French doctors in Gaza tell of horror (Audio)

Thank goodness, help has arrived in Gaza.

French doctors are now in situ and a French A-310 carrying 40 tons of humanitarian aid to the civilian population of Gaza left Wednesday 14 January for Israel from where the cargo will be transported to Gaza, according to an AFP report published in Le Figaro.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs said the humanitarian aid cargo constitutes 6,000 blankets, 3,000 of which were supplied by a French NGO Voix de l'Enfant, 5,000 water cannisters, 30 boxes of medicine from Tulipe, a French organisation that federates medical donations from companies, and 14 water purification systems with a total value of 350,000 euros.

The cargo will be distributed in Gaza in collaboration with the World Health Organisation and the UNRWA, United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees.

Also in Le Figaro: A French doctor from the University Hospital of Lille has just arrived in Gaza with a team of surgeons and speaks of the horror. He talks of the total lack of equipment needed to treat the wounded and of the devastations inflicted on the families.

L'ONG française Help Doctors est entrée hier dans la bande de Gaza. Son président Régis Garrigue, médecin urgentiste au CHU de Lille avec une équipe de médecins et de chirurgiens sont sur zone. Cette mission est soutenue par la Communauté Urbaine de Dunkerque qui est jumelée avec la ville de Gaza depuis avril 1996. (French NGO Help Doctors arrived last night on the Gaza strip. Régis Garrigue, a doctor with the emergency unit of the University Hospital of Lille along with a team of doctors and surgeons are now in Gaza. Their mission is backed by the Urban Community of Dunkirk that has been a twin city to Gaza since April 1996.)

Click on link to listen to tape: A French doctor in Gaza talks about the horror

Click on link to read plea by Help Doctors: Gaza: "Il faut que les décès d'enfants cessent !" (Gaza: "Death of children must stop!")

The death toll in Gaza has reached more than 1,000, many of them children. Israel has been accused by Human Rights Watch of using a new weapon that causes worse and far bigger damage than the size of the Gaza strip itself and calls on Israel to stop its unlawful use:

Israel: Stop Unlawful Use of White Phosporous in Gaza.

(Jerusalem) – Israel should stop using white phosphorus in military operations in densely populated areas of Gaza, Human Rights Watch said today. On January 9 and 10, 2009, Human Rights Watch researchers in Israel observed multiple air-bursts of artillery-fired white phosphorus over what appeared to be the Gaza City/Jabaliya area.

Israel appeared to be using white phosphorus as an “obscurant” (a chemical used to hide military operations), a permissible use in principle under international humanitarian law (the laws of war). However, white phosphorus has a significant, incidental, incendiary effect that can severely burn people and set structures, fields, and other civilian objects in the vicinity on fire. The potential for harm to civilians is magnified by Gaza’s high population density, among the highest in the world.

“White phosphorous can burn down houses and cause horrific burns when it touches the skin,” said Marc Garlasco, senior military analyst at Human Rights Watch. “Israel should not use it in Gaza’s densely populated areas.”

Human Rights Watch believes that the use of white phosphorus in densely populated areas of Gaza violates the requirement under international humanitarian law to take all feasible precautions to avoid civilian injury and loss of life. More here.