Gaza is a humanitarian catastrophe
The humanitarian situation in Gaza was already poor in the wake of the seven-year blockade when the Israeli operation caused its total collapse. In early August, staff members from the Representative Office of Finland in Ramallah visited East Jerusalem hospitals where patients from Gaza had been brought.
On 7 August staff members from the Representative Office of Finland in Ramallah visited two East Jerusalem hospitals, Augusta Victoria Hospital and St. Joseph Hospital. Patients with the most severe injuries have been brought from Gaza to these two hospitals.
While visiting the hospitals, we met patients and their families, doctors, volunteers and the management.
At the time there were about 50 patients in West Bank (including East Jerusalem) hospitals. Al-Shifa Hospital, the largest hospital in Gaza, has a capacity of only a few hundred beds. Patients in need of demanding surgical treatment have to be transferred elsewhere.
The number of patients transferred was very small in view of the fact that at that time more than 9,000 people had already been injured. In addition, many of the injured will need treatment either very far into the future or for the rest of their lives.
Except for the intensive care units, the hospitals were full of people. Some of the patients were accompanied by a close family member from Gaza while others were escorted by a more distant relative from the West Bank.
Men under 40 years of age were not allowed to accompany their children from Gaza, which meant that some children were also without a parent, or with some other relative, or a voluntary escort.
Children from the neighbourhood also attended and came to play with child patients brought from Gaza. Some of the children knew nothing about their family members except that they were left behind in Gaza.
It had not been possible yet to tell some of the injured that their family members were seriously injured and in the same hospital or had already died.
Non-trauma patients also
brought out of Gaza
Patients other than trauma patients are also brought out of Gaza. Tawfiq A. Nasser, a representative of Augusta Victoria Hospital specializing in the treatment of chronic diseases, said that the hospital would be received more than 60 cancer patients in the coming days.
More trauma patients would also be arriving, but the problem is that there are too few ambulances. According to Nasser, seven ambulances made the rounds in two shifts per day in order to evacuate patients from Gaza.
An increasingly difficult
humanitarian situation
The humanitarian situation in Gaza was already poor in the wake of the seven-year blockade. According to UN statistics, 1,975 Palestinians, more than 70 per cent of them civilians, have died in the Israeli operation.
More than 450 children have died. Almost 10,000 people have been injured.
At its highest, the number of people who have had to flee in Gaza reached about 440,000, and the number continues to fluctuate continuously. More than half fled to UNRWA schools, which are not suitable for accommodating thousands of people.
At least 373,000 children are in need of psychosocial support.
The distribution of electricity collapsed when Gaza’s only power plant was damaged in bombings on 29 July. This impedes, among other things, the operation of hospitals and the production of food.
There is a severe shortage of water. Organizations fear the spread of diseases, as medical care and the availability of medicines have become more difficult. According to WHO, the World Health Organization, one third of Gaza’s 32 hospitals are damaged.
One example of imaginative activities are the maternity packages distributed to mothers registered with UNRWA who have given birth during the warfare. The idea for the maternity package came from Merit Hietanen, a Finnish assistant specialist at UNRWA.
Each kit includes a baby box, nappies, personal hygiene products for mother and baby, baby shampoo, lotion and talc, underwear, baby clothes and a blanket.
UNRWA statistics show that 399 infants – 174 girls and 225 boys – have started their lives as evacuee in shelters converted from UNRWA schools.
OCHA, the UN Office for Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, and UNRWA have made a joint emergency appeal, the Gaza Crisis Appeal, calling for a total of 275 million euros.
Owing to the war in Gaza, Finland has given 850,000 euros in humanitarian assistance through UNRWA and FinnChurchAid during 2014.
The need for humanitarian assistance is chronic also in the West Bank, and overall needs in the West Bank exceed those in Gaza.
Sanna Kyllönen
Representative Office of Finland in Ramallah
UNRWA helps in Gaza
UNRWA is the largest humanitarian actor in Gaza, which is home to 1.2 million Palestinian refugees. The organization has more than 12,500 employees in Gaza. Most of them are teachers.
According to UNRWA’s review, the humanitarian catastrophe persists in Gaza following the Israeli operation. Since military operations began in early July, UNRWA, the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees, has lost eleven of its workers.
The number of UNRWA workers who died in Gaza in four weeks is the same as the number killed during the entire civil war in Syria, which has now continued for three years.