http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1053405.html
Last update - 11:35 07/01/2009
ANALYSIS / Israel must double, triple, quadruple its medical aid to Gaza
By Ari Shavit
Tags: Hamas, Israel, Gaza
A few days ago, Physicians for Human Rights began soliciting $700,000 in
donations for hospitals in the Gaza Strip. The Israeli humanitarian
organization also provided a detailed list of the medical equipment Gaza lacks,
including portable monitors, respirators, ultrasound and X-ray machines,
wheelchairs, needles, dressings, catheters, oxygen, medical gases,
endo-tracheal tubes, screws and plates for shattered limbs, and surgical
gloves. According to PHR, Gaza also has a severe shortage of intensive-care
beds, which cost about $50,000 apiece. Moreover, many Palestinian ambulances
are out of commission.
As of Tuesday, dozens of people had responded to the call. Some NIS
400,000 has been raised, mainly from Palestinian-Israelis. However, the
campaign is still about $600,000 short. And every day, the needs are growing.
Every day, Palestinian doctors are forced to operate on wounded Palestinians
without surgical gloves, without anesthesia and without other basic medical and
sanitary equipment.
What Israel's government should do, this very morning, is give PHR the
missing $600,000. However, the government should not make do with that. Prime
Minister Ehud Olmert and Defense Minister Ehud Barak must double, triple and
quadruple the donation. The defense establishment must immediately provide a
fund of $10-20 million that will inject new life into Gaza's collapsing
hospitals.
Money alone, however, is not enough. The Israel Defense Forces must seize
the humanitarian initiative and erect a field hospital at the Kerem Shalom or
Kissufim or Erez border crossings. The army should announce that first, the
hospital will care for children: Any wounded Gazan child who is not receiving
appropriate treatment in Gaza will receive excellent treatment at the Israeli
hospital. If the experiment proves successful and is not abused, it can be
expanded to offer emergency treatment to women, the elderly and anyone else not
involved in terror.
The Israeli offensive in Gaza is justified. It was launched following
incessant and intolerable provocations by Hamas. Nevertheless, the fighting in
Gaza is causing humanitarian disasters. However unintentionally, it is
nevertheless also hurting innocents. Therefore, the Israeli government has an
obligation to complement the aerial operation and the ground operation with a
humanitarian one. Israel must offer support from afar to Gaza's nurses, doctors
and clinics. It must offer support from up close to every bleeding innocent in
Gaza. It must immediately rescue the wounded families, ensure freedom of
movement for ambulances and grant absolute immunity to clinics, medical
warehouses and hospitals.
Only a bold and sweeping humanitarian initiative can show the world, and
also ourselves, that we are indeed committed to universal moral values. Only an
immediate and generous humanitarian initiative will prove that even during the
brutal warfare that has been forced on us, we remember that there are human
beings on the other side.
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