Red Cross sends two teams of war surgeons to Gaza

The International Committee of the Red Cross is sending two teams of war surgeons to Gaza and setting up a surgical unit in the enclave’s main hospital to treat heavy casualties from clashes between Israeli occupation forces and Palestinians. Since protests on the Gaza border began on March 30, Israeli occupation troops have killed 115 Palestinians and wounded more than 13,000 people, including 3,600 by live ammunition, Robert Mardini, ICRC’s director for the Near and Middle East, said.

This week also saw the most intense flare-up of hostilities between Palestinians and Israel since the 2014 Gaza war. “The recent demonstrations and violence that took place along the Gaza border since the end of March have triggered a health crisis of unprecedented magnitude in this part of the world,” Mardini told a news conference in Geneva. The ICRC will set up a 50-bed surgical unit at Al Shifa hospital, Gaza’s largest. “Our priority now clearly is to help gunshot wound victims. Imagine, 1,350 people with complex cases who will need three to five operations each, a total of 4,000 surgeries, half of which will be carried out by ICRC teams,” he said. Mardini also said the economy of Gaza, which is blockaded by Israel and its other neighbour Egypt, was “suffocating”, with high unemployment, electricity limited to two hours a day, and untreated sewage flowing into the sea. “Gaza is a sinking ship,” he said.