By Yeter Erdine
MALATYA, Türkiye (AA) – A Turkish surgeon who volunteered to serve Palestinians in Gaza has described a horrifying health care situation in the besieged enclave, saying injured people were sometimes stitched in standing positions without local anesthesia due to the large number of patients and a lack of necessary medical supplies.
Speaking at a conference on Friday at Turgut Ozal University in Türkiye's eastern province of Malatya, Pediatric Surgeon Dr. Taner Kamaci described a very precarious health care situation in Gaza, where he worked as a volunteer, saying the lack of medical supplies in Palestine is at alarming levels, with doctors sometimes forced to stitch injured people's wounds standing up and without anesthesia.
Kamaci, who spent two weeks in the besieged enclave amid constant Israeli bombardment, said the Gaza Strip has been under blockade for years, with the city under constant attack for the last eight months, and that during his visit, he could only treat emergency patients, not those who needed long-term treatment for their ailments.
"There were so many emergency patients that there was no time to treat other patients," he said.
"The stitching was done standing up in the emergency room. Sometimes, if the suture material was problematic, it was covered with a bandage to ensure that there was enough material for seriously ill patients. We did our best for two weeks. As a team, we performed surgeries on nearly 400 patients," he added.
There are normally 35 hospitals in Gaza, but only four were operational during their visit, with surgery could only be performed in two hospitals, Kamaci said, adding that the Gaza European Hospital was the only hospital left standing in Rafah, which was also the target of Israeli attacks.
The surgeon went on to say since this area was declared a war zone, medical staff were allowed to bring their families, but outside teams were not permitted.
He said, "All the foreign teams inside were removed. Unfortunately, the situation we witnessed when we were there was much worse than what we see there right now."
Israel "kills boys, girls, women, the elderly, the youth, animals on the street," Kamaci said.
- Gazans' love for Turks
Kamaci also talked about the love of people in Gazan for the Turks.
"The sympathy of Gazans towards Türkiye and the Turks is something else," he said.
"They were shaking the hands of doctors from other countries, and when I told them that 'I am from Türkiye', so many of them came and hugged me. 'Türkiye is different for us, we love Türkiye very much, we love the Turks very much,' they told me," Kamaci said.
He added that Gazans have high expectations from Türkiye.
"'Gaza is Ottoman land anyway, it can be considered your territory,' they say," the doctor concluded.