April 2024. PTC(UK) Report
Here is a picture of our friend and colleague Yehya Awad sitting on the ruins of his family home. He and his son still work with children in the area. They live near Shifa hospital.
Below is an account by a local journalist, Hossam Shabat, of what he found at the hospital once occupation forces had left after a two-week siege.
Israeli occupation forces executed 300 Palestinians in and around the hospital, and this morning, I witnessed hundreds of bodies outside the hospital. There wasn’t one complete body. All the bodies were either in pieces or heavily mutilated. The bodies were in horrific conditions; many had their hands and legs tied behind their backs and had been flattened by a bulldozer. Many of the bodies were burned and left to be crushed to pieces. Several bodies were decomposed and partly eaten by stray dogs. Most of the bodies were unrecognizable; families could only identify them by their clothes.
Al-Shifa hospital was considered the largest medical complex in the Gaza Strip, catering to many complex cases. It has been completely destroyed; they burned it down and destroyed all medical equipment. Israeli occupation forces have one goal and it is to destroy every inch of Gaza.
Every child in Gaza is aware of similar horrors and every adult knows that the sadism behind them is calculated to destroy their resilience and create “shock and awe” in surrounding Arab countries. Our therapists work within that context.
Below is the grieving family of one of our team. The 13 yr old they hold died because no medical treatment was available.
Our answer to these torments is refusal to submit. Days of Joy work may be in tents not streets, but it continues.
Focusing and Art therapy may be much reduced, but it continues.
And in the UK, we join with groups campaigning for peace.
The evil that caused the horror of Shifa, the destruction and the unimaginable grief must not be allowed to succeed.
If you are able to help us in this regard, please consider donating towards our emergency appeal.
Palestine Trauma Centre (UK) is a UK based charity that works to provide adults and children living within the Gaza strip with access to psychological support and mental health services.
Funds donated to our emergency appeal will be used to provide direct relief to the population of the Gaza strip, to support the reconstruction and restoration of our services within the Gaza strip or to provide staff training and remuneration to our team on the ground in Gaza.
Palestine Trauma Centre (UK) is a registered UK charity (1133560) with the Charities Commission of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and is registered with the Fundraising Regulator.
