Doctors Who Visited Gaza Speak of ‘Atrocities,’ Collapsing Healthcare 

Mourners pray next to the bodies of Palestinian men from an array of clans and factions, who secure aid convoys in Gaza, after they were killed in an Israeli strike, in Gaza City, March 20, 2024. (Reuters)
Mourners pray next to the bodies of Palestinian men from an array of clans and factions, who secure aid convoys in Gaza, after they were killed in an Israeli strike, in Gaza City, March 20, 2024. (Reuters)
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Doctors Who Visited Gaza Speak of ‘Atrocities,’ Collapsing Healthcare 

Mourners pray next to the bodies of Palestinian men from an array of clans and factions, who secure aid convoys in Gaza, after they were killed in an Israeli strike, in Gaza City, March 20, 2024. (Reuters)
Mourners pray next to the bodies of Palestinian men from an array of clans and factions, who secure aid convoys in Gaza, after they were killed in an Israeli strike, in Gaza City, March 20, 2024. (Reuters)

The healthcare system in Gaza has essentially collapsed, Western doctors who visited the Palestinian enclave in recent months told an event at the United Nations on Monday, speaking of "appalling atrocities" from Israel's offensive.

The four doctors from the United States, United Kingdom and France have been working with teams in Gaza to support its healthcare system, which has been reeling since Israel began its military assault there last October.

The Israeli offensive has displaced nearly 2.3 million people, caused a starvation crisis, flattened most of the enclave, and killed over 31,000 people, according to Gaza's health ministry.

Nick Maynard, a surgeon who was last in Gaza in January with British charity Medical Aid for Palestinians, recalled seeing a child who had been burned so badly that he could see her facial bones.

"We knew there was no chance of her surviving that but there was no morphine to give her," Maynard, a cancer surgeon, told the event at the UN headquarters in New York. "So not only was she inevitably going to die but she would die in agony."

Another seven-year-old child, Hiyam Abu Khdeir, arrived at the Gaza European Hospital with third-degree burns on 40% of her body, after an Israeli airstrike on her home killed her father and brother and injured her mother, said Zaher Sahloul, a critical care specialist with humanitarian group MedGlobal.

After weeks of delay, she was evacuated to Egypt for treatment but died two days later, Sahloul said.

Israel began bombing the Palestinian territory on Oct. 7 in retaliation for Hamas attacks that killed 1,200 people in southern Israel.

International experts have warned that Israel´s assault constitutes a genocide, accusations that the World Court is probing.

Israel denies accusations of genocide and has maintained that it is targeting Hamas, not civilians. It has accused the group of using civilians as human shields and says it has a right to defend itself.

The doctors also warned of a large death toll if Israel proceeds with its plan to invade the southern Gazan city of Rafah.

"If there's a grand invasion of Rafah, it will be apocalyptic, the number of deaths we're going to see," said Maynard.



Ruins of a Gaza House Where the Hamas Leader Was Killed Becomes an Attraction for Sympathizers

This still image from video provided by the Israeli army shows a heavily damaged building with a person the Israeli military identified as Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar seated in a chair on Wednesday, Oct. 16, 2024. (Israeli army via AP)
This still image from video provided by the Israeli army shows a heavily damaged building with a person the Israeli military identified as Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar seated in a chair on Wednesday, Oct. 16, 2024. (Israeli army via AP)
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Ruins of a Gaza House Where the Hamas Leader Was Killed Becomes an Attraction for Sympathizers

This still image from video provided by the Israeli army shows a heavily damaged building with a person the Israeli military identified as Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar seated in a chair on Wednesday, Oct. 16, 2024. (Israeli army via AP)
This still image from video provided by the Israeli army shows a heavily damaged building with a person the Israeli military identified as Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar seated in a chair on Wednesday, Oct. 16, 2024. (Israeli army via AP)

The owner of the house where Israeli forces purportedly killed Hamas chief Yahya Sinwar last year says his ruined apartment in Gaza’s southern city of Rafah has become a macabre tourist attraction for admirers of the Hamas leader now that a ceasefire is in effect.
Ashraf Abu Taha said he returned to the Tel al-Sultan neighborhood in Rafah late on the night of October 17, shortly after Sinwar's death, to find the ruins of his house mobbed by journalists and residents hoping to get a glimpse of the chair where Israeli drone footage showed Sinwar had been sitting in his final moments, The Associated Press said.
“I came at 11 o’clock. I was late, and I found people gathered with the journalists, almost thousands. I wondered what was happening. I found that they had come to take photos in the house,” Abu Taha said.
In the video, shot right before Israeli forces killed him and flattened part of the building, Sinwar – badly wounded, covered in dust and wrapped in a Palestinian keffiyeh – hurled an object toward the drone. Israelis called it a sign of his weakness but Palestinians have hailed it a final show of defiance against the more powerful Israeli army.
The chair on which he died has become somewhat of a Palestinian nationalist symbol, Abu Taha suggested. He and his son have placed the seat and a vest they say was Sinwar’s on top of the ruins of their home.
“People are now saying the neighborhood is not Tal al-Sultan anymore, but it’s Tal al-Sinwar,” he said, referring to the name of his neighborhood.