The War on Health in Gaza - Dissent Magazine
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The War on Health in Gaza - Dissent Magazine
The Israeli government is restricting access to food in Gaza at the same time
as it is destroying healthcare inf...
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The Israeli government is restricting access to food in Gaza at the same time
as it is destroying healthcare infrastructure. Each process intensifies the
lethal consequences of the other.
A total of at least 685 people have thus far been killed in attacks on
healthcare facilities. Emergency medical transportation is basically no longer
possible throughout northern Gaza. Only about 33 percent of the hospitals in
Gaza and 28 percent of its primary healthcare facilities remain even partially
functional at this moment of soaring health needs, hunger, and an epidemic of
major trauma.
For millennia, hospitals have served as places of refuge; in Gaza today, they
are increasingly places of ruin.
Similar to the impact of famine, there will be no easy accounting of the
overall death toll from attacks on Gaza’s healthcare provision. Indeed, each
process intensifies the lethal consequences of the other. The destruction of
healthcare infrastructure undercuts the ability of Gazans to respond to famine,
because these facilities are valuable in the emergency treatment of severe
malnutrition; lack of access to care, conversely, will exacerbate
susceptibility to the health impacts of food deprivation and infectious
disease. The war on health in Gaza will have a long and deadly tail.
This crescendo of catastrophe can still be mitigated, although there is not a
moment to lose. An immediate ceasefire and end to the war, a lifting of the
siege, restoration of UNRWA funding, reconstruction of the healthcare system,
and a massive increase in aid delivery to (and within) Gaza could help bring
this war on health to a halt. The alternative—to hold the current course and
let horrific famine take hold—is unthinkable, but without dramatic action it is
also inevitable.
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