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<div class="header reader-header reader-show-element"> <font
size="-2"><a class="domain reader-domain"
href="https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20190903-1000-palestinians-shot-by-israel-in-gaza-have-severe-bone-infections/">https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20190903-1000-palestinians-shot-by-israel-in-gaza-have-severe-bone-infections/</a></font>
<h1 class="reader-title">1,000 Palestinians shot by Israel in
Gaza have ‘severe bone infections’</h1>
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<div class="reader-estimated-time">September 3, 2019<br>
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<p>More than 1,000 Palestinians in the occupied Gaza Strip
“are suffering from severe bone infections developed in
the aftermath of being shot by the Israeli army”,
according to a new update by global medical charity <a
href="https://www.msf.org/treating-resistant-infections-gaza-under-blockade-palestine"
target="_blank">Médecins Sans Frontières</a> (MSF).</p>
<p>MSF said it is “dealing with immense challenges”
treating those shot by Israeli forces during <a
href="https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20190330-remembering-the-great-march-of-return/">protests
in the Gaza Strip</a>, including bone infections that
add “to the already complicated path to recovery that
these injured people must tread”.</p>
<p>More than 7,400 Palestinians have been injured by live
ammunition during the protests, MSF stated, “with around
half suffering from open fractures, where the bone is
broken near the wound”.</p>
<p>“Gunshot wounds by their very nature are prone to
infection,” MSF said.</p>
<blockquote>
<p>With injuries such as those in Gaza, where the wounds
are huge, bones are splintered, and treatment is
difficult, many wounds stay open long after the
injury, meaning the risk of infection is drastically
higher.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Aulio Castillo, MSF’s Medical Team Leader in Gaza,
explained that for many of their patients who have been
shot, “the severity and complexity of their wounds –
combined with the severe shortage of treatments for them
in Gaza – means they have now developed chronic
infections.”</p>
<p><strong>READ: <a
href="https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20190827-israel-has-hit-gaza-with-illegal-collective-punishment-because-netanyahu-wants-more-votes/">Israel
has hit Gaza with illegal collective punishment
because Netanyahu wants more votes</a></strong></p>
<p>Treating these infections is made all the more
difficult because of “a health system reeling from the
effects of more than a decade of <a
href="https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20180810-what-everyone-should-know-about-israels-siege-of-the-gaza-strip/">Israeli
blockade</a>, Palestinian political in-fighting and
Egyptian restrictions on movement,” MSF stated.</p>
<p>“We have worked with the Ministry of Health to upgrade
a laboratory so that it can analyse bone samples, a
crucial part of diagnosing correctly these bone
infections and knowing which antibiotics will work,”
said Castillo.</p>
<p>According to MSF, this is “the first laboratory able to
analyse bone samples in Gaza,” since “previously, each
sample had to be sent to labs in Israel for testing”.</p>
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