Palestine Children's Relief Fund: Israel Is Threatening to Bomb Gaza's Only Pediatric Cancer Unit

[Nanjeanne]

This was an extraordinary and painful interview with Steve Sosebee, founder of Palestine Children’s Relief Fund and Dr. Barbara Zind, a pediatrician who arrived in Gaza to support the PCRF a day before the Hamas attack. It is long - but I encourage those who care to view the whole thing.

https://www.democracynow.org/2023/11/7/pcrf]

Partial transcript:

STEVE SOSEBEE: Yeah. In 2019, we opened the first and only pediatric oncology department in the Gaza Strip, based on the fact that every child prior to that, every single child in Gaza with cancer, had to travel outside for care that they couldn’t get locally. And that was a problem, because that required permits from the Israeli military, which were often either delayed or not provided for these kids with cancer. So we opened. We started a campaign through grassroots fundraising and raised enough money to open a cancer department in the main pediatric hospital in Gaza City, where, since 2019 until October 7th, hundreds of children had had life-saving care, professional care, through local services and through the support of our international teams coming in. We provide chemotherapy drugs, child life services, and training for doctors and nurses in that department, in addition to any other support those kids possibly need.

Now, since October 7th, obviously, due to the conflict on the ground in Gaza, the services there have been disrupted significantly; however, the department itself is full of children, full of patients with cancer, and, in addition, their families, who are seeking refuge. Many of them have had their homes destroyed and have no other place to go. So the department itself and the hospital itself is full of refugees, full of people seeking shelter and seeking aid.

And in addition to that, the doctors who provide — the oncologists who work at that hospital had to flee Gaza City or have not been able to access the hospital on a regular basis to provide therapy and treatment for the patients. And some of the nurses themselves have had their homes destroyed and family members killed, and they continue to provide services as much as they can.

However, two days ago, there was a threat to Gaza, to the hospital itself, and it was struck yesterday. About 30 hours ago, it was struck by a rocket, and the floor above the department was destroyed, and part of the department itself was destroyed, killing some children and — not in the department itself, but in the hospital — and destroying part of the department that we had built. Now, as of today — and some of the family members have fled. But, unfortunately, there’s no — we’re trying to get them south, out of Gaza City, so possibly evacuating them out of Gaza and getting them continued care in Egypt or in Jordan. But, unfortunately, Gaza itself is encircled.

And now, as of now, there was a report this morning from the Israeli military that they are demanding the evacuation of the hospital because they consider it a combat area. And, unfortunately, a lot of the families have no place to go. They have no place to be evacuated to. And there are still literally hundreds of children and patients within that hospital and the increasing sound of bombings and shootings around the department, around the hospital, is increasingly making it difficult for anybody to leave at this time.

JUAN GONZÁLEZ: And, Steve Sosebee, could you talk about what the lack of medical care was for the children in Gaza even before October 7th and before the beginning of this horrific round of Israeli attacks?

STEVE SOSEBEE: Yeah. So, we started our organization over 30 years ago during the First Intifada to provide medical care for children who were getting — who were being injured on the ground as a result of the uprising and the use of force against the civilian population in the West Bank and Gaza, and over the years evolved into an organization that brings volunteer medical teams in on a regular basis to the Gaza Strip and West Bank to provide free specialized medical care to those kids. And over the last few years, we’ve been the main organization on the ground in Gaza bringing in international teams of volunteers with — providing a variety of different kinds of specialized surgical services and medical services, including pediatric oncology, pediatric cardiac surgery, pediatric neurosurgery, general pediatric surgery, orthopedic, so on and so forth, which don’t exist or are underdeveloped within the health sector in Gaza, in an attempt to fill the significant gap of children not having access to quality specialized care and not being able to access that care that may exist in the West Bank or may exist outside of Gaza. We were developing those services locally within the Gaza Strip and treating thousands of children a year in Gaza with these very specialized services. Unfortunately, and this is how Dr. Zind got stuck in Gaza, is that we have teams rotating on a regular basis in Gaza from all over the world, and she was there at the time of the closure, along with another specialist who was developing artificial limbs for amputees, children who are amputees.

And unfortunately, there are literally thousands of kids in Gaza, in addition to those who are being injured now — and we already know that number is graphically high — that there’s thousands of kids in Gaza who have nontrauma-related injuries who need medical care, kids who are born with congenital defects, kids with heart problems, kids with cancer, kids with cystic fibrosis, kids on dialysis. These are children, in addition to those thousands of kids who have been injured over the past month, who need specialized care they can’t get in Gaza. And as a result of the hospitals now running out of fuel and not able to provide services, as a result of hospitals running out of drugs and services, as a result of specialists being killed and being injured or not able to access the treatment centers, as a result of hospitals closing, thousands of children in Gaza, in addition to those who are being injured, are going without specialized care, and many of them are even dying. And that’s actually a huge concern to us. And we hope that we’re able to get these kids out as quickly as possible to provide them care outside if they cannot get care within Gaza. But, of course, we’re asking, more importantly, for a ceasefire and enabling our medical teams, who are standing by, ready to go to Gaza and continue to provide services there — we have several surgical missions ready to go at a moment’s notice if we can access Gaza and be able to relieve the doctors there and provide those services directly to those kids.

Before the responses about terrorists hiding in the tunnels and the hostages still being held -- Let me preface this with saying that the Hamas terrorist attack was a war crime. The hostages must be released. But NOW is a humanitarian crisis and in the 30 days since the horrific attack on Israeli citizens - innocent people including thousands of children are suffering and dying. There is no medicine. There is no fuel. The bakeries have been bombed and people have no food and the water tanks have been bombed and people have no clean water. We are talking about the now...

These are children sheltering at al-Shifa Hospital holding a press conference (first in Arabic then English) saying "we want to live . . ."

[link:

Link to tweet

?s=20]

[Marcus IM]

1. Waiting for the posts justifying this. n/t

[BlueCheeseAgain]

2. Can you spell out where in there it says Israel is threatening to bomb the hospital?

I see there's an evacuation order, but that's not a threat to bomb the place specifically. I remember another hospital where the Red Crescent also claimed it was going to be bombed imminently-- and it wasn't.

[Lunabell]

3. But, evacuate?

Where are the sick and dying babies and children supposed to go? Cancer patients need a very clean, almost sterile environment.This will KILL babies and children.

[Nanjeanne]

6. They've already been bombed a few times. And an evacuation order given because it is considered a combat area - would

lead me to think ummmmmm - bombs? Especially since it already has been. Perhaps you can take the time to listen to the whole 35 minute interview with the two doctors.

But hey . . . maybe the IDF aren't going to bomb a combat area - that would be great!

I mean so far:

Turkish Friendship Hospital – the only hospital that treats cancer patients in Gaza
Beit Hanoun Hospital
Al-Wafa Hospital for Specialised Surgery and Medical Rehabilitation
Public Aid Hospital
Friends of the Patient Charitable Hospital
Al-Karama Specialist Hospital
Haifa Charitable Hospital
International Eye Hospital
Psychiatric Hospital
Martyr Mohammad al-Durrah Children's Hospital
Hamad Rehabilitation and Prosthetic Hospital
Dar al-Salaam Charitable Hospital
Al-Yemen al-Saeed Hospital
Saint John Eye Hospital
Al-Hayat Specialist Hospital
Yafa Specialised Medical Hospital

have already been closed due to bombings and fuel shortages. Al Shifa is struggling to continue. Rantissi Children's Hospital and the Nasser Hospital Complex have been bombed badly. So yeah, great news that this won't happen to these children cancer patients.

[Tickle]

4. Maybe Hamas will see this and release

the hostages so this can stop.

Maybe not

[onecaliberal]

5. Bin Laden said dead Americans on 9-11 deserved it too because of american foreign policy.