There are no human beings visible anywhere, so we simply have to wait until the magic door opens! Since our previous visit, the last quarter mile of the tunnel has been destroyed (reportedly in fighting between Hamas and Fateh), so we picked our way through marshy mud until we finally reached the gate on the Palestinian side.
The hospital driver collected us after we’d been besieged by taxi drivers desperate for a fare, had drunk a cup of very sweet sage tea, and heard endless stories of deprivation. Then on to Gaza City, where the streets were eerily empty.
The one thing that has always characterized Gaza is the sheer mass of humanity. Gaza is 365 square kilometers (about 28 miles long and varying in width from 3 to 8 miles), with a population of 1.5 million, roughly 4000 people per square kilometer. The streets are usually jammed with cars, donkey carts, outdoor vendors selling everything from underwear to fruits and vegetables to auto parts.
We were shocked to see how wide the streets actually are as there were almost no vendors and very few cars. Some public taxis and cars (and one of the two hospital ambulances) that run on diesel are still moving about, along with the lucky few that have gotten gasoline, which is delivered sporadically, although no one is allowed to fill a tank, so apparently fights break out as people vie for the few liters available. Most of the shops were closed, though it was mid-morning, and only in the central market were there a number of people walking about.
Consumer goods are almost non-existent and, according to our friends, very shoddy and extremely expensive. Inflation has added to the misery of people with no resources – for example, a bag of cement used to sell for 25 shekels (about $7.00) but now sells for 120 shekels IF available. The markets that used to teem with fruits and vegetable seemed primarily to have tomatoes and oranges and potatoes, all grown in Gaza. The one thing that seemed abundant was cigarettes, piles and piles of cartons for sale. When the border to Egypt was breached, apparently black marketers brought in huge supplies, but as people have almost no money, there weren’t many buyers!
We reached the hospital and had a good visit with Director Suhaila Tarazi and Medical Director Dr. Maher, along with Suhaila’s assistant Samira, and a friend of Suhaila’s, who until 3 months ago was the only woman and only Christian to sit as a judge on the Appeals Court. However, she has been dismissed by Hamas because she was a Fateh appointee, even though she was adamant that she was independent in her judgments. We asked if the courts are functioning but she shrugged – maybe a few criminal cases are being tried, she said, but Hamas has no one qualified to judge civil cases according to Palestinian law. We asked if Shariya law was being used instead, but she thought not – the legal system, like everything else in Gaza, has broken down.
The hospital story remains a small miracle. They have electricity perhaps 10 – 12 hours a day and depend on the generators the rest of the time, but fuel for it is hard to come by. They don’t run the boiler when on the generator, so patients simply have to huddle under the covers to try to stay warm. Suhaila used to keep a reservoir of 10,000 gallons of fuel which would last 45 days, but now is lucky to get 4,000 gallons at a time and that disappears quickly with daily use. And the cost of the electricity they are furnished from IsraelGaza power plant, bombed by Israel, in 2005 operates at about 40% capacity when it can get the needed fuel. has increased dramatically in price. The
The hospital can’t get light bulbs for the surgical lamps, but were excited that they’d finally been able to procure detergent for washing the bedsheets and dishes, though mops and cleaning supplies are not available. Somehow, in spite of all this they have no incidence of infection within the hospital, something our best US hospitals cannot claim. Spare parts for equipment are not available. Suhaila confessed that she had asked staff members who went into Egypt while the wall was down to bring her some cement to repair the floor outside the surgical theater and was very pleased to have gotten it! The pharmacy for the in- and out-patients is functioning and the hospital is able to get medicines delivered via UNRWA and the Red Cross, but they never know when deliveries will be allowed. Anesthesia is again available but in the past months they have had to postpone surgeries when it wasn’t allowed through.
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