Interviewer: The United Nations humanitarian chief is urging Israel to open more border crossings into Gaza for humanitarian aid. Tom Fletcher is calling for immediate and unhindered access as agreed to in the ceasefire plan. The UN says even 600 trucks entering daily would not be enough to meet the needs of the population. Israel is still limiting the number of aid trucks allowed to enter Gaza nearly a week into the ceasefire. Well, Dr. Khamis Elessi is a neuro rehabilitation and pain medicine consultant. He’s been volunteering at hospitals in Gaza City since Israel’s war on Gaza began nearly 2 years ago. He joins us now from Al-Ahli Hospital in Gaza City. And doctor, there is some aid being allowed in, but we understand only about half of what was agreed to. Are you getting the medical supplies that you need?

Dr Khamis Elessi: Thank you for having me. And actually, less than half, less than one tenth of what’s supposed to enter Gaza is entering. In the past 3 days there are supposed to be 1,800 trucks food aid and medical supplies coming into Gaza. But in reality less than 200 came into Gaza according to officials here. And not only that, the starvation situation here and the hunger that has been affected hundreds of thousands of people, you need to provide them with healthy food, not only to rely on canned food. Because as you know, people have been feeding their kids with canned food that contains lots and lots of preservatives for the past 740 days. And this is not the real situation, a real solution to treat malnutrition because people need proteins, people need fresh vegetables, people need eggs to correct their bone health. So we we’re speaking about 170,000 injuries. Most of them are having uh unhealed wound and they’re having infected ones and they need proteins to rebuild flesh. And they need uh eggs, they need calcium, they need milk to rebuild their bones. But this is not present here in Gaza City. And not only that, you’re speaking about 350,000 individuals in Gaza suffering from chronic diseases and they need to be followed up in the primary healthcare clinics. Unfortunately, out of 75 primary healthcare clinics that belong to the Minister of Health and Honor, only 13 are barely functioning. Out of 36 hospitals in the Gaza Strip, only 12 are partially functioning. All hospitals do not have MRI machines. How can you treat patients? How can you follow a patients without MRI machines? How can you follow patients without CT? Let’s speak about the basics – hospitals need at least three to four X-ray machines in each hospital. Can you believe that in our hospital we have only two X-ray machines which is serving more than half a million population and these machines are frequently malfunctioning.

Interviewer: Now doctor, you make – sorry to interrupt, but you make a really interesting point there. You talk about needing X-ray machines, needing MRI machines. These are not things that are going to come in on a humanitarian truck anytime soon. And I would assume, maybe wrongly here, that some of the injuries or the nature of injuries and illness and concerns that are walking through the door has changed since Israel has reduced its assault or stopped its assault during the ceasefire. But there will still be, as you talked about, untreated wounds, injuries that haven’t healed. How do you treat those when you do not have that equipment?

Dr Khamis Elessi: Unfortunately we have to prioritize. For those patient who have severe infected wounds we will prescribe antibiotics but as I say almost all essential drug list is not available here. More than 60% of other drugs are not available. Patients who suffer from cardiovascular disease, renal disease, they do not have their medicines. And unfortunately out of the 170,000 injuries most of them cannot stay in hospitals. They are being treated and follow up in the tents and just imagine the environment in the tents where there is poor sanitation. Since the 7th of October till this moment as I’m speaking tons and tons and tons of garbage has been just accumulating in the center of the city. More than 95% of the water that people are using are mixed with sewage system. 35% of the portable water people drinking are not suitable for human consumption and this curries lots of diseases with it which causing thousands and thousands of gastroenteritis and toxication among people in their tents. You’re speaking about complete absence of heart surgeries, complete absence of neurosurgery especially for pediatrics. The only center in Gaza Strip which used to treat cancer patients, the Turkish Palestinian hospital has been destroyed and out of service and now 11,000 cancer patients are waiting to die. Some humble services are being offered in some primary care clinics but this is not the optimal way because you need to give them chemotherapy. You need to provide them with followup which is not existing.

Interviewer: And so, doctor, can I ask then you are talking about short-term needs and long-term needs. Now that you have lived and breathed this destruction over the last two years and you have seen all of the awful things that have happened. How do you feel now that you are on the other side of the immediate assault and you talk about those long-term problems? You talk about the heart disease and the cancer that’s not being treated, but the day-to-day assault has finished. How do you feel about where things sit?

Dr Khamis Elessi: Unfortunately, we feel helpless and sometimes sometimes you’re losing your power and you’re losing your energy to help anymore, because we’ve been doing this…. Personally, I’ve been volunteering for the past 740 days and like me, many others are doing this, just to help their countrymen. But every time you’re living in the bed, you restarting the war. So people starting to clean their destroyed homes and just put a tent underneath that trouble. But again, there is this gloomy news about restarting the war which caused them really to have this bad feeling being scared, their kids being terrified to hear this news that this war will start again. If I’m speaking about the urgent need at the moment, we need at least the essential drug list. We need at least 10 different antibiotics to be covering all hospitals here. We need X-ray machines for each hospital. We need CT machines at least. We’re not speaking about MRI at the moment. And we need to take care for the 11,000 cancer patients and 2,000 renal failure patients. Can you imagine out of 2,500 in the beginning of the war that used to come for renal dialysis only 500 come now, we don’t know what happened to the remaining.

Interviewer: I mean I don’t think any of us could imagine the scale

Dr Khamis Elessi: one final point is that you’re speaking about 17,000 patients who need to go out urgently and immediately to seek further medical care abroad and now they’re waiting for a border to be open. So you’re seeing a disaster before our eyes and we need to have an immediate action by world leaders who wants to promote peace and give Palestinians a dignified life.

Interviewer: Yeah, you make very valid points and I’m so grateful for your time and your
insight. Thank you so much. That’s Dr Khamis Elessi joining us from Gaza City. Thank you.

Dr Khamis Elessi: Thank you. Thank you for having me.