Nida Bajwa speaks at a healthcare worker rally in support of Palestine at San Francisco General Hospital. Photo by Annika Hom, taken Nov. 3, 2023.hit near the entrance of Al Shifa Hospital, killing 15 people and wounding dozens, according to the Gaza health ministry. UCSF clinical professor of psychiatry Jess Ghannam learned about it on social media, before he was supposed to speak at a pro-Palestine rally planned at San Francisco General Hospital later in the day.
Ghannam personally knew some healthcare workers at Al Shifa hospital, as he knew four other Palestinian healthcare workers who had been killed trying to flee Gaza via a “Ghannam could not immediately determine if his Al Shifa colleagues were harmed, and spoke to the effects of an information blackout. “You know, it’s hard, because there’s no electricity and no fuel,” Ghannam said. “Cell and internet is cut.”and have the latest stories from Mission Local delivered directly to your inbox.
While several speakers Friday likened the atrocities in Gaza to a public health issue, noting how cut electricity threatened lives and scant supplies meant substandard medical care and nutrition. “The blockade of food, fuel, medical supplies and water are all contributing to a public health disaster that poses just as much of a threat to life as bullets and bombs,” said organizer Matt McGowan, a UCSF graduate nursing student.
The children that survive are likely to have post-traumatic stress disorder, said Ghannam, who has spent some 20-plus years in Gaza studying intergenerational trauma. “I want to make it very clear that we will not be silenced,” added Hiba Elkhatib, founder of Palestinian Public Health. “What is happening in Gaza is not just an attack on Palestinians, but an attack on public health and the health field as a whole.”