Palestinian paramedics<\/p>\n
I met Muhammad Afana in September at Gaza City\u2019s al-Shifa hospital.<\/p>\n
Muhammad is a paramedic and we talked about the unique risks such work poses in Gaza, where Israel has proven time and again that its repeated and brutal assaults cause massive numbers of civilian casualties.<\/p>\n
The 28-year-old had been a paramedic for nine years, when I spoke to him. During that time he witnessed three major Israeli aggressions \u2013 in 2014, 2021 and 2022 \u2013 countless minor ones, as well as the Great March of Return protests in 2018-19.<\/p>\n
It is a period that saw the killing of nearly 1,900 civilians in Gaza, a number that now pales in comparison to the current genocide.<\/p>\n
Paramedics have always been targets for Israel\u2019s violence. In 2014, Amnesty International called for<\/a> an international investigation into \u201cmounting evidence\u201d of \u201capparently deliberate targeting\u201d of hospitals and health professionals in Gaza.<\/p>\n During the 18 months of the Great March of Return protests, health workers were similarly targeted. The period saw three fatalities and some 800 injuries to health professionals, prompting the Association of International Development Agencies \u2013 which comprises more than 80 international aid groups \u2013 to denounce<\/a> Israel\u2019s Gaza \u201cblockade, repeated Israeli military offenses, and attacks on healthcare facilities and personnel [that] are carried out with impunity, without consequences, and without accountability.\u201d<\/p>\n Attacks on Gaza\u2019s medical sector were, in other words, common long before 7 October.<\/p>\n But this time, Israel\u2019s attacks on the health sector are incomparable.<\/p>\n According to<\/a> Medical Aid for Palestinians, Israel has killed at least 300 health professionals since 7 October, more than in all other conflicts in the world combined since 2016.<\/p>\n Dozens have been detained, including the heads of hospitals like Dr. Muhammad Abu Salmiya, al-Shifa\u2019s director<\/a> and Dr. Ahmed Muhanna, the head<\/a> of al-Awda hospital in central Gaza.<\/p>\n Many, including Abu Salmiya, have not been heard from since their arrest. Such a \u201cdisappearance\u201d is itself a war crime.<\/p>\n Israel also detained Muhammad Afana while he was transporting patients. He was reportedly released, but I haven\u2019t been able to reach him or any of his friends or family since to check on him.<\/p>\n Muhammad has been a paramedic since 2014 when he finished his training at the Emergency Officers and Drivers Rehabilitation Institute in Gaza. His training was immediately put to the test when the 2014 war struck.<\/p>\n The first rule a paramedic is taught is \u201cyour safety first,\u201d Muhammad told me back in September.<\/p>\n It is a rule paramedics regularly have to interpret in Gaza, he said.<\/p>\n \u201cIf we do not respond to calls because it is dangerous out there, we won\u2019t be able to help anyone.\u201d<\/p>\n Muhammad has had a number of close calls. During the Great March of Return, he was a member of the rescue team at the field trauma stabilization point close to the buffer zones along Gaza\u2019s eastern boundaries.<\/p>\n Once, when the \u201cshooting was crazy, indiscriminate and everywhere,\u201d he remembered, everyone panicked. \u201cEveryone started to run. I fell 12 meters down a hill. I woke up in the hospital.\u201d<\/p>\n One night, a colleague right next to him was shot in the leg.<\/p>\n In 2021, an ambulance in which Muhammad was riding was shelled while attempting a rescue near Al-Aqsa TV station.<\/p>\n Some 112 ambulances<\/a> were damaged in Israeli attacks over the period of the Great March of Return protest from March 2018 until December 2019.<\/p>\n While Muhammad in September said the period of the Great March of Return was the worst he could remember, it has been completely overshadowed by the current situation. Since 7 October, more than 100 ambulances<\/a> have been attacked and put out of service.<\/p>\n Israel openly targets ambulances now, in addition to hospitals and healthcare personnel. There is no respect for international law or any concern for the protection of health professionals.<\/p>\n The decimation of the #Gaza<\/a> health system is a tragedy.<\/p>\n But in the face of constant insecurity and inflows of wounded patients, we see doctors, nurses, ambulance drivers and more continue striving to save lives.@WHO<\/a> and our health partners will continue working side by side\u2026 pic.twitter.com\/Lq62KoQI1f<\/a><\/p>\n — Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus (@DrTedros) December 24, 2023<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\nWar on health<\/strong><\/h2>\n
Duties at home and at work<\/strong><\/h2>\n
\n