“What is happening in Gaza is a massacre happening in broad daylight; world leaders must act’’ - Sri Lankan medical professional

Colombo, October 2 (Daily Mirror) - A Sri Lankan medical professional, Pradeep Samanjeeva attached to the international organization Doctors without Borders, has called on all world leaders including the Sri Lankan government to lobby for a ceasefire in Palestine and push for the access of urgent humanitarian aid for the Palestinian people.

Pradeep who served in a hospital in Gaza from December to June this year says the condition in Gaza is nothing less than a ‘catastrophe’ and a ‘massacre’ happening in broad daylight as children, women and men are being killed daily in the bombings.

“I see some positive responses globally as more information is now coming out. But the people in Gaza are waiting for you to do something because they have lost their voice. They want the world to stop this genocide and want the world to do something to stop their suffering,” Pradeep said.

“No humanitarian aid is reaching the Gaza population. Air strikes are wiping out families. When you enter Gaza you go through the rubble and nothing is spared from the bombing. Houses, hospitals, community centers, schools, universities, it is all bombed. It is a huge destruction. I have seen people suffering and suffocating while they’re displaced. We are talking of two million people stuck in a small piece of land. And these people need urgent access to food and medicines,” Pradeep said.

Pradeep has worked in several conflict zones in many parts of the world as a medical professional but says this is the first time he is witnessing such a humanitarian disaster. He says in the hospital he served, at any given time there were 20 children with serious injuries and most of the children faced amputation from the bombings.

With very limited medical supplies in the hospitals, he says children in Gaza are severely traumatized.

“I have been holding hands of little children who have been undergoing trauma responses in the wards. They keep screaming the whole day in the ward. If you give them some crayons they will draw dead bodies,” he said.

Further describing their plight, Pradeep said he will never forget the images of children he has seen in Gaza. “Children are the ones collecting food and water for their families. If you go to Gaza you will be surrounded by lots of children who are having a metal pot in their hand, trying to collect whatever to eat. That is why so many children are getting shot at, at food distribution sites,” he said.

“Israeli military targets children who are waiting in line to get food. As children cannot protect themselves, they cannot shield themselves. They cannot even hide to defend themselves. Many children come to our hospital dead on arrival,” he said.

While Pradeep is now serving in Lebanon, he calls on world leaders to act immediately to stop the catastrophe. He says as doctors while they cannot halt the bombings, he urges the world leaders to step up their efforts in saving the people of Gaza.

Within the past two years, Doctors Without Borders have lost 13 of their medical workers from the bombings in Gaza. A team is presently in Sri Lanka and held discussions with the Deputy Minister of Health, Dr. Hansaka Wijemuni and briefed him on the ground situation in Gaza. A senior official attached to Doctors Without Borders told Daily Mirror that during the discussions, the organization sought for the possibility of Sri Lanka’s help for medical evacuation of those severely injured in the war in Gaza. These discussions are part of a global effort by the organization to seek support from international governments for medical evacuations.

While the suffering has only deepened in Gaza, several organizations are continuing to press international governments to urge Israel and Hamas to go in for a ceasefire as well as end killing the civilians including children by the Israeli military and take in the urgently needed food and medicines.