Dr. Thieren spent virtually two weeks travelling throughout the nation to fulfill with survivors, authorities and households of greater than 200 hostages held captive in Gaza.
WHO supplied humanitarian help to Israel’s well being response instantly after the assaults. On the time, Israel’s Well being Ministry replied that the system was coping, however that it could not hesitate to ask if help was wanted. Thus far, WHO’s surveillance system of assaults on healthcare recorded eight assaults on Israeli medical amenities that killed seven folks.
In visits to destroyed and abandoned cities, from a hospital in Ashkelon to army bases the place victims’ stays are saved pending their identification, Dr. Thieren spoke with survivors, well being staff and authorities.
He additionally met with kinfolk of hostages taken by Hamas, amid persevering with repeated calls by WHO and UN companions for his or her rapid and unconditional launch.
Because the Israel-Palestine battle escalates, Dr. Thieren shared an account of what he noticed and heard:
Dr. Michel Thieren (proper) talks to medical employees on his go to to the Barzilai Medical Centre in Ashkelon.
“What’s so putting is that the majority the folks I spoke to, the overwhelming majority of them with extreme accidents from gun pictures, shrapnel and burns, didn’t need to speak about themselves in any respect however in regards to the folks that they had seen die in entrance of them.
Virtually each a kind of survivors had seen another person die earlier than they themselves had been injured. They’re completely haunted by this. It’s dominant of their ideas.
So many want pressing psychological well being help.
Emergency staff in Israel reply to missile assaults.
‘Quickly spreading’ psychological well being issues
The truth that so many Israelis are nonetheless being held hostage by Hamas signifies that there isn’t a likelihood for the broader public to start the therapeutic course of.
It’s on their minds 24 hours a day. It has added to the collective psychological burden witnessed nationwide, triggering an acute want for psychological well being providers.
From what I’m seeing, psychological well being issues seem like quickly spreading among the many nation’s inhabitants. The human struggling is immense.
Folks simply don’t really feel protected anymore, and this can be a full change of their current historical past.
Solely half of 1,400 victims recognized
Medical doctors and forensic consultants are nonetheless working to determine the our bodies. They’re all wrapped in plastic baggage. There are clearly grownup our bodies and youngsters’s our bodies, however the overwhelming majority of baggage are misshapen.
Regardless of Israel having a number of the finest forensic medical doctors on the planet, solely 700 – barely half of the 1,400 victims – have been positively recognized to date.
This, in fact, is extremely impactful on these which might be doing this mandatory work.
Emergency staff in Israel are known as to help a 10-year-old boy who was hit by shrapnel.
‘Ghost cities’
I’ve visited ghost cities within the south whose populations have been evacuated. There’s nonetheless the horrible stench of loss of life. I’ve listened to so many individuals telling their tales.
Survivors, the injured, psychiatrists, medical doctors, first responders and troopers – all their accounts are horrific.
The shadow of nationwide shock and grief has plunged this nation into night time.”
Be taught extra from WHO’s reality sheet on psychological well being in emergencies right here.
