Nicholas Papachrysostomou had just given a conference about his nomadic way of life – for years he dedicated himself to traveling and writing – in Greece, his native country, when a girl from the audience approached him. He was a member of Doctors Without Borders (MSF) and suggested that he join the humanitarian organization. But he wasn’t sure who they were and said he would think about it. Almost ten years later, he has become MSF’s emergency coordinator. On November 14, Papachrysostomou entered southern Gaza, with 12 other MSF people, to restart humanitarian aid activities that were suspended with the outbreak of war. After more than a month in the strip, he spoke to La Vanguardia.
What was the impression when he arrived in Gaza and with what feeling did he leave?
The day we entered Rafah we walked for half an hour through a completely abandoned area. I only saw a lady driving the cart with a donkey, nothing else. I wondered what world I was entering. Little by little I saw the first destroyed buildings, heard the bombs and began to form an impression. Now, this same place is so crowded that you can hardly pass through the roads. The change is so visible that there are tents, garbage piling up and black water everywhere. I don’t recognize the situation I found myself in when I arrived.
How do they treat patients under constant bombardment?
Plans change from one day to the next, I will tell you a few incidents. We started supporting a clinic in the city of Khan Younis, and had to stop it after a week because we were asked to evacuate the area. Another day, at a team meeting at a hospital, the director of the center was speaking when suddenly three bombs fell so close that the entire building shook. After the first, he continued to speak; after the second, he stopped, and at the third, he got up and said: “Maybe we should go home.” When you say this to a doctor doing his job, he knows he has to stop, but the reaction is to keep going because he has a patient in front of him that needs to be taken care of.
Teams offer mental health support, why is it a priority?
The mental health needs in Gaza now have nothing to do with what has been experienced in previous wars. When you talk to some young people, first they play a joke on you and then you enter a black maze. They only talk about the loss, about people close to them and their families. Even if the war ends, they will not know where they can go or with what money. Psychological assistance can be as important to saving a life as first aid that stabilizes the patient. We give them guidelines to help them manage day-to-day life, to sleep and calm down. It’s also about making them feel heard, showing affection.
Why are so many health professionals dying in this war?
Like the rest of the displaced, the health workers have paid the price of the indiscriminate bombings. In addition, however, they are inside the hospitals that have been the target of Israeli attacks, something that has almost been legitimized. It must be understood that if you attack hospitals, you attack patients and you attack humanitarian personnel. You can’t ask a hospital to evacuate because it’s a death sentence for patients. It is absurd to ask hundreds of people in serious condition to flee by walking several kilometers. The evacuations do not make Gazans safe.
What kind of injuries and illnesses are they encountering?
Severe burns, multiple fractures and people with chronic diseases who have stopped treatment because there is no medicine. Also a high incidence of infectious diseases (many respiratory ones), diarrhoea, skin infections… The problem we have is that if we continue with this depopulation density, with the few functional services, with economic aid that does not arrive, with the hygiene that deteriorates, the situation will get out of control. There will be outbreaks of hepatitis C, cholera… If there is no ceasefire now, we will not be able to control the consequences of it all.
What motivates a foreign person to go to Gaza?
What motivates is that a show of solidarity is needed for the people of Gaza. Despite the fact that the international community is looking at it from the outside, it is necessary to show them that they have support. I believe that if the international community does not act to stop this, everyone will be stigmatized as humanity forever, not just the two sides of the conflict.
