In the morning the medical teams treat the living, in the afternoon they help bury the dead – or parts of them.
Palestinian Medical Relief Society (PMRS) used to run 11 health centres in Gaza before October 7th. Now only one is still able to operate, in Gaza City.
Instead, travelling by foot, bicycle or donkey cart – as there is no fuel available for vehicles – the organisation’s 32 medical outreach teams provide emergency healthcare to men, women and children across the war-torn territory.
The four to six person teams, which include doctors, nurses, social workers and physiotherapists, visit overcrowded shelters to treat people with blast injuries or infections and provide psychosocial care and recreational activities for children.
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There is malnutrition, especially in children and the elderly, in the northern areas and in Gaza city and in Rafah we expect to see it in the coming two to three weeks. There is nothing we can do.
PMRS, which is one of the few agencies currently still operating in the north of the Gaza, also delivers humanitarian aid including hygiene kits (comprising soap, period products etc), first aid kits and food, when possible. With support from Christian Aid, PMRS has also provided mobile psychological care and medical support across Gaza.
Their medical teams are inundated with patients and treated up to 5,200 people a day in March.
When al-Shifa hospital, Gaza City, was raided by the Israeli Defence Force, PMRS mobile teams continued to provide health services for people in need.
Sometimes, when the security situation is too dangerous and the teams cannot move, they are forced to suspend their work.
Dr Aed Yaghi, a Palestinian Urologist now working as the Director of PMRS, said: “The majority of cases are acute upper respiratory tract infections, gastroenteritis and diarrhoea due to a lack of hygiene in the crowded shelters: we treated 320 children under five for diarrhoea in one day last week. There is skin disease, scabies, hepatitis A."
“There is malnutrition, especially in children and the elderly, in the northern areas and in Gaza city and in Rafah we expect to see it in the coming two to three weeks. There is nothing we can do."
Until the end of January we had powdered milk we distributed for the children but it is not available in the markets now, there is no bread in the north of Gaza.
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Dr Aed, 56, who is from Gaza, said one of his PMRS colleagues in the north of the territory had lost 31kg – almost a third of his body weight – since the beginning of the conflict.
“You can’t imagine!” he said, “What about children, the elderly? This is an indication of how people are living.”
“There is no ventilation in tents, a lack of hygiene and sanitation, a lack of drinking water, food and fear of the bombing,” Dr Aed added.
He said the latest report was that there were 300,000 cases of diarrhoea and gastroenteritis, 525,000 people with upper respiratory tract infections and 70,000 cases of scabies.
But he added that it was difficult for the Ministry of Health to register every patient because it was overwhelmed with registering the injured.
According to the latest information, 3 in 10 pregnant women face challenges when in labour because they cannot access medical care, he said.
Kidney failure
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"Some 1100 patients in Gaza are currently suffering from renal failure and need kidney dialysis. Due to the conflict, the frequency and duration of sessions has been reduced from thrice to twice weekly and from three or four hours to two. Last month two people lost their lives due to kidney failure including a 34-year-old man. He was due to go to the hospital at 1am for dialysis but could not make it" – Dr Aed.
Dr Aed said PMRS procures medicine from two sources:
1. Local suppliers who still have some stocks left.
2. Humanitarian aid which arrives through the Rafah Crossing. Neither is sufficient to meet the enormous need.
“We are trying to buy medication from Cairo and send it to Gaza but it is taking not days, not weeks, but months. It’s a complicated process. Israel controls everything and prevents some items and the cost of transportation is more expensive,” Dr Aed added.
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“Sometimes you are helpless, you cannot do anything for people, you know how to deal with the case, but you cannot.
The medical teams, all the staff, they are suffering like other people, they need to take care of their lives and their families and the injured as well.
Our colleague in Gaza told me: In the morning we are working in the health centre, in the afternoon we go to help people bury the bodies or parts of the bodies of those who have died."
– Dr Aed.
“The majority of families have lost family members. One family – elderly people all over 60 years old - were left in their house with no one to bury them for days. They were well-known doctors who had served the community for decades. They were eventually buried in their garden. There are hundreds like them.”
Dr Aed added: “How are we continuing to operate? It is the steadfastness of our staff. There is huge demand for services. The staff are doing what they can. People are in need. Of course, it is too difficult and dangerous, but we continue our work."
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We hope this genocide will finish soon. It is the priority. Later on we can speak about everything, about rebuilding the health sector. Without a ceasefire the situation will only get worse.
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