Gaza: Number of war dead exceeds 40,000

Ahmad Yousaf:

This is a difficult question because it involves two different realities.

One is the ongoing, I would say, bloodshed that has not yet stopped because the bombs are still falling. I still get messages from my colleagues and acquaintances in Gaza telling me that every day there is another mass casualty down the street, even in the Green Zone in Deir al Balah, where it is supposed to be safe.

And the children keep coming to us in various stages of death and dying, and those who survive are often severely physically disabled. And that doesn't even take into account the other side of this story, which can only be properly assessed once this is over: the psychological trauma.

There were moments that were seared into my brain as I watched children in the emergency room. We were treating patients in the last moments of their lives, screaming in pain, suffering from head trauma, ripped open abdomens, or broken limbs. And next door were children with minor injuries, burns, and the like, just watching.

And the psychological and psychiatric impact of trauma on young brains will be a generational problem for the people of Gaza and will not be able to be assessed until the bleeding stops.