(C) Common Dreams
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‘I performed six amputations in one night’: London doctor recalls war horrors after 43 days in Gaza [1]
['Lilia Sebouai', 'Ben Farmer', 'Maeve Cullinan', 'Olivia Acland', 'Sarah Newey']
Date: 2023-11-27 19:03:00+00:00
Prof Abu-Sittah described how many of the people on his operation table were victims of fragmentary missiles fired by the Israelis and required guillotine amputations in “very tough” parts of their bodies – such as the mid thigh, where medics had to saw through a web of thick muscles, and the femur, the strongest bone in the body.
Fragmentation bombs are particularly deadly, as they erupt into a shower of small and fast-moving lethal metal fragments upon impact.
Throughout his time in Gaza, Prof Abu-Sittah provided regular updates to the Telegraph, detailing the collapse of the territory’s healthcare system.
“We eat when we can, just because you need to keep going and keep moving forward. You go to sleep knowing that the day after will look as bleak as the day before, but we live in hope,” he said in one voice message shared earlier this month.
He was working in Al-Ahli hospital when it became the last remaining functioning hospital in Gaza City and, at one point, was tasked with treating more than 600 patients alongside two other surgeons. He said he was working 17-hour shifts and was “exhausted to the point of pain”.
‘The end goal is to ethnically cleanse Gaza’
Now that he has returned to London, Prof Abu-Sittah has agreed to work with Scotland Yard to provide witness evidence of the “genocidal” war crimes that he claims Israel have committed.
He said that Israeli forces have used white phosphorus munitions, which is prohibited in warfare under international law, as he recognised the characteristic burns created by the weapon from when he treated victims in the 2009 Israel-Gaza war.
“This [war] is the difference between a flood and a tsunami. This was a tsunami and the other wars were just floods,” he told the Telegraph on Monday.
“There is no doubt in my mind that the end goal is to ethnically cleanse Gaza … The UK government has to insist medical staff be allowed into Gaza, it has to ensure a proper investigation of potential war crimes is done.”
Before the press conference began, journalists were shown a two-minute video, compiled of photos and video footage that Prof Abu-Sittah collected during his time in Gaza, that were deemed too graphic to share with the public.
The footage showed the aftermath of an attack on the Al-Ahli hospital. In the clip, the air is thick with smoke, the eerie red tint of an ambulance siren the only source of light.
It cuts to inside the hospital’s clinical white corridors, filled with children and adults screaming and crying hysterically.
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[1] Url:
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/global-health/terror-and-security/gaza-hospital-surgeon-ghassan-abu-sittah-child-amputations/
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