Seattle, November 15 (RHC)-- Dr. Alice Rothchild, a retired OB-GYN who has long worked in Palestine and was last in Gaza in August, told reporters that diseases are running rampant inside hospitals in Gaza.

“A modern 21st-century hospital needs electricity and power to use all of its instruments and equipment. Without fuel, even the electric generators and ambulances cannot work,” she said.

“Think about the hospital personnel.  The staff is exhausted, traumatised.  Many of them are getting sick because there are contagious diseases that are now running rampant,” Dr Rothchild said.

“What’s going to happen is that people are going to suffer, and some of them are going to die.  They could die slowly with sepsis, infection or gangrene.  And some are going to die suddenly when their respirator stops working,” she added.

Dr. Rothchild recently participated in a nonviolent protest to shut down the Federal Building in Seattle, where Democratic Senator Patty Murray of Washington has an office, urging the senator to call for an immediate ceasefire.  

She is on the steering committee of the Jewish Voice for Peace Health Advisory Council and providing frequent updates on the deteriorating medical situation on the ground in Gaza.