An Italian surgeon working in the Gaza Strip said that she receives an average of four children daily with direct gunshot wounds to the neck and head, and that she has never seen such a number of serious injuries and such a horrific situation in all the conflict zones in which she has worked.
Federica Lizzi, 40, a surgeon with Doctors Without Borders at Deir al-Balah Hospital in the central Gaza Strip, said in a telephone interview with the correspondent of the Italian newspaper La Corriere della Sera in occupied Jerusalem that what shocked her most was the huge number of victims, aged between two and 15, who were hit by a single projectile in the head and neck.
Letzi added that surgeons clearly see the point of entry of the projectile into the head with no trace of its exit point, and she gave the example of six-year-old Majid, who was living in a tent on the outskirts of Deir al-Balah after fleeing the north with members of his extended family, many of whom were killed, leaving only his father of his immediate family.
Letzi recounted how Majid was carried to the hospital on a donkey cart after he was found dying near his tent, and how he arrived at the surgery department in such a tragic state that the doctors thought he had suffered many injuries, before they discovered a cavity clearly left by the projectile after penetrating the head, with no trace of the cavity indicating its exit.
explosion in the head
The Italian doctor added that these projectiles usually explode in the head and doctors have no choice because they are not equipped for this complex type of surgery. The projectile actually took Majeed’s life after he remained in a coma for hours.
The Italian doctor spoke of the 40 surgeries she performs daily, 15 of them on children. She declined to comment on whether the head and neck injuries were intentional or not, saying only that what is certain is that the coming Gaza community will be afflicted with a “huge army” of disabled people.
Before Gaza, which she returned to early last month, Letzi worked with Doctors Without Borders in some of the world’s most dangerous conflict zones, including Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya, Somalia and Haiti.
Israel has reduced what it calls the humanitarian zone in Gaza to just 40 square kilometres, where 1.6 million displaced people are crammed, and the Italian doctor said this is an indication that it wants to push all Gazans towards the sea.
Deir al-Balah Hospital is the only one still operating in the central Gaza Strip, but Israeli shelling has intensified around it in the past week.
The Italian doctor said that the shelling was so violent last Sunday that many displaced people started moving towards Khan Younis in the south, towards the beach, which is mainly covered by tents of other displaced people. The overwhelming majority of patients also left, and only about 100 remained who were unable to move, such as those who had amputated limbs, were injured in the head, or were lying in intensive care, in addition to children and women who were injured in the abdomen.
The situation was made worse by the suffocating blockade on humanitarian aid, including even very urgent medicines such as painkillers and anaesthetics, which take two full months to be allowed to pass, according to Letzi, who said that what children fear most is undergoing surgery without anesthesia.