UN warns of deterioration Palestinians' conditions in Gaza

In Gaza City, where many businesses have closed their doors, and the rest that remain open are struggling. Al Shifa Hospital is by far the busiest place all over. In the intense heat of Gaza's hottest summer days, dozens of men, boys, and journalists, hang out at the entrance of the hospital, waiting for the Red Crescent ambulances to unload the latest casualties which mostly arrive as small body parts... arms, legs, fingers, and even in some cases, not knowing, and wondering in horror, what body parts are left behind.

The most tragic event can easily happen when two ambulances from two hospitals start collecting the remains of the flesh of people who were killed. The collection of body parts within the chaos and destruction is definitely not an easy task, especially when there are groups of people being killed and two ambulances take the share of delivering all the victims remains to two different hospitals. Within this horrendously difficult process, one ambulance will have body parts of a victim that will take to a hospital, and the other ambulance will take (not knowing) other parts of flesh... leg, or arm, owned by the very same victim to another hospital to the north! One cannot decipher pieces of human flesh from one to the other in this complete chaos and discord that happens daily here in the Gaza Strip.

One of many tragic stories

Standing outside the gate of the Intensive Care Unit inside the hospital, Mohammed Mansour 24, who was there with his cousin Tae'er 13, who got injured. Mohammed has nothing to do but wait for Tae'er to wake up from the coma he is in. Meanwhile as he anxiously awaits his little cousin to open his eyes, Mohammed sees the large numbers of casualties with people with no legs and arms rushing into the hospitals. "Human flesh, legs, arms and heads are all collected in blankets. I can't sleep at all after seeing all these horrible and gory scenes" he said, pointing out at the ambulances getting into the reception to unload the casualties.

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United Nations and Swiss agencies are warning of a humanitarian crisis in the Gaza Strip, which has been largely forgotten due to the conflict in Lebanon.

The head of the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC) for Gaza and the West Bank says the population in the occupied territories feels abandoned.

Mario Carera said the situation in the area had deteriorated over the past few weeks. "The food and security situation is catastrophic," he told the Swiss news agency.

Carera has just returned from a two-day fact-finding tour to the Gaza Strip.

Karin Wenger, a Swiss journalist who lives in the region, says the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip depend on foreign and food distribution.

"The shift from poor to very poor is noticeable," she told swissinfo about the situation since the start of the Israeli military operation in Gaza at the end of June.

"Israel's armed forces attack the Strip with up to 300 shells a day using aircraft and warships. Incursions by tanks and bulldozers terrorise the population.

"Among the more than 170 victims killed in this invasion are more than 50 children. This is a clear breach of international humanitarian law under which the civilians should be protected," she said.

Wenger, who works for several newspapers in Switzerland and Germany, said Israeli tanks and bulldozers had destroyed houses and large parts of agricultural land, as well as power cables and irrigation systems.

"The impact on farmers and on civilians is therefore tremendous."

Desperation

Both Carera and Wenger say the difficult financial situation of many Palestinians is a result of an international boycott of the militant Islamic Hamas-led government which won elections in the occupied territories earlier this year.

Carera said most shops had closed and public life had come to standstill.

In June Israel destroyed the only power plant in Gaza leaving nearly half the local population without electricity and the main border crossing at Rafah was also closed.

Wenger for her part says the Gaza Strip resembles a huge prison. "It's an overall feeling of hopelessness and desperation. This leads to more and more violence in the community."

Deliveries halted

The Swiss government's aid agency and its partner organisations in the region are facing increasing logistical difficulties.

Some emergency aid supplies could not be delivered to Gaza because they were blocked at the border by the Israelis, according to Carera.

SDC and the Palestinian health authorities had agreed on the delivery of medications as part of a coordinated aid effort in June.

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srael wants to turn southern Lebanon into an area similar to the Gaza Strip, which it can raid whenever it likes to quash the resistance.

But this would be a disaster for the Lebanese people, just as it has been a disaster for the Palestinians living in Gaza.

Israel has laid siege to Gaza since one of its soldiers was captured by the Palestinian resistance at the end of June.

Amjad Shawa, the Palestinian NGO Network coordinator for Gaza, spoke to Socialist Worker.

“Israel continues its aggression, psychologically as well as militarily,” he said. “Many Gazans have received phone calls from the Israeli army telling us they are about to bomb our area and we should get out. They’re trying to trick us and spread terror.

“But at the same time hundreds of children are going out into the streets to protest in big demonstrations. Despite the suffering, we want to break the silence.

“It is very good when we see demonstrations on TV like the one in London last weekend. We feel like we are in prison and are waiting for a message from the outside world - seeing people supporting us is like receiving that message.”

http://www.socialistworker.co.uk/article.php?article_id=9458

Hospitals in the Gaza Strip have seen a significant increase in war casualties with severe injuries over the past month and are running out of medical supplies, British medical aid agency Merlin said today.

After a recent attack in Gaza City, 75 per cent of war-wounded patients admitted at one hospital needed amputations, Merlin's emergency assessment team was told.

In the past six weeks, doctors at this hospital have carried out amputations on more than 50 patients and have been forced to cancel 800 routine operations in order to deal with the rising number of emergency cases.

Merlin's team also visited a hospital in Rafah - an area that has suffered heavily from Israeli incursions - which reported receiving casualties every day since 50 tanks moved into the town's disused airport last week.

British nurse Paula Sansom, who led Merlin's assessment in Gaza, said: "At the hospital in Rafah, many casualties they receive have chest injuries but doctors are struggling with a lack of surgical instrument sets.

"Power supply is also a major constraint: the hospital only receives four hours of mains electricity a day, and the back up generator is not sufficient for a busy emergency facility. The doctors have to choose between running the operating theatre or the X-ray machine.

"These hospitals in Gaza urgently need specialist nurses to assist staff in intensive care units, as well as surgical and diagnostic equipment and supplies. Merlin is aiming to provide this support as soon as possible."

In Lebanon, Merlin is aiming to provide mobile medical teams for thousands of displaced people who have moved to Beirut and the Mount Lebanon region and are sheltering in schools or with local families. Working with local agencies, Merlin also aims to distribute medical supplies, hygiene kits and clean water.

http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/fromthefield/218926/115503229494.htm