What four American doctors witnessed while volunteering in war-torn Gaza

Dr. Mahmooda Syed
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Updated 05 February 2025
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What four American doctors witnessed while volunteering in war-torn Gaza

  • Volunteers described ruined hospitals, horrific injuries, and extreme shortages during their stint in the Gaza Strip
  • Urged UN agencies to assist Palestinian healthcare workers, ensure medical evacuations, and bolster aid deliveries

NEW YORK CITY: In December, as Israeli troops mounted a fresh assault on Gaza’s Kamal Adwan Hospital, its director, Dr. Hussam Abu Safiya, refused to comply with repeated orders to abandon his pediatric patients.

Just weeks earlier, the Palestinian doctor had buried his 15-year-old son, Ibrahim, in the hospital’s courtyard after he was killed in a drone strike. In November, he suffered shrapnel injuries of his own.

Even as Israeli forces mounted further air attacks around the hospital — claiming it was being used to shelter Palestinian militants — Dr. Abu Safiya refused to abandon his post until he was finally detained.

He was last seen in a now-iconic photograph walking toward a column of Israeli tanks on a debris-strewn street. Reports suggest he is in Israeli custody, although no charges have been brought against him.




A paramedic carries a girl that was rescued from the rubble of a collapsed building to receive medical care at the Ahli Arab hospital. (AFP/File)

“Dr. Hussam is representative of the attack on health care workers,” Dr. Thaer Ahmad, an emergency room physician from Chicago who recently returned from volunteering in Gaza, told a press conference at the UN headquarters in New York City on Jan. 31.

“Even wearing a white coat was deadly,” he said, describing what he witnessed in the embattled enclave. “We have normalized the killing of healthcare workers. That’s not just going to be a problem in Gaza — it’s going to be a problem worldwide. We need Dr. Safiya out.”

Israel has consistently denied deliberately targeting civilian infrastructure, claiming that Palestinian militants have used hospitals and residential buildings to store weapons and launch attacks, employing their occupants as human shields.

Since the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas-led attack on southern Israel triggered the war in Gaza, some 62,000 Palestinians have been killed, according to the latest estimates, and much of the enclave’s infrastructure left in ruins by Israeli bombardment.

Dr. Ahmad was among four American doctors speaking after having returned from Gaza. While war’s horrors are often unfathomable from afar, the visceral realities they described have been burned into their memories forever.

They spoke of treating wounded children, watching Gaza’s healthcare system collapse, and struggling to save lives amid overwhelming destruction.




Palestinians inspect the damage at Gaza’s Al-Shifa hospital after the Israeli military withdrew from the complex housing the hospital on April 1, 2024. (AFP/File)

In the aftermath of the fragile ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas, which came into effect on Jan. 19, the American doctors were at pains to highlight Gaza’s ongoing medical needs and the obstacles that healthcare workers face.

Despite a lull in the fighting, they warned that the suffering would continue and the death toll would rise if aid was not allowed to flow freely. By sharing their accounts, they hoped to encourage a coordinated effort to address the crisis.

Dr. Feroze Sidhwa, a trauma surgeon who has worked in crisis zones in Ukraine, Haiti, and Zimbabwe, described the impossible situation he encountered. “I’ve never seen a place like Gaza in my life,” he said.

During his brief time volunteering at the European Hospital in Al-Fukhari near Khan Yunis between March and April 2024, Dr. Sidhwa experienced the destruction of Gaza’s medical infrastructure.

He described a constant stream of patients — many of them children — in urgent need of care. Although there were only four operating rooms in the European Hospital, some 250 people needed daily wound care, he said.

Even more grim was the lack of trained medical personnel. According to Dr. Sidhwa, roughly one in 10 healthcare workers in Gaza have fled, and around one in 20 have been killed.

Many of Gaza’s most experienced doctors — those who ran departments and performed complex surgeries — are either dead, detained, or missing. The destruction of both human and physical resources has left the healthcare system on the brink of collapse.




An Israeli soldiers carrying out operations inside Al-Shifa hospital in Gaza City. (AFP/File)

As a result, several of Gaza’s most vulnerable have been evacuated by foreign governments and aid groups to receive care abroad. However, those who are evacuated are given no guarantee that they and their families will be permitted to return to their homes afterward.

“Under this ceasefire agreement, there is supposed to be a mechanism in place for medical evacuations,” said Dr. Ahmad. “We’ve still not seen that process spelled out.

“Without a second phase of the ceasefire and a clear plan for medical evacuations, we are setting up an illusion of hope for the people of Gaza that will be shattered the moment the fighting resumes.”

Dr. Ahmad said there were gaping holes in the medical evacuation process.

“Under the current ceasefire agreement, we are told that injured combatants will be allowed to exit through the Rafah crossing, but there is no formal process for evacuating children, even though they are equally at risk,” he said.

“If we can let an injured combatant out with three companions then surely we can ensure that children can be evacuated with their caregivers.”




This view shows the infant incubators at the ransacked neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) inside the heavily-damaged Kamal Adwan hospital in Beit Lahia. (AFP/File)

Dr. Ayesha Khan, an emergency medicine specialist from Stanford University who also spoke at the press conference, said at least 2,500 children in Gaza are at risk of dying without evacuation or proper care.

“Families are living in constant fear,” she said. “If they manage to get their child out, there is no guarantee they can return, and that uncertainty is causing chaos.

“We know that chaos in a medical system increases mortality by 30 percent. Just by creating confusion, uncertainty, you are creating a 30 percent more effective killing machine.

“And this is exactly where the UN secretary-general, the UN organizations can help, because organizations bring organization and what we are advocating for, very strongly, is to have a centralized process, clear guidelines, and to have COGAT put in writing what is needed, both for what can enter into Gaza and what is needed to exit.”

COGAT is the Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories — a unit in the Israeli Ministry of Defense tasked with overseeing civilian policy in the West Bank, as well as facilitating logistical coordination between Israel and the Gaza Strip.

Dr. Khan, who volunteered in Gaza between late Nov. 2024 and early Jan. 2025, described her shock at the severity of the injuries she witnessed, particularly among children.




Palestinian paramedics cry outside Al-Shifa hopsital in Gaza City on October 16, 2023, amid continuing bombardment by Israeli forces of the Hamas-run Plaestinian territory. (AFP/File)

“We had waves of children that even if another bomb was never dropped on Gaza, even if another bullet never hit a child in Gaza, these children would still die, and the reason is because they simply don’t have the adequate nutrition to heal,” she said.

She described the case of one girl whose foot injuries, caused by shrapnel, had gone untreated for months. Without access to basic nutrition or proper medical care, the wounds had festered and become infected.

In Gaza, where sewage-laden streets replace what might have been hospital rooms or secure shelters, these injuries would likely result in amputation — a fate that many children had suffered.

The doctors emphasized that the lack of essential supplies and equipment — including CT scanners, hospital beds, and even basic medications — was making it almost impossible to provide adequate care.

“The conditions are worse than any hospital I’ve worked in before,” said Dr. Khan.

“We’re talking about hospitals with bullet holes in the walls, operating rooms destroyed, and entire wards rendered useless. You can’t even get a full assessment for patients without risking their lives during transport to another facility.”

Despite these conditions, Dr. Khan also described the resilience she witnessed among Gaza’s medical professionals.




Palestinian paramedic inspects the remains of a destroyed ambulance at the scene of bombardment in Khan Yunis. (AFP/File)

“Eighty percent of the healthcare workers at the hospital I worked in were volunteers,” she said. “These people are living in tents, getting one meal a day, yet they show up to work every single day, putting their lives on the line for their people. They are heroes.”

However, this resolve is being tested by the mounting restrictions, insufficient support, and a lack of international pressure on the parties involved to facilitate a proper aid response.

Dr. Ahmad called on Western medical institutions to take a stand, much like they did for Ukraine, to protect the rights of Palestinian healthcare workers and ensure that medical evacuations are carried out swiftly.

“The international medical community has a responsibility to advocate for these basic rights,” he said. “We cannot stand idly by and let this crisis escalate further. The people of Gaza deserve access to the care they need, and the world must not turn a blind eye.”

Palestinian health professionals like Dr. Abu Safiya, the detained director of Kamal Adwan Hospital, must be free and properly resourced to rebuild Gaza’s health system and deliver the urgently needed care, he said.




Dr. Ayesha Khan, Dr. Feroze Sidhwa, and Dr. Mahmooda Syed, the medical doctors with critical-care experience in Gaza Strip hospitals since 7 October discuss immediate priorities for rebuilding Gaza's health system. (Getty Images)

“Palestinians need to lead the response. Palestinians need to be treating Palestinians. And we need to be able to support that. And that’s what we mentioned to UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, and he firmly believes in that as well.”

UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric told Arab News that Guterres was “very moved by the eyewitness reports that he heard from the four American doctors.

“They are really a symbol of the sacrifice that people are making in order to help civilians,” he said. “And the secretary-general was vocal that we will continue to push through our people on the ground for more medical evacuations.”

He added: “If they are evacuated for medical reasons, they have a right to come home.”

However, Dr. Mahmooda Syed, an emergency physician who has twice volunteered in Gaza, told the press conference that medical evacuations are only a very temporary solution to the “ongoing, more insidious problem, that is the complete devastation and damage to the infrastructure of Gaza.




People walk outside the heavily-damaged Kamal Adwan hospital in Beit Lahia. (AFP/File)

“The roads are destroyed, the water system is destroyed and contaminated, the electricity grid is completely destroyed,” she said. “So, we do need to provide medical care to patients, but we also need to empower the people of Gaza to rebuild and recover their own state.”

The American doctors said they want to see medical needs urgently prioritized.

“The people we met in Gaza — they deserve life,” Dr. Ahmad said. “They deserve to heal. They deserve a future. And we need to make sure they have the chance to live it.”

 


Druze near Damascus resist demand to turn in arms as tensions boil

Updated 13 sec ago
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Druze near Damascus resist demand to turn in arms as tensions boil

Such violence threatens the new government’s control of Syria
Syrian authorities have negotiated deals to allow Druze fighters to protect their own areas

JARAMANA, Syria: Druze residents near Syrian Arab Republic’s capital are resisting a demand by the Islamist-led government to hand in their light weapons, saying authorities have yet to address fears of new attacks by Sunni Muslim militants after days of sectarian violence.
Clashes last week pitted Sunni fighters against armed Druze residents of the town of Jaramana southeast of Damascus, later spreading to another district near the capital and then south to the predominantly Druze province of Sweida.
Such violence threatens the new government’s control of Syria, where armed gangs are attacking religious minorities and Israel is stepping up its military intervention under the banner of protecting the Druze community.
Syrian authorities have negotiated deals to allow Druze fighters to protect their own areas as enlisted members of Syria’s security forces, but this week asked that all weapons held by residents of these areas be turned in to the state.
“We told them, as soon as there is a state capable of regulating its forces, we’ll have no problem handing in our weapons,” said Makram Obeid, a member of the Jaramana committee that is negotiating with the Syrian government.
Obeid said his committee had told government officials it would be better for them to focus on disarming the gangs now harassing minorities.
“It’s our right to be scared, because we saw what happened in other areas,” he told Reuters, an apparent reference to killings in March of hundreds of civilians from the Alawite minority to which former President Bashar Assad belongs.
It was the deadliest episode of sectarian violence in years in Syria, where a 14-year war ended last December when rebels toppled Assad, who fled to Russia.
“People want to feel safe. It’s enough to have (more than) 11 years of killing, strikes, and worries,” Obeid said. “And we’re coming to another phase that we thought, with the collapse of the regime, would leave us in a much better place. But until now, we don’t feel reassured.”
Fahad Haydar, a resident of Jaramana, echoed those fears.
“These weapons that are turned against us — that’s what we’re afraid of. If those weapons get handed in, then we’ll hand in ours,” he told Reuters.

SEEKING GUARANTEES
Mowaffaq Abu Shash, a Druze cleric in Jaramana, said the Druze had already compromised enough.
“We take one step, they ask for a second. We take the second step, they ask for a third,” he said. “We ask for a guarantee that what happened on the coast will not happen to us.”
One influential Druze spiritual leader, Sheikh Hikmat Al-Hajjri, has called for international intervention to protect his community from Syria’s leaders, whom he has branded “terrorists.”
The Druze, an Arab minority sect who practice a religion originally derived from Islam, live in Syria, Lebanon, Israel and the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights. Israel has vowed to protect Syria’s Druze militarily if they face threats.
Last week’s violence was ignited by a voice recording purportedly cursing the Prophet Muhammad, which Sunni militants suspect was made by a Druze. More than a dozen people were killed in Jaramana before the violence spread west and south.
It also drew in Israel, which carried out a drone strike on what it said were fighters preparing to attack Druze in the town of Sahnaya, west of Jaramana. A Syrian security source told Reuters one member of the security forces was killed in the strike.
As the clashes reached Sweida province, Israel bombed near the presidential palace in Damascus — the clearest sign yet of its hostility toward Syria’s new leaders.
Syria’s interim President Ahmed Al-Sharaa once headed a branch of Al-Qaeda before renouncing ties to the group in 2016.

Israeli military issues evacuation warning for area around Yemen’s international airport

Updated 46 min 17 sec ago
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Israeli military issues evacuation warning for area around Yemen’s international airport

  • “We urge you to immediately evacuate the area of the airport,” Adraee wrote
  • Israel’s military targeted Hodeida on Monday with airstrikes

JERUSALEM: Israel’s military has issued a warning on social media for people in the area of Yemen’s international airport to evacuate immediately.
The warning by spokesperson Avichay Adraee on Tuesday came a day after Israel launched strikes against the Yemen-based Houthi militants in retaliation for a missile strike on Israel’s international airport near Tel Aviv on Sunday.
“We urge you to immediately evacuate the area of the airport and to warn anyone nearby to distance themselves immediately,” Adraee wrote, attaching a map of the Sanaa International Airport. “Failure to evacuate the area endangers your lives.”
Israel’s military targeted the Iranian-backed Houthis in Yemen’s Red Sea province of Hodeida on Monday with airstrikes, killing at least one person and wounding 35. The militants’ media office said at least six strikes hit the crucial Hodeida port. Other strikes hit a cement factory in Bajil district 55 kilometers (34 miles) northeast of Hodeida, the militants said. The extent of damage was not immediately clear.


Gazans desperately need food, water — ‘they’re getting bombs’: UN

Updated 06 May 2025
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Gazans desperately need food, water — ‘they’re getting bombs’: UN

GENEVA: The UN on Tuesday accused Israel of trying to “weaponize” the flow of aid into Gaza, leaving the population desperate for food and water while delivering them “bombs” instead.
The United Nations’ humanitarian agency OCHA decried the worsening situation in the war-ravaged Palestinian territory after nearly nine weeks of a total Israeli blockade on Gaza.
“The bottom line is that there’s no aid to distribute anymore because the aid operation has been strangled... There’s no more to give,” OCHA spokesman Jens Laerke told reporters in Geneva.
In Gaza, “there’s a desperate need for food getting in; they’re getting bombs,” he said.
“They need water; they’re getting bombs. They need health care; they’re getting bombs.”
He voiced outrage at Israel’s recent verbal update to representatives of a grouping of around 15 UN agencies and 200 NGOs indicating plans to “shut down the existing aid distribution system” that the organizations run in Gaza.
“The Israelis have asked them to instead deliver supplies through Israeli hubs under conditions set by the Israeli military,” Laerke said.
The UN had flatly rejected that proposal, he said, stressing that such a plan would “not live up to the core fundamental humanitarian principles of impartiality, neutrality and independent delivery of aid.”
Aid, he insisted, must be given “based on needs and nothing else.”
“It appears to be a deliberate attempt to weaponize the aid,” he said, adding that the proposed system seemed “designed to further control and restrict supplies, which is the opposite of what is needed.”
Instead, what was required to alleviate the suffering was for Israel to allow border crossings to reopen and for life-saving aid to go through, said Laerke.
“We have aid pre-positioned outside of Gaza, ready to go in,” he added.
Colleagues on the ground were describing people “rummaging through garbage trying to find something edible,” he said, slamming the “harsh, brutal, inhuman reality” in the territory.
He said that despite the towering challenges in Gaza since the war erupted 18 months ago, the UN and its partners have largely managed to deliver aid, provide health care, and roll out vaccination campaigns.
“The great frustration of all this is that it is possible, and it can be done,” he said.
Laerke’s comments came a day after Israel’s military said expanded operations in Gaza would include displacing “most” of its residents, after the country’s security cabinet approved a plan that an Israeli official said would entail “the conquest of the Gaza Strip and the holding of the territories.”
Nearly all of Gaza’s inhabitants have already been displaced, often multiple times, since the start of the war sparked by Hamas’s October 7, 2023 attack on Israel.
“Forced relocations of people: they’re not helpful, obviously,” Laerke said.
“You need to know where people are in order to be able to provide aid to them... it’s another blow.”


Houthis say four killed in latest Israeli strikes on Yemen

A Yemeni man checks the rubble of a building hit in US strikes in the northern province of Saada on April 29, 2025. (AFP)
Updated 06 May 2025
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Houthis say four killed in latest Israeli strikes on Yemen

  • Strikes came after a Houthi missile penetrated the perimeter of Ben Gurion International Airport near Tel Aviv for the first time
  • The latest Israeli attacks on Houthi territory came as regional tensions soar anew over Israel’s plan to expand operations in Gaza and displace much of its population

SANAA: Yemen’s Houthis on Tuesday said four people were killed and 39 wounded in Israeli air raids that followed a missile strike by the group on Israel’s main airport.
The latest Israeli attacks on Houthi territory came as regional tensions soar anew over Israel’s plan to expand operations in Gaza and displace much of its population.
“Three citizens were killed and 35 others wounded” at a cement factory in Bajil, while one person died and four were wounded at Hodeida port, the Houthis’ Al-Masirah TV station said, quoting the health ministry.
The Houthis blamed both the United States and Israel for the attack, but while Israel confirmed it had carried out the strikes, an American official denied US involvement.
Monday’s strikes came after a Houthi missile penetrated the perimeter of Ben Gurion International Airport near Tel Aviv for the first time, leaving a large crater.
The Houthis, who control swathes of Yemen, have launched missiles and drones targeting Israel and Red Sea shipping throughout the Gaza war, saying they act in solidarity with Palestinians.
Israel says it has targeted Yemen five times since July 2024, with Houthi authorities reporting a total of 29 people killed. Israel’s army regularly intercepts missiles from Yemen.
The Israeli army said it hit Hodeida port because it was used for the transfer of Iranian weapons and equipment, while the cement factory was a “significant economic resource” for the rebels.
Earlier on Monday, Israel’s security cabinet approved stepped-up military operations in Gaza, including the territory’s “conquest.”
The Houthis claimed responsibility for Sunday’s “hypersonic ballistic missile” attack and threatened fresh missile strikes on Israel’s airports.

The Houthis, who control swathes of Yemen including Sanaa, have launched missiles and drones targeting Israel and Red Sea shipping throughout the Gaza war that began in October 2023, saying they are acting in solidarity with Palestinians.
US strikes against the Houthis began under former president Joe Biden but have intensified under his successor Donald Trump.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday vowed a tough response against the Houthis, as well as its main backer Iran, over the airport attack.
In a video published on Telegram, Netanyahu said Israel had “acted against” the Houthis in the past and “will act in the future.”
“It will not happen in one bang, but there will be many bangs,” he added.
On social media platform X, Netanyahu said Israel would also respond to Iran at “a time and place of our choosing.”
Iran on Monday denied supporting the attack, calling it an “independent decision” by the Houthis taken in solidarity with the Palestinian people.
Reacting to Netanyahu’s threats, the Islamic republic warned it would retaliate against any attack on its territory.
“Iran underlines (its) firm determination... to defend itself,” the Iranian foreign ministry said, warning Israel and the United States of “consequences.”
An Israeli military spokesperson told AFP that Sunday’s attack was “the first time” that a missile has directly struck inside the airport perimeter.
An AFP journalist inside the airport during the attack said he heard a “loud bang” at around 9:35 am (0635 GMT), adding that the “reverberation was very strong.”
Flights resumed after being halted briefly, with the aviation authority saying on Sunday that Ben Gurion was “open and operational.”
Some international airlines have canceled flights, including SWISS which extended its suspension until Sunday.


Israeli plan to seize Gaza alarms many: ‘What’s left for you to bomb?’

Updated 06 May 2025
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Israeli plan to seize Gaza alarms many: ‘What’s left for you to bomb?’

  • Israel’s ensuing offensive has killed more than 52,000 people in Gaza, many of them women and children, according to Palestinian health officials

DEIR AL-BALAH: An Israeli plan to seize the Gaza Strip and expand the military operation has alarmed many in the region. Palestinians are exhausted and hopeless, pummeled by 19 months of heavy bombing. Families of Israeli hostages still being held in Gaza are terrified that the possibility of a ceasefire is slipping further away.
“What’s left for you to bomb?” asked Moaz Kahlout, a displaced man from Gaza City who said many resort to GPS to locate the rubble of homes wiped out in the war.
Israeli officials said Monday that Cabinet ministers approved the plan to seize Gaza and remain in the Palestinian territory for an unspecified amount of time — news that came hours after the military chief said the army was calling up tens of thousands of reserve soldiers.
Details of the plan were not formally announced, and its exact timing and implementation were not clear. It may be another measure by Israel to try to pressure Hamas into making concessions in ceasefire negotiations.
The war began after Hamas-led militants attacked southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, killing some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and abducting 251. Israel says 59 captives remain in Gaza, about 35 of whom are believed to be dead.
Israel’s ensuing offensive has killed more than 52,000 people in Gaza, many of them women and children, according to Palestinian health officials, who don’t distinguish between combatants and civilians in their count.
“They destroyed us, displaced us and killed us,” said Enshirah Bahloul, a woman from the southern city of Khan Younis. “We want safety and peace in this world. We do not want to remain homeless, hungry, and thirsty.”
Some Israelis are also opposed to the plan. Hundreds of people protested outside the parliament Monday as the government opened for its summer session. One person was arrested.
Families of hostages held in Gaza are afraid of what an expanded military operation or seizure could mean for their relatives.
“I don’t see the expansion of the war as a solution — it led us absolutely nowhere before. It feels like déjà vu from the year ago,” said Adi Alexander, father of Israeli-American Edan Alexander, a soldier captured in the Oct. 7 attack.
The father is pinning some hopes on US President Donald Trump’s visit to the Middle East, set for next week. Israeli leaders have said they don’t plan to expand the operation in Gaza until after Trump’s visit, leaving the door open for a possible deal. Trump isn’t expected to visit Israel, but he and other American officials have frequently spoken about Edan Alexander, the last American-Israeli held in Gaza who is still believed to be alive.
Moshe Lavi, the brother-in-law of Omri Miran, 48, the oldest hostage still believed to be alive, said the family was concerned about the plan.
“We hope it’s merely a signal to Hamas that Israel is serious in its goal to dismantle its governmental and military capabilities as a leverage for negotiations, but it’s unclear whether this is an end or a means,” he said.
Meanwhile, every day, dozens of Palestinians gather outside a charity kitchen that distributes hot meals to displaced families in southern Gaza. Children thrust pots or buckets forward, pushing and shoving in an desperate attempt to bring food to their families.
“What should we do?” asked Sara Younis, a woman from the southernmost city of Rafah, as she waited for a hot meal for her children. “There’s no food, no flour, nothing.”
Israel cut off Gaza from all imports in early March, leading to dire shortages of food, medicine and other supplies. Israel says the goal is to pressure Hamas to free the remaining hostages.
Aid organizations have warned that malnutrition and hunger are becoming increasingly prevalent in Gaza. The United Nations says the vast majority of the population relies on aid.
Aid groups have expressed concerns that gains to avert famine made during this year’s ceasefire have been diminishing.
Like most aid groups in Gaza, Tikeya has run out of most food and has cooked almost exclusively pasta for the past two weeks.
Nidal Abu Helal, a displaced man from Rafah who works at the charity, said that the group is increasingly concerned that people, especially children, will die of starvation.
“We’re not afraid of dying from missiles,” he said. “We’re afraid that our children will die of hunger in front of us.”