HAMILTON, Canada
Four medical doctors from the US who had recently returned from Gaza provided sobering accounts Thursday of the dire conditions there and reported a lack of basic survival needs as well as medical equipment.
Speaking at a news conference at UN headquarters in New York, they shared their firsthand experience with patients in the Gaza Strip.
"We have normalized the killing of health care workers. That's not just going to be a problem in Gaza, it's going to be a problem worldwide," said Dr. Thaer Ahmad, an emergency room physician from Chicago.
Dr. Ahmad, who was at Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis in southern Gaza since January of 2024, said that "wearing a white coat" did not prevent him from becoming a target.
He stressed the need for medical evacuations, saying: "It's because not just the health care system was targeted, but the doctors, the nurses, the paramedics, the first responders -- they were targeted. They were killed."
Dr. Ahmad recalled "forcibly disappeared" Gazan doctor Hussam Abu Safiya, citing him as an example of Israel's attacks on health care workers.
Dr. Abu Safiya was detained by Israeli forces along with others during a Dec. 27 raid on Kamal Adwan Hospital in the Gaza Strip.
While Israel has not disclosed where he is being held, Palestinian local reports suggest that he is being detained at the Sde Teiman prison facility.
Citing the Gaza ceasefire, Dr. Ahmad warned over the risk of people "unnecessarily" dying due to the lack of medical supplies needed to get in and across Gaza.
"Under this ceasefire agreement, there is supposed to be a mechanism in place for medical evacuations. We've still not seen that process spelled out," he added.
He denounced the "dehumanization" of Palestinians and argued that international humanitarian law and human rights "stop at the shores of Gaza."
Dr. Ayesha Khan, an emergency doctor from Stanford University Hospital, also shared her experiences in Gaza.
"I've been to more than 30 regions around the world working in global health, and I've never seen what I saw in Gaza. I was there from the end of November until about Jan. 1 (this year)," she said.
Pledging to "never forget any of the patients" from Gaza, Dr. Ayesha said "the majority of what was coming into the emergency department was kids between the age of five and six who had explosive injuries or bullet wounds."
She also emphasized the lack of adequate nutrition and said children in Gaza would still die even if there were no Israeli bombings.
Dr. Khan said "most of the children don't have parents left.”
"There's 2,500 children that imminently need to be evacuated or will die in the next few weeks," she said.
She stressed that "there's no process in place" for medical evacuations, adding "there's not even a discussion of who can accompany these children."
Noting that it was also unclear whether those who had been evacuated would have the opportunity to return, she said: "We know that chaos in a medical system increases mortality by 30%. By creating confusion, uncertainty, chaos, you are creating a 30% more effective killing machine."
She said that a centralized system should be established and that the COGAT (Israeli military’s Coordination of Government Activities in the Territories) should determine in writing which medical supplies could enter Gaza.
Trauma and critical care surgeon Dr. Feroze Sidhwa said: "I've never seen a place like Gaza in my life. It's dramatic, what's been done."
"The hospital system has been attacked so directly, and each individual hospital has been attacked and ransacked so many times," he said, adding there were 250 patients, half of whom were young children, at the European Hospital in Khan Younis in southern Gaza, where he volunteered.
He further emphasized the "very minimal" capacity in the face of "extreme" needs and said some children "are dying right now. Some will die tomorrow, some will die the next day."
He said that one in every 20 health care workers in Gaza had been killed, adding that "not only have the facilities been destroyed, but the human capital and the human resources."
Dr. Sidhwa stressed the importance of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) and said it "keeps people alive in the Gaza Strip."
Dr. Mahmooda Syed, an emergency medicine specialist from the state of Washington, recalled their meeting with UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Thursday and said Guterres "has made a commitment" on primarily looking into the detention of Dr. Hussam.
Recalling Guterres describing Gaza as a "graveyard for children," Dr. Syed said: "That is absolutely what we witnessed. It is dire conditions that we witnessed."
She explained that she had tried to treat a four-year old child who had been shot in the head with almost no essential medical supplies, noting: "No child should have a bullet."
Noting that COGAT blocked the entry of medical supplies without providing any justification, she said she had saved a child's life using a throat examination tool she had smuggled in.
Dr. Syed said COGAT did not document anything in writing and she called for the need for "accountability" for "refusing children from getting medical care."
Meanwhile, Guterres shared his meeting with the medical doctors on his social media account.
"I was deeply moved by the testimonies and impressed by the dedication of 4 American doctors that have worked in Gaza," he said.
"2,500 children must be immediately evacuated with the guarantee that they will be able to return to their families and communities.”
*Serife Cetin in New York contributed to this story
