Washington Post: Gaza doctors between displacement, arrest and death
The anesthesiologist, after four months of hard work and atrocities, did not want to leave his work at Nasser Hospital last month when Israeli tanks approached, but he knew that doctors in Gaza would meet one of three things with the invading army in wartime: displacement, arrest, or death.
In a report by Miriam Berger, the Washington Post summarized the fears of the anesthesiologist who fled Khan Younis, fearing that he would be accused of supporting Hamas, forced to undress and sit blindfolded, exposed to the humiliation he saw on the Internet and heard about the abuses suffered by Palestinian Gazans in Israeli secret detention sites, especially since he has six children and a large family in Rafah that depends on him.
The doctor described his experience to The Washington Post, on condition of anonymity for his own safety, and said by phone from Rafah that he fled the hospital in grief on Jan. 26, joined the growing cadre of displaced medical workers in the Gaza Strip, and is now living in a nylon tent.
Detained and Displaced Doctors
The anesthesiologist fled with three other medical workers, but he was the only one who managed to reach Rafah after his comrades returned to the hospital out of fear. "There were a lot of gunshots and a lot of destruction, and I had to leave because I have a big family that I am responsible for," he says.
The anesthesiologist believes his three colleagues are now among the 70 doctors, nurses and medical technicians taken by Israeli forces from Nasser Hospital and detained by the Ministry of Health in Gaza, noting that he may have crossed the checkpoints because he was carrying a child he found alone in the chaos of fleeing.
More than 100 medical workers are in Israeli prisons, and their exact whereabouts and condition are unknown.
Ministry of Health official Ahmed Shatat said most of the doctors had fled their homes to the south and most were living in tents, devoting their days to trying to find food and water so that they and their families could survive.
Many doctors fear returning to the medical sector and its severe crises. Gaza's 2.2 million people are on the brink of famine, according to the UN, and infectious diseases are rampant. Analysts and aid workers warn that hunger and disease could kill more people than Israeli weapons.
No health regimen
A few hospitals and medical facilities in Gaza are still partially open, the newspaper says.
"How can we maintain any kind of response when medical workers are targeted, attacked and vilified for helping the wounded? There is no health system to speak of in Gaza," Christopher Lecuyer, secretary general of Doctors Without Borders, asked the UN Security Council. The Israeli army has dismantled hospitals, one by one."
Israel says doctors and hospitals provide cover for Hamas fighters, but Palestinian doctors and international medical volunteers say they have seen no sign of militant activity.
Human rights groups say Israeli strikes on medical facilities and medical professionals violate international law and are disproportionate to any threat posed by militants who may have been in the hospitals.
Israel retains the power to detain Gazans without charge under the 2002 Unlawful Combatants Law, a form of administrative detention that human rights groups say violates international law.
"The detention of these doctors can be seen as an extension of attacks on hospitals and medical facilities, which are supposed to be protected under international law," said Bodour Hassan, researcher at Amnesty International.
Some displaced doctors have set up free clinics in camps and shelters for the displaced, and an anesthesiologist works several days a week at al-Najjar Hospital in Rafah. He doesn't feel safe, especially when the Israeli army announced it was moving toward Rafah, "If something happens to Rafah, where can we go?"
Source: The Washington Post
