Palestinian British Surgeon Ghassan Abu Sitta has stated that Israel’s goal is to render Gaza uninhabitable, specifically targeting hospitals in the process.
As a cosmetic and reconstructive surgery expert, Abu Sitta informed Anadolu Agency that he accessed Gaza through Egypt with Doctors Without Borders on October 9, two days after the onset of the Israeli offensive on the Strip. Despite the limited medical resources in Gaza’s hospitals, he made considerable efforts to serve the population until November 18.
Abu Sitta, who received the TRT World Citizen award, emphasizes that Israel is actively working to deprive Gaza of lifesaving services. He has traveled to the Netherlands to pursue legal proceedings at both the International Criminal Court and the International Court of Justice in The Hague, discussing the dire situation of hospitals in Gaza and the medical challenges he faced while there.
He also recounted the story of an unpublished interview conducted by Anadolu Agency photographer Muntasir Al-Sawwaf before he was killed in an Israeli air raid days later. Al-Sawwaf and his brother Marwan lost their lives in an Israeli air raid in front of their home early last month.
Looking at a photograph on the front page of Anadolu’s evidence book, which pictured him giving a press statement among the bodies of children the night Al-Ahli Hospital was bombed, Abu Sitta described it as the night of the Al-Ahli Hospital massacre.
He described entering the area depicted in the photograph with one of the wounded, where many families had sought refuge in the hospital. At about 18:00, a rocket launched towards the area killed approximately 480 people.
Abu Sitta pointed out the clear intentions of Israeli politicians and military leaders to make Gaza unlivable. He expressed that one of the most effective ways to render a place uninhabitable is to destroy its healthcare sector.
He noted the lack of medical supplies in Gaza since the war began, with shortages of morphine and anesthesia used to alleviate pain during surgeries. Sadly, many patients could not be brought into the operation room due to widespread infection. The only way to prevent these wounds from becoming infected and to save the patient from death was to perform extremely painful debridement procedures without anesthesia.
The work conditions in Gaza became extremely difficult due to the bombing and evacuation of hospitals. As a result, they were moving injured individuals from one hospital to another, and as a moving surgeon, they lost track of patients’ follow-ups.
After the destruction of Al-Shifa Hospital, the Al-Ahli Baptist Hospital became the only functioning hospital in Gaza. Abu Sitta attempted to treat 500 casualties, disconnected from the outside world for days. Al-Sawwaf visited and met with him and another surgical colleague, a move that surprised him due to the photographer’s bravery.
Abu Sitta lamented hearing of the deaths of colleagues, including a nurse from the burns unit at Al-Shifa Hospital with her brother. Days later, they learned that the head of the emergency department at Al-Shifa Hospital, Dr. Haitham Abu Hani, was killed along with his wife and children.
Doctors and nurses were injured or killed by Israeli forces every three days during the war, with 300 medical staff slain.
Describing his days in Gaza, Abu Sitta stated that caring for all those injured children was exceedingly difficult psychologically. He performed 10 to 12 surgeries daily, finishing around 01:00 AM.
He also mentioned that he would soon travel to Turkey to accept the award given to him by the English-speaking Turkish channel TRT World.
Since October 7, 2023, Gaza has been enduring a devastating war waged by the Israeli military. This has resulted in 24,762 fatalities and 62,108 injuries, displacing about 1.9 million people, or over 85 percent of the Strip’s population, as per local authorities and the United Nations.
