There are few international aid workers who witness ‘in situ’ the day-to-day life of the battered Gaza Strip. Hence the importance of his story. That of Ricardo Martínez, responsible for Logistics of the Emergency Unit of Doctors Without Borders (MSF), fresh from the scene of conflict, takes your breath away. Children playing soccer, unfazed by the roar of the pumps while the sewers gush out fecal water. He describes the “apocalypse,” in his own words.
There is an area of the Gaza Strip, in the north, where there has not even been cooperation to tell what is happening.
Access to the north is completely restricted. If the situation is bad in the south, it is not even known in the north. We are talking about hundreds of thousands of people abandoned to their fate, surrounded by the Israeli Army. We receive information in dribs and drabs, not even phones can be charged due to lack of fuel.
We have a part of the Strip, then, in which there are not even eyes.
It is a black hole where there are no eyes. There is no humanitarian presence. It is scary to think about the fate of these hundreds of thousands of people who, for various reasons, have not been able to leave. Moving is dangerous because of the battles and, in addition, the population fears the Israeli checkpoints because any error in following an order means death. Furthermore, they prefer to die quickly from a bomb than to die slowly in the south from lack of food, water, sanitation, from lacking even the most basic living conditions.
Aren’t there fights among the Gazans themselves over the lack of food, water and resources in general?
Violence is already knocking at the door. I have seen a fight between two families over some olive branches. Olive branches to heat the food. Gazans are on the verge of a fratricidal struggle for resources to survive. More people, less space, fewer resources… what can it degenerate into. In civil war? In struggles to survive due to the basic instinct of survival.
What have the Gazans told you? What worries you?
They ask me: What have we done? Do they want to exterminate us? Do they want to exterminate the Palestinian people? Because? Will the world be better without Palestine? Where are we going? We don’t want war, they tell me.
What is a typical day in Gaza like?
Day to day is: hello, good morning, I’m alive. Then, don’t let anything happen to you, don’t get sick, and then find a life to eat, drink and survive. It is very cold and the rains are coming.
What impact is the lack of fuel having?
It is having a brutal impact on public health. There is a less obvious but very important example. There is overpopulation and people do their business. The sewage systems are collapsed. And the lack of fuel prevents pumping sewage water to the treatment plants. I have seen fecal water gushing out of the sewers in the middle of the market and children playing. I have seen it in Rafah. Since the treatment plant is not working either, these waters end up directly in the Mediterranean.
Are there epidemics?
There are. And more to come. The gates of hell are now open. There is jaundice, meningitis, gastrointestinal diseases due to poor water quality and lack of food, there is scabies, lice… Personal hygiene has disappeared, there is no water. What there is is for drinking. Brushing your teeth is a drama… Every day is constantly overcoming obstacles.
I imagine that the mental health of Gazans is very deteriorated. Are there suicides?
Fatal. It is one of the Doctors Without Borders programs. They have told me many times: “I prefer to be killed by bombs, when a bomb falls on me I don’t want to survive because I am going to die slowly.” Suicides are knocking at the door.
The situation in the hospitals has been described as “Dantesque.”
Gaza had 36 hospitals and now there are 11 open, only two in the north. Hospitals have become towns because people seek refuge in them, the hallways are inhabited by families with their mattresses, their sheets…
Is there enough material to care for the large volume of wounded?
It is scarce and will become more scarce as long as the borders are not opened to humanitarian aid.
Related news
The entire Gazan population is being hit hard, especially children.
Children are the biggest victims. The drones sound 24 hours a day, death constantly in the sky. The kids have it so assimilated that they play soccer and as if nothing were happening, no matter. The same when hearing the explosions. They have already internalized it. What is this? Children of 5, 6, 7 years old who don’t flinch when they hear the explosions? What psychological consequences will it have? There is an acronym, WCNSF (Wounded Children Not Surviving Family) to designate injured children from non-surviving families. There are many. Doctors have arrived stained with feces and blood from children who have released sphincters before dying. We experienced it in the Al Nasser hospital, in the first mass arrival of wounded. 120 people arrived, 70 of them already dead. They never abandon their dead, they take them to the hospital.