{"id":38029,"date":"2019-03-30T02:23:03","date_gmt":"2019-03-30T02:23:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/?p=38029"},"modified":"2019-03-30T02:23:03","modified_gmt":"2019-03-30T02:23:03","slug":"year-of-gaza-protests-leaves-lives-broken-medical-system-on-brink","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/?p=38029","title":{"rendered":"Year of Gaza protests leaves lives broken, medical system on brink"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

\nGAZA CITY: A year ago, Ezzedine Al-Baz\u2019s decision to skip work and join tens of thousands at the first day of protests along the Gaza-Israel border nearly cost him his life.<\/p>\n

\nBaz, then 29, said he had been standing a couple of hundred meters from the border fence for only about a half an hour when an Israeli sniper\u2019s bullet pierced his leg.<\/p>\n

\nFive operations and multiple infections later, he is missing a chunk of bone, his leg remains strapped in a metal case and he will likely never walk as before.<\/p>\n

\n\u201cIt has been a year that I have been suffering, there is still pain,\u201d he said from a clinic run by medical charity Doctors Without Borders (MSF) in Gaza City.<\/p>\n

\n\u201cAt night I don\u2019t sleep at all. If I had known, I would have stayed at work.\u201d<\/p>\n

\nA year after the start of protests and clashes on the Gaza-Israel border, more than 200 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli fire.<\/p>\n

\nBut beyond those killed, thousands of others wounded have been largely forgotten.<\/p>\n

\nThere have also been knock-on impacts for the Palestinian territory\u2019s already beleaguered health system. Hundreds of those shot remain at risk of infection and amputation, while Israel has turned down most applications to leave the strip for treatment.<\/p>\n

\nSo stretched are health care services that thousands of operations for other conditions have been delayed, while doctors who can leave are fleeing the strip, Gazan medics say.<\/p>\n

\nWith major protests expected on the anniversary Saturday, medical professionals are worried.<\/p>\n

\n\u201cA full-blown escalation would obviously push the system again toward the edge of collapse,\u201d said Gerald Rockenschaub, the World Health Organization (WHO) head in the Palestinian territories.<\/p>\n

\nThe protests labeled the Great March of Return have called for Palestinian refugees to be allowed to return to their former homes now inside Israel, which Israelis view as advocating for the destruction of the country. They were also billed as an opportunity for protesters to break the decade-long Israeli blockade of Gaza.<\/p>\n

\nThe World Bank says the restrictions are the primary cause of desperate economic circumstances in the strip, where seven out of 10 young people are unemployed.<\/p>\n

\nEarly on, many protesters remained far back from the fence and demonstrated peacefully. Others approached and clashed with Israeli forces. Those approaching the fence have progressively become more violent.<\/p>\n

\nExplosive devices, stones and fireworks have been used against Israeli forces. There has been occasional gunfire, with one soldier killed by a Palestinian sniper.<\/p>\n

\nIsraeli forces\u2019 use of live fire has come under heavy criticism, with Palestinians and rights groups saying protesters have been shot while posing little threat.<\/p>\n

\nLast month, a UN probe said Israeli soldiers had intentionally fired on civilians in what could constitute war crimes.<\/p>\n

\nAt the MSF clinic, dozens of young men with casts sit on plastic chairs waiting for treatment.<\/p>\n

\nThe organization has treated more than 4,000 Palestinians with gunshot wounds. A few hundred are not healing and risk amputation.<\/p>\n

\nMohammed Bakr, a 27-year-old fisherman, was also shot on March 30 last year and has had six operations.<\/p>\n

\n\u201cSince that day I have had no hope for the future,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\nHe accused Israeli soldiers of shooting at protesters who did nothing to provoke them.<\/p>\n

\n\u201cI won\u2019t be able to work like before. The leg won\u2019t carry weight.\u201d<\/p>\n

\nWith Gaza\u2019s medical system overstretched, treatment outside the strip could ease pressure.<\/p>\n

\nAround 500 applications have been made by those injured in the marches to cross the Israeli border for treatment, according to figures published by the WHO.<\/p>\n

\nLess than one in five have received the permits in time.<\/p>\n

\nCOGAT, the Israeli body responsible for the permits, confirmed it granted around 100 requests.<\/p>\n

\n\u201cThe Gaza health system suffers from long years of neglect by the Hamas terror organization, which prefers to invest its citizens\u2019 money in terror and military power,\u201d it said.<\/p>\n

\nMore than 8,000 operations for other often serious but not life-threatening conditions \u2014 such as gallstones or hip replacements \u2014 have been postponed in Gaza hospitals according to the WHO.<\/p>\n

\nDozens of doctors also left Gaza in 2018, a huge spike from previous years, health officials say.<\/p>\n

\nNeither the WHO nor Gaza health authorities said they had exact figures.<\/p>\n

\nWHO\u2019s Rockenschaub said he recently met a nurse who walked miles to work each day as she didn\u2019t have money for a bus.<\/p>\n

\n\u201cWhenever we talk to health authorities in Gaza, even to individual physicians, many of them talk about their intention to leave,\u201d he told AFP.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

GAZA CITY: A year ago, Ezzedine Al-Baz\u2019s decision to skip work and join tens of thousands at the first day of protests along the Gaza-Israel border nearly cost him his life. Baz, then 29, said he had been standing a couple of hundred meters from the border fence for only about a half an hour…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":38030,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-38029","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-middle_east_news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38029","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=38029"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38029\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/38030"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=38029"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=38029"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=38029"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}