The announcement of the first two positive
cases of COVID-19 in Gaza on March 22, Sunday, has rightly set off alarms,
particularly among health officials and international health organizations. The
two Palestinian men detected with the Coronavirus infection had recently
traveled to Pakistan and have since been placed in a quarantine facility near
the Egyptian border with Gaza. The two individuals were also not allowed to mix
with the wider population of Gaza. The Palestinian territory has been under a
debilitating blockade since 2006, imposed by both Israel and Egypt.
Following
news of the two cases, the World Health Organization (WHO) immediately
dispatched its officials to Gaza to take stock of the situation. The
Hamas-administered territory has also taken precautionary measures to prevent
the spread of the virus, such as the closure of all restaurants, cafes, wedding
and reception halls, as well as a ban on large gatherings, especially during
funerals. Friday prayers at mosques are suspended until further notice and
weekly markets in the cities of the Gaza strip have also been stopped.
WHO has
supplied Gaza with hundreds of Coronavirus test kits and personal protective
equipment. It has also promised the supply of additional necessary medical
equipment in the near future. However, both the WHO and the United Nations (UN)
have repeatedly called for urgent international assistance required to prevent
a major outbreak and for the supply of medical aid to the besieged Gaza strip.
The UN estimated that the urgent requirement to meet the humanitarian needs of
the civilian population is around $7 million dollars.
Fears
of a deadly outbreak in Gaza had been growing, with extremely frail and
insufficient healthcare infrastructure catering to a population of close to two
million. The healthcare system has not only suffered due to the brutal
Israeli-Egyptian blockade of close to 14 years, but has also undergone
destruction and massive setbacks during the three Israeli invasions of Gaza, in
2008-09, 2012 and 2014. The resulting destruction of many of Gaza’s hospitals
and related infrastructure has made it difficult even under normal
circumstances for Gazans to access adequate healthcare. It now makes
Palestinians in Gaza especially vulnerable to the Coronavirus.
Another
major issue is the shortage of essential and life-saving medical equipment and
medicines, mainly due to Israeli restrictions on the movement of goods through
the Israel-Gaza border. This is compounded by the restrictions on the
Gaza-Egypt border imposed by the Egyptian dictatorial regime of Abdel Fateh
el-Sisi.
Sources
from the Palestinian health ministry recently confirmed a massive shortage of
ventilators and intensive care unit (ICU) beds in Gaza. The current count of 56
ventilators and 40 ICU beds can at most be increased to 100 beds for dealing
with emergency situations. The Gaza strip also suffers from low electricity
supply, averaging between 4-6 hours per day, because Israel has destroyed its
power plants and due to the lack of an adequate fuel supply to keep generators
running at hospitals for medical treatment. Electricity is of utmost importance
especially for critical patients, emergency surgeries, and life-threatening
conditions or ailments.
WHO and
the UN have both raised these concerns and called for the state of Israel to
immediately lift the air, sea and land blockade on Gaza to help avert a
catastrophic human disaster. The territory also faces a shortage of qualified
doctors, besides lacking vital supplies of necessary medical equipment such as
disinfectant sprays, testing kits, protective masks and suits that can help
control the spread of the virus.
Several
international human rights and health organizations have strongly urged Israel
to end its blockade and lift the restrictions on the movement of people and
goods to and from Gaza, so as to facilitate the supply of medical items and to
make available the necessary number of doctors required to cater to its two
million residents. They have also called upon the Israeli health ministry to
provide medical and humanitarian assistance to Gaza. Under international law,
Israel is obligated to help the health ministry in Gaza to treat and control
the potential outbreak.
The
violent repression against the Great March of Return protests that Palestinians
have been staging since March 2018 has also added burden on Gaza’s already
under-pressure hospitals and medical centers. The number of injuries inflicted
by Israel forces through live and rubber-coated metal bullets, tear gas
canisters, water cannons on Palestinian protesters have strained the hospitals
and medical personnel. Around 25,000 injured men, women and children, have
filled the hospitals, many overcrowded beyond their capacity, with patients
lying on stretchers in the corridors and outside the hospital buildings,
awaiting treatment.
The
COVID-19 pandemic has killed more than 27,000 people worldwide and infected
more than 600,000. A large-scale outbreak in Gaza will spell doom for the
extremely vulnerable civilian population which is already living on the edge of
human survival. To help mitigate the impending crisis, Israel must immediately
lift its siege on Gaza. The international community and organizations such as
WHO, UN, along with other medical relief organizations, must also assist the
people of Gaza to prevent the spread of the deadly virus in the occupied
Palestinian territory.
Article
by Abhijan
Choudhury
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