GENEVA: The medical charity Doctors Without Borders (MSF) voiced sorrow and outrage following the death on Sunday of a colleague fatally hit in Gaza.
Abed El Hameed Qaradaya, 43, succumbed to shrapnel injuries sustained in the attack which happened on Thursday and which had killed MSF colleague Omar Hayek and injured several others.
MSF said the attack was carried out by Israeli forces.
It said its staff were waiting for a bus to the charity’s field hospital at the time, and were all were wearing MSF vests.
El Hameed is the 15th MSF staff member killed in the near two-year conflict, and the third in less than 20 days.
“His loss is immense and has a tragic impact on his loved ones, MSF and the health system in Gaza,” the Geneva-based NGO said in a statement.
“For 18 years, Abed El Hameed was a cornerstone of MSF’s physiotherapy department in Gaza. He was a unique and invaluable specialist in both physiotherapy and occupational therapy.
“Abed was dedicated not only to his patients’ physical recovery but also to restoring their hope and sense of dignity.”
MSF said he innovated and adapted tools, and was the driving force behind opening a 3D physiotherapy department.
“We are profoundly grieved and outraged by the loss of our colleagues — a stark reminder of the pattern of complete disregard for civilian lives and human dignity,” it said.
The United Nations and rights groups have frequently condemned the high death toll of humanitarians and aid workers in the Palestinian territory, as Israel pursues its offensive against the Islamist group Hamas.
MSF outraged by death of 15th colleague in Gaza
https://arab.news/pwxus
MSF outraged by death of 15th colleague in Gaza
- Abed El Hameed Qaradaya, 43, succumbed to shrapnel injuries sustained in the attack which happened on Thursday
- MSF said the attack was carried out by Israeli forces
Fledgling radio station aims to be ‘voice of the people’ in Gaza
- The electricity crisis is one of the most serious and difficult problems in the Gaza Strip, says Shereen Khalifa Broadcaster
DEIR EL-BALAH: From a small studio in the central city of Deir El-Balah, Sylvia Hassan’s voice echoes across the Gaza Strip, broadcast on one of the Palestinian territory’s first radio stations to hit the airwaves after two years of war.
Hassan, a radio host on fledgling station “Here Gaza,” delivers her broadcast from a well-lit room, as members of the technical team check levels and mix backing tracks on a sound deck. “This radio station was a dream we worked to achieve for many long months and sometimes without sleep,” Hassan said.
“It was a challenge for us, and a story of resilience.”
Hassan said the station would focus on social issues and the humanitarian situation in Gaza, which remains grave in the territory despite a US-brokered ceasefire between Israel and Hamas since October.
“The radio station’s goal is to be the voice of the people in the Gaza Strip and to express their problems and suffering, especially after the war,” said Shereen Khalifa, part of the broadcasting team.
“There are many issues that people need to voice.” Most of Gaza’s population of more than 2 million people were displaced at least once during the gruelling war.
Many still live in tents with little or no sanitation.
The war also decimated Gaza’s telecommunications and electricity infrastructure, compounding the challenges in reviving the territory’s local media landscape. “The electricity problem is one of the most serious and difficult problems in the Gaza Strip,” said Khalifa.
“We have solar power, but sometimes it doesn’t work well, so we have to rely on an external generator,” she added.
The station’s launch is funded by the EU and overseen by Filastiniyat, an organization that supports Palestinian women journalists, and the media center at the An-Najah National University in Nablus, in the occupied West Bank.
The station plans to broadcast for two hours per day from Gaza and for longer from Nablus. It is available on FM and online.
Khalifa said that stable internet access had been one of the biggest obstacles in setting up the station, but that it was now broadcasting uninterrupted audio.
The Gaza Strip, a tiny territory surrounded by Israel, Egypt, and the Mediterranean Sea, has been under Israeli blockade even before the attack on Oct. 7, 2023, which sparked the war. Despite the ceasefire, Israel continues to strictly control the entry of all goods and people to the territory.
“Under the siege, it is natural that modern equipment necessary for radio broadcasting cannot enter, so we have made the most of what is available,” she said.
