33 people are currently working for Doctors of the World in Gaza. There were 19 at the start of the conflict. Four have been able to leave the territory since the beginning of the conflict. One was killed in the bombings.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":5011,"template":"","actualite_type":[10],"actualite_sujet":[],"action_combat":[],"mdm_pays":[],"class_list":["post-5010","actualite","type-actualite","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","actualite_type-international-actions"],"acf":{"mise_en_avant":false,"chapeau":"33 people are currently working for Doctors of the World in Gaza. There were 19 at the start of the conflict. Four have been able to leave the territory since the beginning of the conflict. One was killed in the bombings.","cta_type":"aucun","cta_lien":"","contenu":"
No, not me. But before that, I had to move twice. During the evacuation of Khan Youn\u00e8s four or five months ago, I had to leave the area where I was living for Rafah. Then in February, when airstrikes began on the east of Rafah, I left for the Middle Area, in Deir el-Balah where I now live. I am with my wife, my three children, my mother, my two younger brothers and my little sister.<\/p>\n
I have been working for Doctors of the World since 2022, it will soon be two years. I am a general practitioner and hold a master's degree in mental health. I studied the integration of mental health into general care services, which is why I started working with Doctors of the World as a mental health doctor. That was in Gaza City, in our office which is now destroyed. We provided psychosocial support and assistance to institutions across the Gaza Strip.<\/p>\n
Since the beginning of this war, everything has been destroyed. There is no longer a health system in Gaza, not enough medical services, medicines, or even a place to provide consultations and medicines, no emergency services to help people. Doctors of the World began setting up medical points in Rafah at the end of January. Initially, we mainly provided emergency primary health care. Then we added sexual and reproductive health services, maternal and child health, and psychosocial support, meaning psychological consultations in individual or group sessions at each medical point. This way, we can take care of patients who require mental health intervention or refer them elsewhere in Gaza. For this, we are in contact with other organisations or clinics of the Ministry of Health. But since May, everyone has been fleeing Rafah, so we have launched a new medical point in the Middle Area governorate where we provide the same health services. With the evacuation of Rafah, we had to adapt to intervene where there are the most people, the greatest needs, to respond to them as best as possible.<\/p>\n
The security situation is dramatic in Gaza. If people are suffering, we, as an international organisation offering health services and psychological support, also suffer from insecurity. We receive donations from the WHO, for example, and Doctors of the World has also been able to deliver medicines to Gaza. But our stock was stolen from our office in Rafah. We are trying to manage the shortage and rebuild our stock with other international organisations. But so far, we have been able to meet the needs of the people who come to us.<\/p>\n
My colleagues in the mental health service are psychologists, and mental health workers work directly with beneficiaries, organising support and counselling sessions, psychosocial interventions ranging from psychoeducation to advanced interventions with people who are stressed, depressed, or suffering from psychoses due to their living conditions today. As a mental health doctor, I oversee the integration of mental health services with doctors, nurses, and psychologists. I help them identify mental health needs during medical examinations, refer the most critical patients\u2014those who need regular follow-up or medications that we may not have in stock\u2014to appropriate facilities. We also produce training materials for medical staff to address this crisis, not only for Doctors of the World but also for other actors in Gaza, to teach them how to understand mental health needs and psychosocial support. It is not about treating headaches or bodily pains without taking mental health into account. We must address it.<\/p>\n
There are many stress and grief-related disorders. These are normal reactions that become abnormal in certain situations. Like in Gaza, where the violence has lasted too long. It is not just the grief of losing loved ones. It is the pain of losing one\u2019s children, one\u2019s home, one\u2019s job. Everyone in Gaza today is suffering from abnormal grief.<\/p>\n
Regarding stress symptoms, they reach extreme levels. We are beginning to diagnose multi-traumatic stress disorders. Every day, we encounter severe stress cases, patients suffering from psychomotor agitation, patients with chronic mental disorders, psychotic or epileptic patients who need treatments that are unavailable due to shortages. We are sometimes forced to change these people\u2019s treatment, to start from scratch with a new molecule when they had been effectively treated for years and their illness was under control. Suddenly, they collapse, and we have to find another medication, follow this treatment, and monitor side effects.<\/p>\n
And above all, there is depression. It is everywhere in Gaza right now. More than one in five patients we see has mental disorders. We must identify these patients and do our best for them. With our psychologists, we can offer psychological consultations, support sessions, or start short-term therapy, prescribe medications. But I assure you that there is a real shortage of mental health services in Gaza, and of medical services in general. We need a great deal of help to overcome this situation.<\/p>\n
When we started with two medical points in Rafah, we could see 600 to 700 patients per day.<\/p>\n
What I want to say here is that even our team suffers from multiple traumas every day. Many of us have lost a loved one, a friend, a family member, and we have all lost our homes. And the severe, repeated trauma we endure is having to flee from one place to another regularly. For eight months, some of my colleagues have had to move five or six times. So yes, we do our best to help people. We suffer, but we can still help others. We know what they are going through because we are going through the same thing. We understand their situation, and this can sometimes help us find solutions together. Daily solutions: how to find food, means of transport, solve problems of overcrowding, hygiene, insects that swarm because there is no wastewater treatment. But we also need help. Our team needs help.<\/p>\n
When the Israeli army ordered the evacuation of Rafah, people fled to Deir el-Balah. There are only about fifteen kilometres between Rafah and the Middle Area, but the only road considered safe is the one along the sea, and it is completely congested with cars and carts. It takes two hours to make the trip. The Middle Area has started to become overcrowded. However, the wastewater treatment system, which runs on diesel or fuel, cannot pump water to the sea due to shortages. The streets are full of sewage. We expect to see epidemics, cases of hepatitis A, infectious diseases, skin diseases. Cases of hepatitis A, for example, were common among our patients in Rafah. We distributed hygiene guidelines on how to care for the sick and break the chain of infection. I believe we will soon have the same cases in the Middle Area due to overcrowding, life in tents, and promiscuity in the camps.<\/p>\n
According to the evacuation order for Rafah given by the Israeli army, yes, it is the safest area. In reality, we still face indiscriminate bombings, especially in the east of Deir el-Balah. And nothing is entering Gaza anymore. No food, no medicine, no tents. Shortages of everything are starting again. The price of the food you buy doubles or triples. Due to the fuel shortage, for example, bakeries cannot operate, and it is impossible to find bread. All we can still find comes from supplies that entered Gaza in the past months. At the Deir el-Balah market, you will find canned food: white beans, fava beans, canned meat. There is a shortage of fresh food, groceries, vegetables, rice, meat, milk, eggs. I have three children, the oldest is six years old. They have not eaten eggs for two months. We are always looking for solutions to feed them. We try to stock up on some beans. We keep a kilo of rice. But we expect the worst because there is no solution. So many things have been tried. We are losing hope. It is like an infectious disease; everyone in Gaza is losing hope. The Middle Area is not equipped for such an influx of people. There is no drinking water. Even the saltwater used for certain hygiene needs, handwashing, and showers is insufficient given the number of people in the area. It arrives in homes about once a week to fill the containers. People fight for this water. If you can afford to buy it, 1,000 litres will cost you 100 shekels, or 25 euros.<\/p>\n
So we do not look too far ahead. We try to see the days to come. We pray and hope that the fire will die down, that the deaths will stop, that the destruction of what remains will end. These days, we do not believe much in the future. We all plan to leave Gaza. Maybe not now, maybe tomorrow, later, in years. Because the lesser destruction caused by previous military escalations, ten years ago, has not yet been repaired. With what is happening today, we expect it will take a hundred years to solve the problems, rebuild people\u2019s lives, repair houses, shelters, sanitation facilities, wastewater treatment. It will take a long time. That is why we are losing hope.<\/p>\n
We just want the bombings to stop, to be able to walk in the street, not to constantly think that we will die in the next five minutes. There are no schools for children. In the camps, people try to gather children to play with them, to offer them psychosocial support. One of our mental health team members participates in this. But I do not want to send my children there. No place is safe. Even the evacuation orders that say one area is safe and another is not. But it is not just a matter of tanks or ground operations. It is a question of airstrikes or bombings that can happen anywhere, anytime. I am sorry to say this, but I prefer to die with my children than for one of them to die far from me. My father was ill when the Israeli army was conducting operations in Khan Youn\u00e8s. I had to take him to Al-Aqsa Hospital in Deir al-Balah. The only doctor who took care of my father, who treated him, who set up his IV, was me. There was no doctor. No medicine. Nothing. He died in three days. This is not my story. It is the story of all families in Gaza.<\/p>","temps_lecture":11,"legende_couverture":"","signature_nom":"","signature_role":"","signature_initiales":"","signature_avatar":"","communique_lien":"","communique_libelle":"","encadre_titre":"","encadre_texte":"","partenaires_titre":"","partenaires":null,"reseaux_partage":["facebook","twitter","linkedin","email","copy"],"evenement_date":null,"evenement_type":"","evenement_lieu":"","evenement_inscription":"","presse_afficher":false,"presse_surtitre":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/medecinsdumonde.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/actualite\/5010","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/medecinsdumonde.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/actualite"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/medecinsdumonde.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/actualite"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/medecinsdumonde.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/actualite\/5010\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5012,"href":"https:\/\/medecinsdumonde.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/actualite\/5010\/revisions\/5012"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medecinsdumonde.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5011"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/medecinsdumonde.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5010"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"actualite_type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medecinsdumonde.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/actualite_type?post=5010"},{"taxonomy":"actualite_sujet","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medecinsdumonde.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/actualite_sujet?post=5010"},{"taxonomy":"action_combat","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medecinsdumonde.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/action_combat?post=5010"},{"taxonomy":"mdm_pays","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medecinsdumonde.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/mdm_pays?post=5010"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}