Gaza: A Death Camp ?

Interview with Doctor Thabet El Masri
Gaza : A Death Camp ?
Thabet El Masri, is the Director of the Intensive Care Unit at the Shifa Hospital, a public institution in the Gaza Strip. He replies here to the questions of Silvia Cattori about the recent increase in the number of babies being born with birth defects.
Silvia Cattori: In June, you started to be concerned by an increase in the number of babies born with birth defects. We would be very interested to have your medical assessment and to know the result of the study you made of this troubling phenomenon. Can you tell us the ratio of prenatal and postnatal birth defects ten months after the attacks on Gaza in comparison with the same period in 2008, in terms of the number of cases involved?

Thabet El Masri [[1] In July 2006, in an article concerning the consequences of the June 2006 Israeli offensive which targeted Gaza ’s main power plant supplying power to the majority of the Gaza Strip, including powering Gaza ’s hospitals, water supply and sewage treatment apparatus, Dr. Thabet El Masri had emphasized the impact of a potential power failure at the hospital:
“Dr. Thabet Al-Masri, the Chief of the hospital’s unit for premature babies explained that there are 33 babies requiring incubators to provide the very sensitive balance of humidity, temperature and oxygen essential for their development. Normally, he noted, the number of premature births is 50-60%, but perhaps as a result of anxiety over the Israeli siege, at present the figure is closer to 70%. Dr. Al Masri emphasized that the nature of work inside the ‘premie’ section is such that there are no half-solutions. The lives of these babies are dependent on constant flow of electricity.” (See: “Al-Shifa Hospital and Israel’s Gaza Siege”, www.dci-pal.org, July 16, 2006.
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