Three months after the Hamas attack on Israel and the start of the war on Gaza, cancer patients are stranded at the LWF’s Augusta Victoria Hospital. In an interview, LWF Jerusalem Representative Sieglinde Weinbrenner talks about the situation in Jerusalem and Gaza.
Sieglinde Weinbrenner, on the Mount of Olives in Jerusalem. Photo: LWF/ Albin Hillert
Interview with Sieglinde Weinbrenner, LWF-Representative in Jerusalem
(LWI) - Three months after the beginning of the Gaza War, the situation is “devastating,” says Sieglinde Weinbrenner, LWF Country Representative in Jerusalem. Cancer patients have been unable to access life-saving treatment at The Lutheran World Federation’s (LWF) Augusta Victoria Hospital (AVH) in East Jerusalem. The war continues to hinder patients and staff from Gaza and the West Bank from accessing the hospital.
Treatments missed and canceled
“Here in Jerusalem the situation is calm but very tense,” Weinbrenner says. The Old City is void of tourists and pilgrims which normally frequent the streets at this time of the year. The situation is different in the West Bank, where there is increased violence. "We have been unable to operate the community outreach programs, most notably the mobile mammography clinic and the diabetes mobile clinic, in marginalized areas in the West Bank since the start of the war”.
Because of the increased violence in the West Bank, LWF has been using buses to bring essential staff to the hospital, but they are often severely delayed at checkpoints. About 30% of the patients from the West Bank have not been able to come for their chemotherapy, radiation, or hemodialysis appointments. “Hundreds of treatment sessions for patients from the West Bank been canceled in the last three months”, Weinbrenner says. “Because of the checkpoints, commutes that used to take 30 minutes now take more than two hours.”
The hospital continues to accommodate and support the patients from Gaza who came to AVH before the war, but the hospital staff are very worried about the patients currently in Gaza. They have been unable to contact many of them. “We do not know if they are still alive,” says Weinbrenner.
“For weeks, we have been trying to get 28 children with cancer on the evacuation list,” Weinbrenner adds. This has so far been impossible and AVH has not been able to bring life-saving medication to its patients in Gaza.
Elke Büdenbender, wife of the German Federal President, talks to Gaza patients during a visit at AVH in late November 2023. Photo: Bundesregierung / Jesco Denzel
Humanitarian access needed
At this point, the medical infrastructure in Gaza is barely functional, says Weinbrenner. LWF cooperates with the Al Ahli Anglican Hospital for early cancer diagnostics. There have been several attacks on the hospital, most recently on December 18th, Weinbrenner adds. “One staff of LWF, a father of three, was killed. Other hospital employees, including doctors and nurses, were arrested.”
The Al Ahli-hospital has been severely damaged. The last information Weinbrenner received was that eight doctors and nurses remained to care for patients who cannot leave.
We need a ceasefire, we need aid to go into Gaza, we need to be able treat our patients.
Sieglinde WEINBRENNER, LWF Country Representative Jerusalem
Only three hospitals are still somehow staffed in Northern Gaza, she says. “They perform emergency surgery, but there is no equipment. It is more like dressing wounds,” Weinbrenner says. The hospitals are trying to transfer severly injured people to the south of the Gaza Strip. “This requires an extreme amount of coordination with the warring parties. How well this works I cannot say.” Weinbrenner adds that there is hardly any phone and internet connection in Gaza, making it very difficult to get reliable information from the war zone.
The LWF Representative stresses the necessity for a humanitarian corridor, to bring aid to civilians and wounded “We need a ceasefire, we need aid to go into Gaza, we need to be able treat our patients. We need a permanent solution that allows Israelis and Palestinians to live in peace and dignity.”
In a statement on 15 January, LWF reiterated its call for a ceasefire and humanitarian access in Gaza “The human cost of this war is unbearable, and the humanitarian situation continues to deteriorate. The impact of the fighting on people and infrastructure, including homes, hospitals, schools, roads, places of worship and other public facilities is staggering.”
