Health experts said that the health regime in the Gaza Strip is completely collapsed by the war of extermination launched by Israel, and that its rebuilding requires about 12 years.
A group of health workers recently launched an event entitled “The Great Protest in the White Tent”, in front of the United Nations Office in the Swiss city of Geneva, to highlight the events in Gaza.
The participants described Israel’s practices in the Gaza Strip after October 7, 2023, as “genocide”, stressing the need not to be silent about it.
A number of participants in the event spoke about the massacres committed by the occupation forces against the Palestinians and their colleagues working in the field of health in the Gaza Strip since October 7, 2023.
Hussein Dormaz, a member of the “International Health Initiative” and the protest participant, said they made an appeal to more than 10 health organizations in Turkey, and they contacted their colleagues in other countries to organize a protest calling for tangible steps against the deteriorating health situation in Gaza.
Dormaz pointed to the formation of a healthy international alliance to support Gaza, explaining that there are more than 100 health organizations from more than 12 active countries currently in the place of protest.
“There are other organizations from more than 50 countries that signed the data we published or have shown solidarity by organizing simultaneous protests,” he added.
He stressed that they organized this protest to highlight what they did for Gaza, and to demand the United Nations and its organizations to take “concrete measures” to save the situation.
The complete collapse
Dormaz said that the health regime in Gaza completely collapsed, “and based on scientific studies we have done, even if we are allowed to enter Gaza without any conditions, building everything requires 12 years.”
For her part, the French health worker of Algerian origin, Nuria Belhadj, said, “We, as health workers, are especially affected by what is happening to our colleagues in Palestine, and we consider that we have a sacred task towards our patients, and we must be in complete solidarity with them.”
She emphasized that the task of health services must be respected in all parts of the world without any obstacles, and health workers should never accept attacks against them.
As for Sarah Ghali, a Dutch health worker, she said that the event demands the United Nations to protect health workers in Gaza and the West Bank, “because they are under attack that we have not seen before in our lives.”
Ghali pointed out that the health situation in Gaza reached “a catastrophic level, as more than 1400 attacks occurred on health facilities since October 7, 2023, killing more than 1,000 health workers.”
She stated that more than 12,000 people in Gaza are waiting for an urgent medical evacuation, but they were not allowed to do so, considering that health workers in Gaza are working in terrifying conditions, and they are forced to perform surgeries even for children without anesthesia.
On January 19, the ceasefire between Hamas and Israel began in force, and it will continue in its first phase 42 days, during which it is negotiated to start a second stage and then a third, by Qatar, Egypt and the United States.