Gaza City - Lamp Online

Clinical epidemiologists, using baseline data from previous conflicts, calculate that the death toll in Gaza will be drastically higher than the currently known figures.

Over the last nine months the Israeli army has killed about 38,000 people in Gaza, according to Gaza’s health ministry. These numbers have been acknowledged by the United Nations, the World Health Organization and even the Israeli intelligence services.

About another 10,000 are believed to be dead underneath the rubble that have not been counted among the fatalities.

But war doesn’t just kill people through direct violence.

Epidemiologists have also begun to count the fatalities that come from the spread of disease caused by malnutrition, lack of unsanitary conditions and the collapse of healthcare systems.

Three prominent epidemiologists, in a letter to the Lancet, point out that in recent conflicts “such indirect deaths range from three to 15 times the number of direct deaths.

They wrote: “Applying a conservative estimate of four indirect deaths per one direct death to the 37,396 deaths reported, it is not implausible to estimate that up to 186,000 or even more deaths could be attributable to the current conflict in Gaza. Using the 2022 Gaza Strip population estimate of 2,375, 259, this would translate to 7.9 per cent of the total population of the Gaza Strip.”

Hospitals under military attack, nurses dying under military fire, a child killed every 10 minutes, a critical disease risk: life in Gaza, where health and safety no longer exist.

The world cannot stand silent while hospitals, which should be safe havens, are transformed into scenes of death, devastation, and despair.”

This was the appeal of Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director-General of the World Health Organization (WHO), to the United Nations Security Council on 10 November, as he outlined the situation on the ground in Gaza.

Tedros said the situation “is impossible to describe, with hospital corridors crammed with the injured, the sick and the dying, morgues overflowing, and surgical procedures conducted without anaesthesia”.

“Thousands of displaced people are sheltering at hospitals, with 70 per cent of the more than 11,000 people so far killed being women  and children.

“On average, a child is killed every 10 minutes in Gaza,” he said.

Some 1.5 million people now are displaced and looking for shelter anywhere, but “nowhere and no-one is safe”, and overcrowding is increasing the risk of diarrheal and respiratory diseases and skin infections, the WHO chief told the Security Council.

He told world leaders there had been more than 250 attacks on health centres in Gaza and 25 in Israel since the start of the conflict on 7 October. A month later, more than 100 UN staff had been killed.

Nurses killed in the bombardment

On 12 November, the UN relief agency in Gaza reported that three nurses had been killed at Al-Shifa Hospital amid Israeli bombardment and clashes near the hospital.

Dr Khaled Abú Hamra told the Spanish daily El País how a family of four carrying a white flag tried to flee from Al-Shifa Hospital, besieged by the Israeli army, when it came under fire. After stepping a few metres onto the street, several shots killed the mother and one of the two children, and wounded the father and the other child.

“We need to evacuate the hospital now, but they shoot everyone who tries to escape,” he said, describing the situation as “complete chaos, without internet, electricity, food or water, and with many victims on  the ground.”

Patients, refugees and staff could not leave the hospital due to the  constant shelling and shooting,  Abu Hamra said.

International health agencies have confirmed the lethal environment around the Gazan hospitals.

Médecins Sans Frontières described the situation at the Al-Shifa Hospital as “catastrophic”.

The International Committee of the Red Cross warned that “thousands of wounded, displaced and medical personnel are at risk”.

The Palestine Red Crescent Society said Israeli forces had opened fire on the intensive care unit at Al-Quds Hospital in Gaza City.

Gaza’s health system is on its knees

WHO said “women, children and newborns in Gaza are disproportionately bearing the burden of the escalation of hostilities in the occupied Palestinian territory, both as casualties and in reduced access to health services”. It says “there are an estimated 50,000 pregnant women in Gaza, with more than 180 giving birth every day. Fifteen per cent of them are likely to experience pregnancy or birth-related complications and need additional medical care”.

“More than half of the Gaza Strip’s 36 hospitals and two-thirds of its primary healthcare centres are not functioning at all. Those that are functioning are operating way beyond their capacities,” it said.

WHO said health workers “are physically and mentally exhausted and are doing their best in unimaginable conditions”.

“In addition to caring for the 28,000 people who are wounded, many of them with life-threatening injuries, they are trying to manage the regular health needs of more than two million people.

“There are 2000 patients on cancer therapy; and there are more than 350,000 patients with diabetes, heart disease and hypertension.

“Supporting Gaza’s health workers is at the heart of WHO’s operational response plan,” it said.

“The world cannot stand silent while hospitals, which should be safe havens, are transformed into scenes of death, devastation, and despair.”

— Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director-General, WHO

70 per cent of the more than 11,000 people so far killed are women and children.

COD resolution calls for ceasefire

The NSWNMA Committee of Delegates passed the following motion at its meeting on the  21 November:

“As nurses and midwives we defend the human right to healthcare. We cannot stay silent as healthcare workers and patients are seen as acceptable collateral damage. As nurses  and midwives we call for peace over war.

The Australian Government must through all means possible, in the strongest terms possible, demand that the international community enact an immediate ceasefire in Gaza and Israel,  for the provision of humanitarian aid, and for the release of  the hostages.”

The resolution passed with 137 votes for, 12 votes against and 13 abstentions.