Gaza: The Legacies of War

Akram Abu HARBEED, 45, from Beit Hanoun

My son is dead. We were in Gaza, at home with my uncle’s children, sitting on the floor. On The 3rd of January, at 7pm, a plane bombed us.

Dr Carlos TROTTA, MSF surgeon
We will clean the wound. And after the operation we’ll give him painkillers and antidepressants. Right now the priority is to deal with the consequences, or what we call the legacies of war. I’m talking about patients with severe amputations and severe burns.

Jessica POURRAZ, MSF project coordinator
In the inflatable tents, MSF is carrying out reoperations – cases where people were already operated on, but need further work. For instance, cleaning up deep wounds, adjusting external fixators – a method of holding broken bones in place, providing skin grafts for burn-victims.

We were instantly struck by the number of people who had already been operated on, but clearly needed reoperations. Because the initial operations were in a crisis – it was an emergency, there were so many wounded in the hospitals. We immediately identified reoperations as a real need. We fully focused on this, on these reoperations. This was very relevant as for the last two years we had already been carrying out post-operative activities [in Gaza]. There was an evident link – which meant it made total sense to carry out this programme now in addition to our post-operative activities