Gaza’s hospitals are now practicing “medieval medicine,” according to what a British surgeon who recently returned from the Strip said Monday.
Head of the Department of Esophageal and Gastric Surgery at University College London Hospitals, Khaled Dawwas, told Agence France-Presse, “It is quite realistic to describe it as medieval medicine. It is what you may hear or read that happened in Europe about 300 or 400 years ago.”
Dawwas spoke of harsh conditions in Gaza, where medical teams work with almost no supplies and frequent power outages, while patients are left lying on the ground.
Dawwas returned late after a two-week period he spent in the Gaza Strip to help surgeons in Palestinian hospitals who were suffering from extreme pressure. The trip was his second during the war, having previously spent a stint in the sector in January.
“By April, they were witnessing this constant huge amount of patients dying and bodies coming into hospitals that no human being could bear,” he said.
“They continue to work, but you can see the impact of it. They are suffering from the heavy burden of what they are doing,” he added.
The 54-year-old surgeon, of Palestinian origin, added that many of the wounded in Gaza or those in need of medical care try to avoid going to hospitals because this is tantamount to a “death sentence.”
Wound infection
This is due to their fear of “infecting their wounds due to the circumstances.”
While the doctor confirmed that he felt “guilty” for leaving Gaza and returning to his regular work in Britain, from which he said he had taken leave, he indicated that he would return to the Gaza Strip.
He said, “I hope that there will be a ceasefire when I return next time, because following developments while you are there is something that cannot be tolerated.”
He continued, “It actually becomes harder to bear when you leave and start thinking about what you saw and heard. You wonder how people, any human being, could survive in a situation like this for such a long time.”
Dawwas visits Brussels to talk about his experience to European Union officials.
The Israeli attack on the Gaza Strip since October 7 left at least 36,050 martyrs, most of them civilians.
