Gaza’s hospitals are now practicing “medieval medicine,” according to what a British surgeon who recently returned from the Strip said Monday.
Head of the Department of Esophageal and Gastric Surgery at University College London Hospitals, Khaled Dawwas, told Agence France-Presse: “It is quite realistic to describe it as medieval medicine. It is what you might hear or read that happened in Europe about 300 or 400 years ago.” “.
Dawwas spoke of harsh conditions in Gaza, where medical teams work with almost no supplies and frequent power outages, while patients are left lying on the ground.
Dawwas returned after a two-week period he spent in the Gaza Strip to help surgeons in Palestinian hospitals who were suffering from extreme pressure. The trip was his second during the war, after he previously spent a period in the sector last January.
“By last April, they were witnessing this huge and constant amount of patients dying and bodies coming to hospitals, which is something that no human being can bear,” he said.
“They continue to work, but you can see the impact of it. They are suffering from the heavy burden of what they are doing,” he added.
The 54-year-old surgeon, of Palestinian origin, pointed out that many of the wounded in Gaza, or those who need medical care, try to avoid going to hospitals, because that is tantamount to a “death sentence.”
Wound infection
This is due to their fear of “infecting their wounds due to the circumstances.”
While the doctor confirmed that he felt “guilty” for leaving Gaza and returning to his regular work in Britain, from which he said he had taken leave, he indicated that he would return to the Gaza Strip.
He said, “I hope that there will be a ceasefire when I return next time, because following developments while you are there is something that cannot be tolerated.”
He continued, “It actually becomes harder to bear when you leave and start thinking about what you saw and heard. You wonder how people, any human being, could survive in a situation like this for such a long time.”
Dawas visits Brussels to talk about his experience to European Union officials.
The Israeli attack on the Gaza Strip since October 7 has left at least 36,50 martyrs, most of them civilians.