Amal al-Robayaa's children eat their meal amid the ruins of the family home destroyed in an Israeli strike in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip, on November 7, 2023. (Photo by AFP)

Washington, October 25 (RHC)-- In Washington, DC, the NGO Doctors Against Genocide held a conference to continue publicizing the voices of health care professionals against the genocide they have witnessed in Gaza.

Forced famine, bombed hospitals, untreated disease, medicine shortages, garbage which hasn't been collected for a year, mass homelessness, deprivation, grief, indescribable and ceaseless psychological trauma.

The realities and statistics are shocking, but they're not as shocking as the personal stories.

"Actually, today, I spoke with a friend that I made there, and she's finally pregnant after trying for four years, finally got pregnant, and today was texting me that she just wishes death upon herself."

"This is supposed to be the happiest time of her life, and she wants to die because it's so bad."

"She said they've reached the point of famine. She was like, ... we've not gotten food for 10 days.  We are eating molded bread with bugs all over it, and she said there's some canned food that's disgusting, but they're eating it because they have no other option."

"But, like I said, she's pregnant, this should be the happiest moment of her life, and she's wishing death upon herself at this point."

The depletion of medical supplies has hindered a northern Gaza hospital from providing healthcare services.  These returning doctors and nurses said the barbaric cruelty which Israel is inflicting on Gazans compelled them to speak out.

Their testimonies make it crystal clear that Israel is sadistically torturing Gazans, and that if the West applied pressure on Tel Aviv, the horrors could stop immediately.

John Kahler, a pediatrician and volunteer, said:

"I've been in Aleppo, I've been in Haiti, I've been in a whole bunch of places where you couldn't get aid."

"This is the first time the aid is there and not accessible. So that could solve the nutrition problem in six months, if we just open the gate, it's right there.  It's right there.  I could throw a rock and hit it.  You see thousands of trucks as you're coming in."

"So the aid is available in the region, it is just not accessible because the IOF is in control of the borders from north to south. So the aid is being hindered in any quantity at all."

Western leaders routinely deny the official tally of nearly 45,000 Gazans killed and over 100,000 injured.  But scientists know this number is a drastic undercount.  The top medical journal, The Lancet, recently estimated that the actual death toll is about five times the official number.

A group of 99 U.S. doctors have rejected Israel’s allegations that Hamas is misusing Gaza hospitals for military activities, saying they had “witnessed crimes beyond comprehension.”

War has health implications beyond just direct harm, and in Gaza, the death toll is expected to be much higher than in a normal conflict due to the widespread destruction of its infrastructure and the shortages and pursuant famine caused by Israel.

Even if the war ended today, past bereavements will continue to impact individuals until at least 2070, researchers estimate, but the trauma caused by even a normal war exists in a community's collective consciousness for generations.

[ SOURCE:  PRESS TV ]