Israel’s military assault on Gaza in retaliation for the Hamas attacks on 7 October was inevitable. But it went far beyond what might be considered proportional retribution. Military operations on this scale are usually indiscriminate, but from the beginning Israeli bombing targeted medical facilities and healthcare personnel, including doctors. In a deliberate campaign of destruction, Gaza’s 36 hospitals and clinics reduced by over two thirds, with most surviving facilities partially or barely functioning.
Nearly 500 Gaza health sector workers have been killed since 7 October, according to the WHO. Doctors have been kidnapped or have “disappeared”, and several have died in Israeli custody; according to the UN Human Rights Office, some released health workers have reported being tortured. Ambulances have been attacked, and Israel’s blockade has prevented medical supplies from reaching patients.
More than 84,000 people have so far been wounded and disabled, according to the Gaza Health Ministry. Many have lost limbs due to direct trauma or amputations. With a destroyed health sector, there is no one to care for them, and many wish they had died. The burden of disease and disability, worsened by unsanitary conditions and the onset of infectious disease, is huge. On 26 May Israeli planes struck a refugee camp in western Rafah, igniting a fire that killed 45 people. The horrific spectacle of children’s blazing, incinerated bodies will not easily be forgotten.
While the physical trauma of Israel’s assault on Gaza’s people is real enough, far worse and more long-lasting will be the mental trauma of these last ten months. “We are running out of words to raise the alarm in strong enough terms or to articulate the scale of children’s suffering,” said Jason Lee, Save the Children’s country director for the occupied Palestinian territories, in March. In 2022 a World Bank study found that 71 per cent of Gazans showed symptoms of depression. Before 7 October, Unicef had noted that 500,000 children needed mental health support in Gaza. How much more will be needed now is unimaginable.
The truth is that we have no idea about the scale of trauma affecting the people of Gaza, now and in the future – particularly among children. There is no historical precedent for the war on Gaza: a population penned up in a tiny strip of land without escape or means for survival, bombarded night and day by the world’s most sophisticated and lethal bombs. The orphaned children without family members, the adults who have lost everything, and the maimed and disabled without medical support will not easily come to terms with their tragedy. And as the war ends, the ghastly memories of the experiences they have endured will haunt them. We cannot know what sort of human beings will emerge from this.
Ghada Karmi is a Palestinian author and physician
This article is part of the series Losing Gaza
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