Q&A: Doctors in Gaza say they are 'running out of options'

BRUSSELS - Starving patients begging for food in shattered hospitals, doctors pushed to the brink, surviving on one meal a day, trying to treat injuries without medicines - this was the testimony of two Doctors without Borders' staff recently returned from Gaza.

They spoke after their NGO sent an open letter to European Union leaders this week, urging the bloc to act now to pressure Israel to stop attacks in Gaza and open the borders to aid.

"What we are witnessing is the calculated evisceration of the very systems that sustain life," MSF International President Christos Christou and Secretary General Christopher Lockyear wrote in the letter.

Israel launched its assault on Gaza 20 months ago after Hamas-led militants raided Israel, taking 251 hostages and killing 1,200 people, most of them civilians.

Since then, the Israeli military campaign has killed nearly 55,000 Palestinians, according to Gazan health authorities.

Context spoke to Omar Ebeid, MSF emergency coordinator, and trauma doctor Virginia Moneti, who both left Gaza last week. 

Life in Gaza

Omar Ebeid: "Arriving in Gaza is an assault on the senses, sounds are violent, drones persistent, the smell of sewage is noticeable in most areas. It takes time to learn when a bomb is exploding nearby or far away. It takes time for your body to calm down and eventually be able to sleep.

"On a daily basis it's about following the security situation more closely, having to change routes. It means trying to get creative with how we bring in supplies because looting is quite significant.

"It's trying to prioritise which cases we can deal with using the limited resources we have. We're trying to get creative, but it's by no means anywhere near adequate."

Virginia Moneti: "The city is full of tents, the shelters are on the rubble and there is almost no access to essential needs. Water and sanitation structures are non-existent.

"Patients are not only asking for medical care, they are asking for food. There's no milk, no eggs, no proteins available for patients."   

Medics 'running out of options'

Moneti:"We have three functional primary health care facilities for one million people in Gaza, and one hospital to respond to emergency and trauma. We are running out of options.

"We don't have enough hospital beds. We don't have enough medical supplies and surgical equipment to scale up activities and if the border does not open, we will be forced to stop.

"Eighty percent of the streets are not accessible due to evacuation and military zones. This means patients cannot access hospitals easily and are walking long distance to seek medical care and we are forced to turn them away.

"At one clinic we have to close the door at 9 am, as we have already reached maximum capacity. Healthcare staff in Gaza are operating beyond the limits of human endurance. We need humanitarian aid to enter Gaza now. We need this to stop."

On the future

Ebeid: "We always have the worst case scenarios (in mind), but it's different when you're actually living through them. We've been hearing about how the entire strip should be freed or the Gazan population pushed out. So we are imagining this and worse.

"I honestly don't know what to say. It seems in the past 20 months everything has already been said. I think the increasing frustration is just the level of complacency that there is outside. And we're just watching it happen when there are certain people in power that can actually start to make difficult decisions to add proper pressure."

Interviews and statements have been edited for clarity and brevity.