With 18 months of war devastating Gaza’s health system, a Waikato doctor is doing all she can to help from afar.
GP Dr Ruba Harfeil is part of a telehealth service that aims to take pressure off Gaza’s surviving health workers, by doing remote consults and sending medication to patients.
For surviving Gazans, medical treatment is less of a priority than day-to-day survival, and staying in contact with patients comes with huge challenges, said Dr Harfeil.
Israeli airstrikes have led to devastation and chaos in the Hamas-run strip.
The majority of buildings in Gaza have been destroyed, according to satellite analysis, with hundreds of thousands of people now living out of tent camps.
Horrific conditions witnessed from afar
“There is another challenge here when you contact the patient. When they made the request, maybe they had electricity or internet. When you contact them, they might not have the access or this luxury anymore,” she said.
“Maybe they are being displaced and moving from one place to another, or maybe they’re too far to go to the area where they can have access to the internet, so they can’t actually reply to your message, or maybe they got killed.”
Meanwhile, sewerage infrastructure has been heavily damaged, leading to an epidemic of breathing conditions and outbreaks of infectious diseases.
“I’ve seen a family of 10 – mother, father and eight children. They all had Hepatitis A because of the unhygienic conditions in Gaza.”
Dr Harfeil continued: “We managed to provide them a little bit of electrolytes through our on-the-ground team, a little bit of clean water. But their four-year-old child was severely dehydrated that we couldn’t actually ask them to treat him at home.”
“We told them to get him to the hospital. And the next day, I checked on them, and they said: ‘No, we can’t go to the hospital. There are lots of air strikes, and it’s not safe.
“And then I lost contact with them after that, so I’m not actually sure whether that four-year-old boy is still alive or not.”
Some of her patients have died, including a type 1 diabetes patient who couldn’t access insulin, the doctor said. Last year, the UN humanitarian coordinator for Palestine criticised Israel for blocking the delivery of insulin into Gaza.
A vow to continue saving lives
Dr Harfeil said the overall health situation for civilians in the strip was dire.
“That includes the infrastructure, the hospitals, houses, medical centres,” she said.
“It is not easy for the patients to reach out and ask for medical advice or ask for medications with the ongoing genocide.”
Israel disputes the characterisation of the war as a genocide.
Both Israeli and Hamas leaders have been issued arrest warrants for alleged war crimes by the International Criminal Court.
It’s been 18 months since Hamas launched the October 7 attack in Israel, in which the terrorist group killed more than a thousand people and took hundreds hostage.
In the time since, tens of thousands of people, including thousands of children, have been killed in Gaza as Israel sought to destroy Hamas.
Dr Harfeil said as long as the war went on, she would continue trying to save lives.
“I don’t do what I’m doing in this part of this telehealth service because I’m Palestinian. I do it because I’m a human.
“I’m not doing it because I’m a doctor. I’m doing it because I’m a human.”
Q+A with Jack Tame is made with the support of New Zealand On Air
