Humanitarian doctor Raphaël Pitti expresses “his very deep anger” at the lack of “political pressure” from “the West”

On Friday August 16, humanitarian doctor Raphaël Pitti accused Westerners on France Inter of not providing “the political pressure needed to achieve an immediate ceasefire” in the Gaza Strip. “It’s something that makes me angry, a very deep anger”confides the anesthesiologist-resuscitator, trainer in war medicine within the NGO Mehad.

Raphael Pitti wonders “What we are waiting for to stop delivering weapons to Israel, to recall our ambassadors”. “What are we waiting for so that there is a political gesture that will at least save the honor of the Westerners who are being lost?”he wonders.

This emergency medicine specialist estimates that between “60 and 80% of health structures are destroyed” in the Gaza Strip after ten months of conflict. After having visited the Palestinian territories several times, he notes that the “health system has completely collapsed”. Faced with this situation which he judges “extremely difficult”humanitarian doctors “try to meet basic needs” of the population.

To do this, “primary care posts” are set up. His NGO in count “six in partnership with Doctors of the World and Caritas International”. But Raphaël Pitti reminds us that humanitarian doctors are “subject to the same law as the Gazans” and must move and find “what structure” install, “a tent or hard”. Added to these constraints are “lack of supply of medicines” but also “heat and lack of water”regrets the anesthesiologist-resuscitator.

He details some of the consequences of these health conditions, particularly for the “dermatologic pathologies” as “heat rash in children that gets very infected”. “It would be enough to simply have showers every day or to be able to put them in a cool place to be able to heal, but this is not the case and it becomes infected”he regrets.