A doctor’s account of the situation in Gaza

Reem Yunis conducted the following interview with Dr Bushra Othman, who recently volunteered in Gaza.

--------------------

Tell us a bit about yourself and your background

I am a Palestinian Australian who migrated with my family to Melbourne at the age of six in 1992 after the first Gulf War. We came here from Kuwait, where I was born and where my family had initially resided, just like hundreds of thousands of Palestinians who had to flee Palestine due to the occupation and reside in one Arab country or another, becoming known as the Palestinian diaspora. After completing all my schooling and an undergraduate degree in Melbourne, I studied postgraduate medicine in South Australia. I undertook surgical training in regional Victoria and Melbourne and then obtained my qualifications/fellowship in general surgery.

What is PANZMA? When was it founded and how? And how did you hear about it?

PANZMA stands for Palestinian Australian New Zealand Medical Association. This organisation was founded in 2020 by a group of Palestinian healthcare professionals who are volunteers. Its aim is to provide immediate medical relief to Palestinians living in Gaza (which has been under lengthy siege by the occupation since 2007) and those living in the occupied West Bank. The aim of PANZMA is to establish and support programs, education and training that foster the future of Palestinian health care.

I was first introduced to PANZMA by a local Melbourne doctor via word of mouth. I had been aware of their fantastic efforts over the last few years in organising educational events and fundraising to buy medical supplies for hospitals in Gaza and the West Bank. More recently, I became aware of a call out for interested healthcare workers to volunteer for a medical mission in Gaza, given the ongoing conflict.

It took many months and lots of hard work by PANZMA volunteers to make their first medical mission a reality. We were initially going to be a team of nine to ten people. However, we were limited to five after the Rafah border was closed by Israel. Also, only two surgeons (Dr Jamal Merei and I) were allowed to enter on the planned start date (13 June). The reasoning given to us was that one did not qualify, while the other two Australian members were denied entry because they held a Palestinian Identity document, despite declaring it at the border. Later on, two other members were able to join our mission, as a last-minute addition, and so they entered Gaza on 20 June. One is a general surgeon from Jordan, and the other is an engineer from Sydney.

What motivated you to join the medical team volunteering for Gaza, despite the apparent danger involved?

I believe a surgeon’s role extends beyond the four walls of an operating theatre, or even beyond those in my own local community. I, like many others over the last nine months, have been watching daily the sheer destruction of Gaza, the obliteration of its healthcare system, and the targeting of healthcare workers and facilities. I have watched doctors and nurses be completely burnt out from the physical, psychological and emotional tolls of working in a system with dwindling resources on a background of fearing for their safety or being displaced multiple times or being sieged in hospitals. I have spent years cultivating my surgical skills, and I felt a strong sense of moral duty to try and reach Gaza to offer some firsthand help in the hospitals there. As a Palestinian, I also felt as if it were my own family members who were suffering there. I kept feeling helpless that I’m not physically there in Gaza with them to lend them a hand.

Talk to us a bit about the general situation in Gaza that you witnessed

Although I have never been to Gaza before, I was told many stories by my new friends and colleagues about how beautiful a place it used to be before this war. How friends would go and catch the sunset at the beach while sitting at a nice café drinking tea (with lots of sugar!). How the markets would be filled with delicious fresh fruit, and other produce such as nuts and dates, all locally produced in Gaza. How the Al-Shifa Hospital was the pride and joy of the Gaza community, a healthcare facility that rivalled those in the Western world. Now, however, all these places exist only in memories and in photos or videos on people’s phones.

Every single person I met—whether an adult or a child or a patient or a relative—has lost at least one member of their family or even multiple. If your home still exists, then it is basically a miracle. Many people have been displaced twice, three times, even up to seven or nine times. Many people live in tents, and I use that term loosely. Not everyone is lucky enough to have a sturdy tent; some have makeshift tents using blankets and aid package wrapping, or whatever spare cloth they can find.

There is no electricity, so no one goes out past sunset as there are no lights. They have been creative in utilising solar panels and converting that energy into electricity (via the use of a controller and inverter) so they can charge their phones. They have had to use vegetable oil mixed with a little bit of fuel to enable them to drive around, but there are few cars on the roads. For almost nine months, Gazans haven’t had access to chicken or meat or eggs. Shampoo and soap were very difficult to find in the markets. Yet even if these products had entered Gaza, they would be exceptionally expensive. Many people would have to walk a few hours every single day to access (filtered) water for drinking or spend a few hours going to obtain bread or food. All of this is against the backdrop of knowing that there is no safe zone in Gaza, and at any moment, you may have to flee, running for your life.

Talk to us about the health situation from your experience as a doctor in there

The PANZMA medical mission team was based at Shuhada Al Aqsa Hospital in Deir Al Balah for three weeks. We were fortunate that there were limited attacks around this area during our time in Gaza. Unlike what we have seen in the last couple of weeks, where constant massacres have been occurring, forcing a large number of dead and injured to present to the few remaining hospitals in the south—causing them to be overwhelmed.

In addition, the European hospital was evacuated two weeks ago, causing further strain on Al Aqsa and Nasser hospitals (in the south of Gaza). Medical and surgical supplies are exceptionally low, and Israel is preventing medical aid from entering via Karem Shalom. The hospital’s infrastructure is run on two backup generators, which often cause the electricity or water to turn off for short periods.

Sterility is not always possible, and this leads to high rates of wound infections, which can sometimes be life-threatening. On our fourth or fifth day, the hospital ran out of sterile surgical gowns and abdominal packs (used in cases of major bleeding or haemorrhage). There are limited options for sutures and wound dressings. There is not enough appropriate pain relief for patients. Patients often sleep on broken beds, or they may find no mattresses, and so they are primarily cared for by their families due to the very limited nursing staff for this tragic influx of patients.

Are there any other points you want to bring up?

There is only so much pain and heartache and destruction that a soul, a community, a land can endure—and Gaza and its people are beyond their limit of endurance.

They do not wish to be heroes or to be resilient in the face of unspeakable crimes. They wish to live a life that holds security, safety, education and access to basic human rights—something that we all deserve.