Turkish surgeon describes dire situation in Palestine's Gaza

A Turkish surgeon who volunteered to serve in Palestine's Gaza has described a horrifying healthcare situation in the besieged enclave.

Injured people were sometimes stitched in standing positions without local anaesthesia due to the large number of patients and lack of necessary medical supplies, Pediatric Surgeon Dr. Taner Kamaci said on Friday, speaking at a conference on Friday at Turgut Ozal University in Türkiye's eastern province of Malatya.

"The stitching was done standing up in the emergency room. Sometimes, if the suture material was problematic, it was covered with a bandage to ensure that there was enough material for seriously ill patients," he added.

The surgeon, who spent two weeks in the besieged enclave amid constant Israeli bombardment, expressed that "there were so many emergency patients, that there was no time to treat other patients," such as those who needed long-term treatment.

"We did our best for two weeks. As a team, we performed surgeries on nearly 400 patients," Kamaci said.

There are normally 35 hospitals in Gaza, but only four were operational during their visit and surgery could only be performed in two hospitals, according to Kamaci. Furthermore, the only hospital left standing in Rafah was the Gaza European Hospital, which was also the target of Israeli attacks.

'Israel kills the elderly and the youth'

The surgeon further expressed that since the area was declared a war zone, medical staff were allowed to bring their families, but outside teams were not permitted.

"All the foreign teams inside were removed. Unfortunately, the situation we witnessed when we were there was much worse than what we see there right now," Kamaci said.

Israel "kills boys, girls, women, the elderly, the youth, animals on the street," he added.

Kamaci also talked about the love and sympathy people in Gaza show for Turks.

"They were shaking the hands of doctors from other countries, and when I told them that 'I am from Türkiye', so many of them came and hugged me. 'Türkiye is different for us, we love Türkiye very much, we love the Turks very much,' they told me," Kamaci said.