“In recent days, everything has only gotten worse, it’s a long descent into hell,” warns Doctors Without Borders

Léo Cans, head of mission at MSF, has just returned from a mission in the Palestinian enclave. He describes the situation at Al-Nasser hospital which has lost “80% of its caregivers” and where requests for medicine remain unanswered.

“In recent days, everything has only gotten worse, a long descent into hell is happening in Gaza,” alert, Sunday January 28 on franceinfo, Léo Cans, head of mission at Médecins sans frontières (MSF) in the Palestinian territories. Returning from the Palestinian enclave, where fighting continues between Israel and Hamas, the humanitarian says he “upset” by what he saw in hospitals. “Lots and lots of pain among patients, lots of women, lots of children in hospitals,” he lists.

franceinfo: What has changed in recent days to get us to this point?

Leo Cans: We can say that in recent days, everything has only gotten worse. In fact, a long descent into hell is happening in Gaza. Personally, I was shocked by what I saw ten days ago in hospitals. Hospitals completely crowded with patients. Nursing staff are completely unable to care for patients properly. It’s a lot of suffering. It is very complicated to administer medications to relieve pain. There is lots and lots of pain among patients and lots of women and children in hospitals.

Are hospitals still open, but no longer have the means to accommodate patients?

This was already the case, indeed for the last fortnight. It came to a head during the Khan Younes offensive over the last four or five days. Al-Nasser hospital, in which we have a team, which is the largest hospital in the south of the Gaza Strip, is now completely inaccessible. No one can enter the hospital, no one can leave the hospital. My team on site estimates that only 20% of healthcare workers are still in the hospital. It is overflowing with patients in critical conditions. 80% of the nursing staff left this hospital because they feared for their own lives and that of their families.

Are military operations near Al-Nasser Hospital?

The bombings are extremely close to this hospital. There were also shots fired in the hospital. When I was there, there were bullets falling from time to time in the hospital.

A bomb fell 150 meters from the hospital ten days ago. She instantly killed two children aged four and five. There were six other deaths.

Léo Cans, head of mission at Doctors Without Borders

at franceinfo

The fighting is so close that people no longer dare to go in, no longer dare to go out. Even in the hospital, people are afraid to move around. They had to bury the dead in the hospital. There is a cemetery 200 meters behind the hospital. People were afraid to go there to bury their own dead. They had to bury the dead in the hospital. This is to tell you the climate of terror that reigns at the moment.

Hospitals still can’t get medicine?

There is a real problem with medicines at Al-Nasser hospital. The United Nations asked to organize convoys to bring back medicines, but this was refused by the Israeli army. It almost systematically refuses all convoys to bring medicine or food to hospitals. When I was there, we made five attempts to go to Al-Shifa Hospital in the North. Out of five attempts, only one worked.

80% of requests made by NGOs or the UN to bring supplies to hospitals or to the north of the Gaza Strip are refused by the Israeli army.

At the moment, at Al-Nasser hospital, there are going to be problems with the fuel supply because the hospital is completely cut off from the rest of the world. There are also problems with anesthetics, not because there are none on site, but because people are afraid to go to the central pharmacy to collect these anesthetics.

Israel accuses the World Health Organization (WHO) of collusion with Hamas, and members of UNRWA, the United Nations Agency for Palestinian Refugees, of having participated in the October 7 attacks. How important are these organizations currently in the Gaza Strip?

They are of capital importance. If you remove UNRWA and the WHO today, you have tens of thousands of deaths in the coming weeks. There are hundreds of thousands of people stuck in northern Gaza. The only food that reaches them is food via Unwra convoys. When the convoys arrive there, most of them are looted because the people are starving, so they can’t even do the distributions completely because the people need food so much that they jump on the trucks and take food in a desperate way. For the World Health Organization, it is also what makes it possible to supply hospitals with medicines. MSF does it on its own scale, but it is not enough. Fortunately, the World Health Organization is also there to be able to bring fuel and medicine to hospitals. If this is not the case, in a few weeks, tens of thousands of deaths would occur.

Are you calling on the countries which cut their subsidies to UNWRA, Great Britain, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Switzerland and Finland, to reverse their decision?

Above all, we have really been calling from the start for a total, immediate and sustained ceasefire. It’s a massacre that’s taking place and I’m weighing my words. Humanitarian aid is blocked from entering Gaza. It’s very complicated to get help in. It is then blocked in the Gaza Strip because the Israeli army prevents us from bringing this humanitarian aid to hospitals, as is the case in Al-Nasser today. They are preventing us from bringing him to northern Gaza. There is a real fight against this humanitarian response. This is totally unacceptable.