Hospital teams described “influxes, hundreds of injured people, children” on Sunday, according to Isabelle Defourny, president of Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF).
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“The offensive has resumed in the Gaza Strip with unprecedented violence. Civilian victims are very numerous”testifies Monday December 4 on franceinfo Isabelle Defourny, president of Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF). “It’s extremely brutal. I can’t tell you how many injured people arrived at the hospital, but the teams described influxes, hundreds of injured people, children who arrived at the hospital on Sunday.”she specifies. The NGO is no longer able to provide care to the population. Doctors Without Borders (MSF) has pointed out the responsibility of the Israeli army in the shootings which left two dead on November 18 in Gaza, against an NGO convoy which was trying to flee towards the south of the country. “We no longer see a solution to work. Today, we have not yet made the decision to leave. We are thinking”she explained on franceinfo.
franceinfo. What is the situation on site?
Isabelle Defourny. The offensive resumed in the Gaza Strip with unprecedented violence. Civilian victims are very numerous and every day, the space to work for humanitarians like us is shrinking and has become almost non-existent. Our international team of fifteen people, surgeons, anesthetists, worked until yesterday evening in the Nasser hospital in the south. They took care of influx of wounded civilians after influx of wounded. They had to leave the hospital due to the violence of the offensive and numerous notifications to leave. They arrived at al-Mawasi which is on the beach. They describe large numbers of displaced people, a population that is terrified, exhausted and arrives destitute of everything. We also have a team at al-Aqsa hospital who fear being cut off from the South and no longer being able to work quickly. The population receives numerous notifications to move towards Rafah or towards the beach. But as the offensive is underway, there are panic movements. The population does not know where to go. There is nothing on the beach today to support the population.
Israel says the resumption of fire is very limited in the South. Isn’t that what you see?
It’s extremely brutal. I can’t tell you how many injured people arrived at the hospital, but crews described hundreds of injured people, children who arrived at the hospital on Sunday. Today the teams left the hospital. We no longer have a clear idea of what is happening at the Nasser hospital.
Are you going to leave Gaza?
Today we no longer have a solution, we wonder what to do. We have a small team working in al-Aqsa hospital, but it is extremely limited. Doctors Without Borders staff ask to leave the Gaza Strip. It’s quite new. Due to the offensive in the South and the panic. Today, we have not yet made the decision to leave. We think about what we are going to do. There needs to be a ceasefire. This is the only possibility of successfully putting in place relief to take care of all the injured and for the displaced population of Gaza. Today, almost the entire population of Gaza is displaced. The minimum thing to do today urgently would be to evacuate from Gaza these thousands of wounded and sick people who need urgent care.