Where even death has no dignity: a doctor’s testimony from Gaza

Before the world reads its morning headlines, Santhosh Kumar S.S., director of the UN emergency medical team in Gaza and currently Professor of Orthopaedics and Emergency Medicine at Government Medical College, Thiruvananthapuram, had already endured nights that scar the soul. Speaking at the Quantum Century exhibition organised by Kerala Sasthra Sahitya Parishad (KSSP) at Government College here on Tuesday, he described a land where hospitals were bombed, hunger drove people to riots and killings, and families were forced into tents without water, sanitation or food.

Before the world reads its morning headlines, Santhosh Kumar S.S., director of the UN emergency medical team in Gaza and currently Professor of Orthopaedics and Emergency Medicine at Government Medical College, Thiruvananthapuram, had already endured nights that scar the soul.

Speaking at the Quantum Century exhibition organised by Kerala Sasthra Sahitya Parishad (KSSP) at Government College here on Tuesday, he described a land where hospitals were bombed, hunger drove people to riots and killings, and families were forced into tents without water, sanitation or food.

People listened with tears in their eyes as Dr. Santhosh Kumar, supported by stark photographs, laid bare one of the worst humanitarian and genocidal crises of the century.

“Gaza will disappear,” he said, voicing his gut feeling after having served there three times in recent years.

Life in Gaza is a daily struggle for survival. Tents are the only shelter. The moment one enters, the stench of hydrogen sulphide, sulphur dioxide and methane hits the senses.

Nearly 2,500 people share a single toilet, often without water, while overflowing septic tanks turn the ground to filth. Water is scarce, and people drink from any source they find. Typhoid, cholera, giardiasis and shigellosis are rampant, affecting 35% of the population.