Medical Aid Workers Face 'Non-Choice'

Medical Aid Workers Face 'Non-Choice'
Medical personnel only allowed into Gaza through dangerous areas; surgical team remains on standby in Jerusalem

From: Médecins sans Frontières (MSF)

(Jan. 14) The shootings and bombings by the Israeli army in the Gaza Strip do not allow for the arrival or departure of MSF teams, even if authorizations have been provided by Israeli authorities. The daily three-hour lull that Israel has announced is not being fully observed. And since the pause in fighting applies only to Gaza City, there is no possibility for humanitarian workers to safely use the Erez crossing point in the north of the Gaza Strip, the only area authorized by Israeli authorities for movements of staff.

MSF has not been granted permission to use the Kerem Shalom crossing point, which is used for moving supplies across the border. MSF denounces this blockage and the non-choice it faces: exposing MSF teams to danger without any possible alternative.

MSF demands that Israel authorize the entry of its emergency aid workers through alternative entry points into the Gaza Strip, such as Kerem Shalom. This is an indispensable condition for providing adequate assistance to the population of Gaza....

While hospital emergency departments in Gaza face a shortage of surgeons, a five-person MSF surgical team has been on stand-by in Jerusalem for one week. Shifa Hospital in Gaza City has requested and relied on the support of MSF staff and medical supplies for more than two weeks.

"We are in regular contact with hospitals in Gaza," said Cécile Barbou, MSF medical coordinator in the Gaza Strip. "Their emergency departments and intensive care units are overwhelmed by the inflow of sick and wounded patients, especially at night. Surgical departments are working around the clock. Sometimes two operations are performed simultaneously in the same operating room. Hospital staff are exhausted."...

The MSF clinic in Gaza City remains open but it is extremely dangerous for people to move about and few residents are able to reach medical facilities.

Part of MSF's Palestinian medical teams are supplied with emergency kits so they can treat patients at home in the neighborhoods where team members live. They have treated more than 270 people in the last two weeks. Medications and supplies have been distributed from MSF inventories to address shortages in Gazan health facilities.

Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) is an international humanitarian aid organization that provides emergency medical assistance to populations in danger in more than 70 countries. Since July 2007, MSF has been providing post-operative care and physiotherapy to hundreds of people wounded by fighting in the Gaza Strip. In March 2008 a pediatric clinic was opened in Gaza for children under 12. MSF has been working in Gaza and the West Bank since 1989