Salam Khashan would cause an eruption crown aware of the devastation in the Gaza Strip. Since that 25-mile-long Palestinian territory has its first two confirmed cases COVID-19 on March 22, the 29-year-old practitioner and his colleagues for large-scale epidemic of the highly infectious virus, the most densely populated in one of the places of preparation and poor of the world, on complex medical Nasser in Khan Yunis, where Khashan works, allow local positive cases, the quarantine incubation of the virus would be a new staff rotation system, work with doctors 14-day shifts, followed by 14 days in the period before returning to be able to go home. The new sorting centers have been set up to receive outpatient and determine which patients need hospitalization. And a change planned to teleconsultations soon Khashan enabling certain dates the distance. But in an area where the power grid is often less than half of the days available, and where there are fewer than 100 inhabitants fans around 2 million people, Khashan realizes that no amount of preparation is enough. “There’s not enough hospital beds and two intensive care or mechanical fans. I understand these facts,” says time by phone on March 31 If we have a positive case in the community, it will be a disaster ‘Gaza’ health care system is already overwhelmed , already at the limit “, says Ignacio Casares, head of sub-delegation of the international Committee of the red cross (ICRC) in Gaza. “It is not capable of the effects of a 19-COVID aggressive pandemic as to absorb.” The “acute shortage of test kits, ventilators, medications and medical supplies,” pile pressure on densely population of Gaza, he says, with those refugee camps (run by UNRWA, the aid agency of the United Nations for Palestine Refugees Provide main) particularly at risk of COVID-19 in Israel, who pulled out of Gaza in 2005, but retains the responsibility for the enclave of 140 square miles under international law, senior security officials have warned that the explosion of a local crown a “God-help-us” would constitute scenario. Despite the gloomy forecasts, this scenario is still to come. From April 3rd Gaza he had recorded only 12 COVID-19 infections: far less than Israel, which has more than 6,800 cases, or 750-plus cases in neighboring Egypt, whose authorities have been accused of grossly underestimated rates of infection. Experts say that this underestimation in Gaza is unlikely. The dozens of Gazans with COVID-19 diagnoses have already been isolated either all recent returnees from abroad when they were diagnosed, or remaining members of the security forces with the returnees in the quarantine stations. While it is impossible to rule out infection completely unnoticed in the wider community rigorous means of contact tracing “is the number of positive cases we see we could give the right image to give,” says Gerald Rockenschaub, the head office of the World Organization of Health to the occupied Palestinian territories. This lower rate Gaza insulation function. In 2007, after the militant group Hama, the Palestinian Authority evicted from the Strip, Israel and Egypt imposed an air, land and sea blockade that almost 13 years is limited to the movement of people and goods in and out of the area, Israel It says that restrictions often provides an exhaustive list of the elements-their “dual-use” content ranging from chemical fertilizers to aluminum bars, steel cables, are needed waterskiing kept for security against a hostile military launches Group barrages of rockets across the borders of. But critics of the policy, limited goods than temporarily as newspaper Coriander insist Gaza in turn has “the biggest prison in the open world.” For the moment one instrument of the Council of Human Rights of the United Nations says is used to “collective punishment”, it is the main bulwark against the Gaza crown. The irony is not lost on Khashan. “For the first time in our lives, the block gives us an advantage,” he says. However, poverty makes staying at home for their patients to convince closely difficult: “If people do it, maybe they can operate the crown escape, but may lack in supply or lack of food does not escape” The leadership of Israel and the ‘Palestinian authority (PA), which administers the occupied West Bank, moving quickly is the crown novel included, were killed April 3, 37 people in Israel and a person in the West Bank. embattled Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was among the first world leaders to compulsory quarantine for all arrivals to implement. And after the discovery of COVID-19 cases in the West Bank city of Bethlehem, PA moved quickly to impose a blockade. Israel and the PA a joint command center, the crisis and the United Nations to administer the Special Coordinator for the Middle East peace process is “excellent” Israel and the Palestinian leadership in Ramallah-based praised cooperation. However, the relationship with Israel Hamas appeared to remain as usual. Despite the pandemic to induce a lull in violence, fighters based in Gaza fired rockets into Israel in March and called for retaliation by the Israel Defense Force. Yet, no amount of preparation could prevent the pandemic of beating Israel economically. About a quarter of Israelis are now unemployed, Joshua Krasna, an Israeli TIME former diplomat says at the end of 2019, compared to about 5%. Polling by the Israel Democracy Institute based in Jerusalem suggests, before the two-thirds of Israelis are now concerned about their economic future, with Israeli Arabs who most represent a disproportionate number of poverty-stricken. Although there is no type of investigation in Gaza, the economic anxiety is widespread. Even before the pandemic, about half of Gaza about 400,000 children lived in poverty population, including. rare protests erupted against Hamas last year, protesters held posters slogans like the “uprising of hunger.” and the Gaza weekly march of return events along the border where Israeli-Palestinians the right to return to their ancestors asked to homes also poor economic conditions of the strip. These conditions contributed to a health system is woefully unprepared for a pandemic. Besides the lack of ventilators and other medical devices, Gaza has only about 120 beds of intensive care, says Casares ICRC and most are occupied by non-COVID 19 patients. “We urge the United Nations and the international community to immediately among fans and intensive care units deal of support, with the epidemic,” the spokesman of the Ministry of Health in Gaza Dr. Ashraf al-Qudra said at a press conference on March 24, in the past, much of the funding given to the United Nations agency that supports the Palestinians by the United States, but these funds have dried up came from the White House under President Trump. Cutting the Financing is just one of many US position long held on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict Trump was reversed. In January, he released his son-in-law and special adviser Jared Kushner long delayed “peace plan in the Middle East,” Israel’s annexation of West Bank territory strips of green light. Although in 2020 allocated $75 million in humanitarian aid for Palestinians in US Congress last year, the White House does not allow aid to be delivered, despite the pandemic. On March 27, a group of Democratic senators wrote in a letter to Secretary of State Mike Pompeo crowning relief in Gaza and the West Bank is just would not be in the interest of the Palestinian people, but also “in the national security interests of the Member States “and our ally Israel. ‘But Jon Alterman, director of the Middle East program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, says TIME there is little chance that Trump Administration over aid to the Palestinians, despite the prospect of a large number of showers COVID- 19 deaths. “When I spoke with government officials, claimed that Palestinians are responsible for their conditions and opportunities are there for the Palestinians to improve their conditions,” to work through the political with Israel and Washington, he says. “I’ve always heard about Israel and US officials reject the responsibility for the suffering of the Palestinians and the blame on the Palestinian leadership,” added Alterman, a former senior State Department. The WHO says Rocken TIME: “We see a very positive cooperation from the Israelis” regarding the entry of essential supplies to the Gaza Strip to ease. But in February, the WHO has officially accused Israel of obstructing Palestinian access to vital medicine. On April 1, the Minister of Defense hawk Israel Naftali Bennett tied to future support for mitigation efforts in Gaza crown to the recovery of two during the war in 2014, Reuters reports lost Israeli soldiers. Unless it is not directly asked Dr. Khashan not tell their patients about the terrible shortage of beds for intensive care ventilators, personal protective equipment, and medicine to Gaza. In the consultation, the doctor may want to focus their patients “things we can control, such as washing hands, do not touch your face and social distancing.” In homes where water and electricity are irregular, broken down by up to 13 relatives, it may be difficult to implement such advice. But “we must do what we can,” said Khashan their patients. “They have to do with what you have.” Reinforced by a crown outbreak in a system ill-equipped to contain it, but it is also a principle with which they stay. “I have many options. One of them is of concern, and to cry,” said Khashan. , At the same time, I have the choice to get up and work and do my best. And that’s what I’ll do. “With reporting by Kimberly Dozier / Washington D. C. Photo copyright Yasser Qudih news agency Xinhua / Getty Images
Israel’s blockade was the worst of the coronavirus from the Gaza Strip it takes place. You could hold too Aid
