His clinic destroyed during Israel’s bombardment of the Gaza Strip, Palestinian dentist Najdat Saqr has retrieved equipment from the ruins and set up a tent to treat patients again.
“Around 80% of our work involves root canal treatment. As for anaesthesia, I do have this but it’s about to run out,” he said.
Saqr has just started seeing patients at the makeshift clinic he opened in a tent in Nuseirat refugee camp.
“After six months of war I decided that I must continue to work. Of course my (dental) centre was damaged from the bombardment – the Nuseirat roundabout was targeted repeatedly, resulting in damages to my centre,” he said.
“I took one of the chairs from the centre and I came here and set up a tent. I retrieved some equipment from under the rubble after (the centre) being targeted and I moved everything on a tuk-tuk from the clinic to here.”
Israel has laid waste to the Gaza Strip since launching an offensive in response to the Hamas-led October first week storming of the country’s south. The World Health Organisation (WHO) has said the health system in the Gaza Strip is barely surviving in the besieged territory.
Israel’s offensive in the Gaza Strip has killed more than 32,000 Palestinians, health authorities in Gaza say.
Saqr’s certificates of professional qualification hang proudly from the tent poles.
“I’ve got many certificates that I worked hard for, I grabbed them from my (damaged) centre, I thought I must have them here, hung behind me,” he said.
Palestinian dentist Najdat Saqr, whose clinic was destroyed during an Israeli bombardment, treats patient at a tent he set up, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas, in Nuseirat camp in the central Gaza Strip.
