Exhausted Medical Teams in Gaza Dealing With the Most – British Doctor

January 1, 2024 Blog, News
Israeli forces systematically besieged and stormed hospitals in the Gaza Strip during the ground invasion. (File photo: Social Media)

By Palestine Chronicle Staff  

Describing doctors in Gaza as “real heroes”, Dr. Badir said health teams were exhausted, especially those working in hospital emergency departments.

A British doctor of Palestinian origin has said medical teams in the besieged Gaza Strip are exhausted, dealing with large numbers of patients, some with complex cases, the Anadolu News Agency reported. 

“The medical staff (at the European Gaza Hospital in the city of Khan Younis) is very exhausted, and the emergency department always receives patients with difficult and complex cases,” Dr. Basil Badir, an orthopedic specialist from the team IDEALS, affiliated with the Islamic Aid charity organization in the UK, told Anadolu in an exclusive interview.

Dr. Badir arrived in Khan Yunis in the southern Gaza Strip on December 15, with four doctors.

Describing doctors in Gaza as “real heroes”, he said health teams were exhausted, especially those working in hospital emergency departments, Anadolu reports.

Dr. Badir said the role of the British medical team is to “try to alleviate the suffering of their colleagues working in the medical field in Gaza, even if only in a small way.”

The doctor noted that patients transferred from the northern Gaza Strip to its southern part due to incomplete treatments face difficult health complications.

“Before the hospitals in the north of Gaza were closed, many patients who had received partial treatment were forcibly sent to the southern part,” he told Anadolu.

“These individuals are experiencing serious health problems due to the incomplete treatment,” he added.

Emphasizing the challenging health situation at the European Gaza Hospital, where there are at least 900 patients and injured people, Dr. Badir said this number is twice the normal capacity during regular times, Anadolu further reports. 

He said his accompanying health team has been visiting the Gaza Strip periodically for about 13 years, around eight to nine times a year, focusing on surgical areas.

‘Gaza Health System A Tragedy’

Last Sunday, the Director-General of the World Health Organization, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus,  said that ‘the decimation of the Gaza health system is a tragedy.”

In a post on X, he said that Al-Shifa was once Gaza’s biggest hospital, but “relentless hostilities and massive numbers of wounded people have brought its capacities to its knees. Now, it can only deliver the most basic of first aid.”

Ghebreyesus warned that sustained humanitarian access is essential for humanitarians to deliver food, water, fuel, medicines, and other supplies safely, and continuously, to over 2 million people.

According to Gaza’s Ministry of Health,  21,978 Palestinians have been killed, and 57,697 wounded in Israel’s ongoing genocide in Gaza starting on October 7. Palestinian and international estimates say that the majority of those killed and wounded are women and children.

(PC, ANADOLU)

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1 Comment

  1. Your story on what Dr. Badir said is very interesting. What I don’t understand though is: how did he and the other 4 doctors get into Gaza and into Kha Younis and how are they managing to survive there?

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