The head of the Department of Public Health at the University of Edinburgh, Scotland, Devi Sridhar, confirmed that the warning cries issued by international relief organizations regarding the conditions in Gaza are extremely terrifying, and indicate the existence of major fears of unprecedented tragedies occurring against civilians in the besieged Strip.
Sridhar said – in an article in the British newspaper The Guardian – that the war on Gaza set many records, especially with regard to the destruction of health care facilities and infrastructure.
She added that during this war, schools, hospitals, their workers, and ambulances were targeted, as well as medical relief organizations such as Doctors Without Borders and Save the Children, and international agreements such as the Geneva Convention were not respected.
Most deadly to children
The head of the Department of Public Health at the Scottish University of Edinburgh added that this war is also described as the deadliest for children, as about 160 children were killed every day last month, according to the World Health Organization.
It is also the bloodiest war for journalists in 30 years – as Sridhar explains in her article – and she adds that these deaths are likely to be only the beginning, as public health experts know that a large number of children are likely to die due to the spread of diseases.
Sridhar said that families can hardly find clean water or usable toilets, in addition to the absence of food and medicine and the absence of a trained medical team with complete medical equipment, highlighting that these are the basic needs that any human being – especially infants and children – needs to survive.
She also mentioned that diarrhea rates among Gaza children inside the camps – according to the World Health Organization – exceeded the normal level by more than 100 times at the beginning of last November, which means the possibility of dehydration and immediate death.
warning
Sridhar warned that nearly a quarter of Gaza’s population could die within one year unless something changes in the Strip, stressing that this number is approximate but based on data using the horrific real numbers of deaths in similar conflicts.
She stressed that international organizations are trying to sound the alarm, and quoted World Health Organization spokeswoman Margaret Harris as regretting that “the world seems to have lost its moral compass.”
For its part, the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) warned that “the lack of water, food, medicine and protection poses a greater threat than bombs to the lives of thousands in Gaza.”
Sridhar said that she has been working in the field of public health for two decades, and has not heard similar warning cries from relief organizations, which indicates that there are major fears of unprecedented tragedies occurring against civilians in the Gaza Strip.
