EIn June, I traveled to Doha, Qatar, to speak with Palestinian patients and their family members evacuated from Gaza. The health professionals treating them told us that these were the most complex trauma cases they had ever seen.
Other countries, such as France, with strong and sophisticated health systems and the necessary capacities, should welcome Palestinians from Gaza who cannot receive the care they need in Gaza or Egypt. This is a humanitarian imperative.
In the more than ten months of the Israeli military campaign in Gaza, more than 40,000 Palestinians have been killed and more than 93,000 injured, according to the Gaza Health Ministry. Gaza’s health system is on the verge of collapse, with only 16 of 36 hospitals still partially functioning, a severe shortage of medicines and fuel, and 500 health workers killed.
Evacuated to Qatar
Despite allegations by the Israeli military that Hamas has set up bases in hospitals, no evidence has been presented to justify depriving these health facilities and ambulances of their protected status under international humanitarian law.
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In Doha, I met Malak Shahin, a Palestinian woman from Gaza, who told me how an explosion hit the building next to the one where she and her family were sheltering on October 11, 2023. It took rescuers 40 minutes to find her 17-year-old daughter Shahad, who was unconscious. Malak Shahin’s son, a doctor, gave her CPR. “for at least ten minutes, but it was no use”according to Malak.
“The paramedics wrapped her body to prepare it for the funeral and we took her to be buried. I opened the bag to see her one last time and then I saw her eyes open and I heard her make a noise.” Shahad was resuscitated and evacuated to Qatar, where she is being treated for severe memory loss and significant brain damage.
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Shahad is one of 470 people injured in Gaza who are in Doha receiving high-level specialist care. I also met Jehad Arafat, a 29-year-old artist who had taken refuge in a school near Nasser Hospital in Gaza in February. He had gone out to fetch water when a sniper shot him from a height. “I suddenly realized that my right leg had gone over my left shoulder.” He said the gunman continued to target people trying to rescue him. Eventually, a friend threw him a rope and dragged him to safety and then carried him to Nasser Hospital.
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