

“The situation is chaotic, and many children are injured. We had patients who stayed inside the hospital because they have no other place to go,” anesthesiologist Bouchakour Chems Eddine told Anadolu.

“We were able to administer anesthesia but there’s starting to be a shortage of morphine,” he added.

Doctors described the catastrophic conditions in the besieged enclave in light of insufficient aid, a lack of water, food, and medicine, and diseases and malnutrition afflicting both the old and young.

“We were receiving causalities and citizens suffering from wounds. All aid would be useless without a cease-fire,” emergency and resuscitation doctor Khaled Ben Boutrif told Anadolu.

“The European Hospital, which is the only hospital still in service – it becomes almost paralyzed because it hosts many displaced people without shelter,” he added.

The delegation noted extensive damage to medical facilities and hospitals in Gaza and expressed sadness and deep concern about the dangerous conditions in which fellow Palestinian doctors have been living from the constant bombardment by Israel for more than four months.

At least 300 health care workers have been killed in Gaza since Oct. 7, according to the UN, and at least 30 hospitals and 150 other medical facilities have been put out of service.

Israel has mounted a deadly offensive on the Gaza Strip since a surprise attack by the Palestinian resistance group Hamas on Oct. 7. The ensuing attack by Israel has killed at least 27,585 Palestinians and injured 66,978. Nearly 1,200 Israelis are believed to have been killed in the Hamas attack.

The Israeli offensive has left 85% of Gaza’s population internally displaced amid acute shortages of food, clean water and medicine, while 60% of the enclave’s infrastructure has been damaged or destroyed, according to the UN.