Geir is an orthopedic surgeon who has worked at Ullevål Hospital in Oslo, Norway until March this year. Following October 7^th, 2023, Geir has been in Gaza twice as part of NORWAC’s Emergency Medical Team (EMT), in January and April of 2024. Now he is working with the recruitment of new health personnel for NORWAC’s EMT’s. In this interview, Geir discusses his own experiences as part of the EMT’s in Gaza as well as how he is working on recruiting new personnel.
Geir was in Gaza for the first time in 2014 through a NORWAC directed orthopedic project, working on war-related injuries. The last time Geir was in Gaza prior to October 7^th was in 2022, working on the project with NORWAC.

Geir felt that it was natural for him to be a part of NORWAC’s EMT. He was part of the first team arriving in January of 2024 at European Gaza Hospital in Khan Younis, where they stayed for two weeks. Geir recalls that it was hard for the team to prepare themselves as they had very limited knowledge as to what to expect. They knew that they were going to live in simple living-conditions, and that they were going to constantly hear the sound of bombs. At the same time, this situation was entirely new, and no one knew exactly what to expect.

European Hospital was the size of a relatively small hospital. Geir says that what took him by surprise was that the entire hospital was sheltering 25 000 refugees from the north of Gaza and Gaza city because the hospital had been designated as a safe zone. At the same time, the hospital had to function as a operational hospital. This situation was entirely new to Geir and completely shocking.

Since the war broke out, it has been more challenging to get supplies and food into Gaza according to Geir. He had hoped that this would become easier as more time went on but his experiences shows that the opposite is true. People are reliant on aggregates, especially the hospitals. The fuel for these aggregates are proven to be very challenging to transport into Gaza.

Geir uses his own experiences when recruiting new medical personnel to the teams. He feels that it is important for potential team-members to hear from someone who has been to Gaza and can share in a direct and unfiltered manner what to expect in Gaza. At the same time, psychiatrists also contribute majorly to the process to recruit new personnel, as well as before and after the team’s stay in Gaza. It is very important to Geir personally that no-one is left to themselves as part of the team, something that is very important to NORWAC as well.

Geir says that it is important to keep busy when working in Gaza. Without being insensitive, Geir says that a healthy distance is important to keep in order to sleep at night and function the next day. At the same time, it is important for the team to be open with each other about their experiences. When sharing a meal it is important for each team-member to share with each other what they experienced that day.

Geir says that NORWAC is looking for health-personnel that has experience from humanitarian work and have priorly lived and worked in simple conditions. Although this is not an absolute requirement. But they need to be able to improvise according to the situation. Geir says that NORWAC is primarily in need of orthopedists, anesthesiologists and scrub nurses but they are also following the guidelines of the World Health Organization and the signals they are sending according to the needs.