STEVE INSKEEP, Host:
Many civilians have been among the casualties in Gaza. So this morning, we've called Dr. Abdel Aziz Thabet. He runs a mental-health program in Gaza that deals with the effects of violence. He's a British-trained psychiatrist who works mostly with women and children. Dr. Thabet, welcome to the program.
D: Thank you very much.
INSKEEP: Would you describe some of the people who've turned to you for help in the last several days?
D: We have no electricity; we have no mobile phones. So, even I cannot go to my office. I heard yesterday - I just came through to the email, and I found somebody from America telling me that my headquarters in Gaza Community Mentality Programme is destroyed. For me, I'm in Gaza, and I don't know about it, from people from Washington, telling me that your headquarters is destroyed because we cannot leave the homes now in the last six days.
INSKEEP: So, that's our first point here, I suppose. You were trained in helping people cope with violence, and you can't even get your job started.
D: I can't start because my office in Gaza community - I went next day to my office in the university - was broken. It is near of these military quarters; it was broken. I feel I cannot do anything here now this time, because the trauma is, this time, is very devastating and there is no other measures can help us, nothing. We have no gasoline at home. When you have no electricity at home...
INSKEEP: Dr. Thabet, how does it...
D: It's the first time in our life that we cannot help people.
INSKEEP: Dr. Thabet, how does it affect people to be civilians and be in this situation, to discover that they're in a war zone?
D: For civilian, I think coping is very high. They believe in God, that this is the will of God. And they are expecting the worst, you know. As I talk to many people, some children, they said, better to die suddenly and not to continue under the siege, because the siege is a slow killing of the people. Many families now, and my family, are going back to cook in the gasoline. So, we come back to 50 or 60 years back.
INSKEEP: Oh, meaning that you've lost utilities, you've lost electric power, and it's like a different era all of a sudden?
D: Everything - no, there is no cooking gas for the homes; there is no electricity, nothing.
INSKEEP: If I can understand one thing, Dr. Thabet, you said that people are having to use wood to cook because they can't get gas; they can't get electricity. Is there something to cook? Because there's been concern about a shortage of food and medical supplies.
D: Yes, there is shortage. There is no wheat. There is - you can see only something coming by UNRWA things, you know? You cannot find...
INSKEEP: Oh, that's United Nations...
D: If you go now to the bakery, you'll find the queue of around, maybe, 500 meter, people waiting to get some package of bread, you know.
INSKEEP: You're saying there's a line to get into the store or to get relief supplies that's 500 meters long?
D: Yes. Yes. There's a queue to get some bread and the stores - if you go to the - I just - I came from the store - you cannot find what you want. And you know, there's a problem that 70 percent of the Palestinian people, they are very poor people. These are refugees, and these people are dependent on the United Nation packages given to them. And this people, they have no money to buy it. This is the problem. This is a big problem. What do you expect? I think they are breeding violent people; the Israeli are breeding Palestinian to be more aggressive.
INSKEEP: If I can understand one other thing, Dr. Thabet - I mean, this is an area that certainly has seen its share of violence for many years; there have been troops on the streets; there's been fighting in the streets; there have been rockets fired out of Gaza; there have been warplanes striking in Gaza. Is anything different or more severe about the past week?
D: Really, this time, when I go to the street now, I have the fears. Before, I have no fears. In the last incursions, there's no fears. But now, I - when I go out - I just went today by my car - I was looking every time what would happen to me. I expected to die in any minute.
INSKEEP: Dr. Abdel Aziz Thabet, thank you very much.
D: OK, thank you.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
INSKEEP: Abdel Aziz Thabet is a psychiatrist in Gaza who works with people affected by violence.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
INSKEEP: It's Morning Edition from NPR News.