Transcript from “Talk to Gaza” webinar, 28th December 2024
This webinar included five mental health workers in Gaza and 20 participantsfrom the UK and France.
Their reality for 2025
The children of a PTC (UK) staff member standing outside the ruins of their home.
David welcomed everyone and asked Dr O to tell us the situation in his area of Deir el Balah, Gaza.
Dr O: Living in the middle area is better than elsewhere in Gaza, but people are still losing their lives – there is shooting by tanks, the weather is very, very cold, the tents are flimsy and there is a lack of food. People are tired and there is a lack of hope. They had been hoping for a ceasefire by now.
Dr Y: He is happy to be here on the Zoom and communicating with others in Gaza. He works with UNRWA (United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East) and is responsible for 200,000 people staying in UNRWA shelters in Gaza City. In March 2023 he lost his home and his brother. The house consisted of 3 buildings, each with 4 floors – all were destroyed. They were near Al Shifa hospital. Yehia also lost his sister recently with her 6 children. He can't believe what is happening and feels trapped. You never know who will die tomorrow.
Dr S: Yesterday he lost his friend. His wife had found him dead in their camp. His friend was full of love, 40 years old and Dr Said was very close to him. Yesterday Dr Said went to his home and met his friend's parents. His 2 daughters aged 7 and 5, were asking for their dad. It is very, very cold, especially the last few days. They are trying to make the tents warmer, but it is difficult.
David said Said's work has been translated into French and Swedish as well as being shared in the UK.
Mirad: (Working as a clown, currently in the tents.) He is living in a very dangerous part of Gaza, in Nuseirat. He has a student to work with him. He is very happy to be working with children and seeing their smiles. Before the war they were very happy but now they are desperately waiting to have some joy and are very happy with the activities he and his student are able to offer.
Gwyn: Do the team in Gaza have any contact with Kamal Adwan Hospital?
Dr. O: On Friday 27th December the Israelis forced patients to move from the hospital and arrested many medical staff. Now there is no contact with the staff or patients. They set the hospital alight and several inside were injured. Many patents, who had been forced to strip to their underwear in freezing cold conditions, walked south to the Indonesian Hospital and arrived in a very critical condition. Some had had to sleep on the road with no blankets or proper clothes. The Kamal Adwan Hospital is now out of service. Yehia said the Indonesian Hospital has no electricity or medication and the staff there say they cannot treat the patients who arrive and they will die.
The Israelis plan to storm another hospital. They are emptying hospitals in the north and destroying most of the buildings in the area.
Gwyn explained what she and David have been doing over the last few days: The UK government is unresponsive to our appeals and are doing nothing short of colluding with genocide. A Select Committee is investigating Israel/Palestine and asking for evidence. The Palestine Mental Health Network and PTC (UK) have put together a submission including Dr Said's words and the children's questions. We hope our submission will lead to us being called to give oral evidence. It will be shared with 20 networks in different parts of the world. The Pal-UK Mental Health Network has issued statements about Kamal Adwan Hospital.
David: There is plenty of evidence of Israeli war crimes in the more than 14 months this has been going on. The Gazan people are feeling abandoned.
Hillary: Vigils of support are held by St Albans Friends of Palestine every Saturday morning in central St Albans for one or two hours with some passers-by supporting, others attacking. There is a vigil at Piccadilly Circus, London this evening about the burning of Kamal Adwan Hospital.
Eman: The situation in Gaza is getting worse and worse. Every day we wait for a ceasefire, but it is not happening. Our children are starving. It is hard to find eggs, fruit, meat. The children's play is based around the onslaught. For example, my daughter of 3 years imagines soldiers coming and says to her imaginary friends, “Let's run away, hide...” or “There's a parcel of food coming, let's go to the door and collect it.” She creates fantasies about preparing and cooking the food.
Dr O: The children are becoming more aggressive in play, sometimes hurting each other. Because there's not enough space, they try to make up new games, typically violent ones of Israel vs, Palestine, based on what they've seen.
Jonathan: We have used the children's questions in Arabic and English at a public meeting. They had a profound impact. We want to include them in a piece of work (a play) being done in Turin – to end with the questions, translated into Italian. He hopes the programme will be put on at other venues in Italy.
David: Jonathan has close connections with a theatre company in Gaza. He has organised events with actors in London sharing testaments from Palestinians and networks of specialists, like architects, lawyers and educationalists, all of whom are preparing projects for Gaza.
Sarah: Dr. O, how are you helping parents to support their children?
Dr. O: We are holding group sessions for families including how to work with their children and deal with their behaviours and anxieties.
Ed: Palestine Action is active – Direct action against the UK drone factories has been effective and many have risked prison sentences to support the cause.
Jill: A group of us in Welwyn Garden City have been to see our MP, Andrew Lewin, but his response was disappointing. We intend to keep trying.
Jonathan: 50 MPs have written a letter to KS: (Taken from Middle East Eye report) - “Over 50 British MPs and peers have signed a letter urging Prime Minister Keir Starmer to implement a medical evacuation programme for injured Palestinian children in Gaza. In May, Middle East Eye reported that the UK had denied medical treatment to critically injured children from Gaza by not issuing them visas - unlike several other wealthy countries.” Jeremy Corbyn spoke on Al Jazeera about it.
Peter: has written to Alice McDonald, his Norwich MP re. supporting aid in Gaza. Vigils are held every Friday evening in Norwich and 3 weeks ago, on a Saturday, there was a demonstration laying out children's clothes on the ground in the centre of the city to symbolise their dead bodies. There is a vigil today in Cromer and a national demonstration in London on 18th January.
The meeting concluded with some questions about PTC(UK) staff in Gaza receiving pay. They have difficulty accessing their bank accounts and commission payments for cash are very high. Prices for basic goods keep increasing. Meanwhile, floods, cold and bomb damage are having fatal consequences. Everyone was grateful for the contact we all had at this meeting.
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.
