Red Cross to send surgeons to Gaza to treat gunshot victims

Aid agency to open 50-bed surgical unit to carry out thousands of operations on those injured in recent border clashes

By AP and ToI Staff 31 May 2018, 2:33 pm

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A picture taken on May 14, 2018 from the southern Israeli kibbutz of Nahal Oz across the border with the Gaza Strip shows Palestinian protestors gathering along the border fence with Israel (AFP PHOTO / JACK GUEZ)

The International Committee of the Red Cross is sending surgeons, nurses, physiotherapists, drugs and equipment to Gaza to support the overburdened local health system, focusing on patients wounded by Israeli fire in recent violent border clashes.

The Red Cross said on Thursday that out of more than 3,600 Palestinians wounded by gunfire since late March, about 1,350 will need three to five surgeries each. The agency will open a 50-bed surgical unit and its surgeons will perform about half of an estimated 4,000 surgeries.

It says such a caseload would overwhelm any health system, and that the situation in Gaza is worsened by chronic shortages of drugs, equipment, and electricity.

Gaza has endured a border blockade by Israel and Egypt since the Islamic terror group Hamas seized the territory in 2007. Israel says the blockade is in place in order to prevent the smuggling of weapons and materials with potential military use into the Strip.

Clashes reached a peak on May 14, a day of mass protests on the Gaza-Israel border, when over 40,000 Palestinians took part in an “unprecedentedly” violent riot along the border, according to the Israeli army. The march was part of a series of weekly protests led by Gaza’s rulers, the Islamic terror group Hamas, which seeks to destroy Israel. There were also smaller protests the next day.

The Hamas-run health ministry initially said at least 62 people were killed May 14-15 and a Hamas official said at least 50 of them were members of the terror group. Israel accused Hamas of encouraging the protests and using them as cover to attempt to carry out terror attacks, including firing at troops and attempting to breach the border fence.

During the clashes thousands of demonstrators burned tires, threw rocks and Molotov cocktails at Israeli troops across the fence and, in a few cases, engaged in armed battles with the IDF. Israel says its actions — and in particular the use of live ammunition — were necessary to defend the border and stop mass infiltrations from the territory.