AMI in West Bank and Gaza

Objective

Improve the quality of surgical interventions carried out on Palestinian populations.

Context

The war raging in the Middle East injured more than 1,700 Palestinian people in 2005. Because some 40% of these injuries affected upper or lower members, the number of handicapped people paralyzed by peripheral nerve injuries who need secondary surgery is very high. However Palestinian surgeons lack specialized training, particularly in microsurgery, and cannot deal with such cases. This is the reason why Aide Médicale Internationale has been sending expert teams on short training missions in Gaza and the West Bank several times a year since May 2003. In 2005, 12 missions took place and the medical staff of three hospitals were trained in practical and theoretical matters. In 2005, AMI’s teams were face with a particularly tense political situation due to the withdrawal of Israeli colonizers from the Gaza strip and the construction of the separation wall. There were numerous incidents, between Israeli forces and the Hamas, or the Hamas and the Palestinian Authority. The prospect of municipal elections at the end of the year gave way to increased violence and multiple kidnappings of foreigners. Despite the bad security situation, AMI decided to maintain all its missions.

Nerve reconstruction surgery program in Gaza Strip

AMI’s teams, established at the Shifa Hospital in the city of Gaza and the Nasser hospital in Khan Yunis, train Palestinian specialists in the treatment of paralysis and peripheral nerve injuries. In 2005, eight neurosurgery missions were carried out in the Gaza Strip.

Results

• 7 surgery students received practical training in microsurgery, 3 of whom obtained a university diploma from the Xavier Bichat faculty in Paris
• Teaching on locoregional anaesthesia and teaching provided by itinerant surgical teams on the field
   130 nerve reconstruction surgical interventions
• 518 consultations
   Supply of medical equipment and consumables

Training and surgical operation program in the West Bank

AMI’s teams work in the government hospital in Jenin to set up multidisciplinary training cycles in pediatrics surgery, gastrointestinal endoscopy, and gynecological laparoscopy. Four missions, among which two assessment missions, were carried out in 2005.

Results

• Training of surgeons
• 37 nerve reconstruction surgical interventions
• 6 gastrointestinal laparoscopic surgical interventions
• 129 consultations
• 2 assessment missions in neonatology and gastrointestinal endoscopy

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Project definition

Localization

Office in Jerusalem [until May 2005] Intervention areas: Gaza Strip [Shifa hospital in Gaza and Nasser hospital in Khan Yunis], West Bank [Jenin, Nablus, Hebron]

Beneficiaries

Direct beneficiaries: 173 interventions and 647 consultations carried out Indirect beneficiaries: populations from the districts of Gaza, Jenin, Nablus and Hebron

AMI’s team on this project

Short-term expatriate missions [from 1 to 2 weeks]: surgeons, plastic surgeons, junior surgeons, pediatric surgeons, pediatric anaesthetists, operating room nurses, anaesthetist nurse

Sources of Funds

Service for Cooperation and Cultural Action [SCAC], Delegation for Humanitarian Action [DAH] of the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs

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AMI’s position in the israelo-palestinian conflict

AMI wants to makes a point concerning its position in the israelo-palestinian conflict.

1) First of all, AMI takes care of the civil victims of the israélo-Palestinian conflict. The disorganization of the Palestinian health system imposes a support of our specialists teams in GAZA and in the West Bank. In the same way, AMI would be helping the Israeli civil victims if those did not have any access to care.

2) AMI condemns all forms of violence against the civil population in this conflict. It also condemns on the same basis : the exactions of the Army (TASHAL) implying attacks on the Palestinian population’s basis rights and attacks on their human dignity, alos suicidal attacks (human bombs in particular) implemented by Palestinian fanatics against Israeli civil objectives.

3) AMI supports any peace initiative from the UNO, the European Union and all step being able to allow the return to peace in this bloody area. AMI reaffirms the right of the Israeli People to live in a protected State and recognized by the Palestinian Authorities. AMI alos reaffirms the right of the Palestinian to live in an Independent Palestinian State whose borders would be defined by the UNO and are recognized by Israel.

With its 25 years experiment in the zones of conflict, AMI estimates that:

• the policy currently followed by both Israeli and Palestinians political leaders has to be stopped.

• the evacuation of all Israeli Colonies from the Palestinians Territories is absolutely necessary. They are the prerequisites to the establishment of a constructive dialogue between the 2 parts to lead to an agreement of peace really durable.

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