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Gaza hospital like ‘open-air concentration camp,’ says French doctor

April 5, 2024 at 2:16 pm

Displaced Palestinians are seen at the European Hospital in Khan Yunis, Gaza on December 31, 2023 [Abed Rahim Khatib – Anadolu Agency]

A French doctor who worked for about two weeks at the European Hospital in the Gaza Strip said the area was like an “open-air concentration camp.”

“People are being forcibly displaced, they have no home, no food. They are in prison. They have nothing to eat. It is like a ghetto, an open-air concentration camp,” Raphael Pitti told Anadolu.

A team of seven French medical personnel went to the region between 22 January and 6 February to work at the European Hospital in Gaza.

Pitti said he has been to Syria 35 times and Ukraine 11 times so far, and provided training to medical personnel in a war environment.

The French medical team reached Gaza after waiting for four months, thanks to a US NGO that had the authority to enter the region.

Conditions in the European Hospital in Gaza were “catastrophic”, he explained, due to the overcrowding.

“They sleep in [the hospital], bake bread, and they’ve their children with them,” he said, adding that the hospital, which has a capacity of 400 beds, provides service with 900 beds.

“There were sounds of ambulances bringing patients, bombardments, snipers and drones. As all beds were occupied, seriously ill patients were being treated on the ground,” he said.

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