Dr. Tarek Loubani
My name is Dr. Tarek Loubani. I’m an emergency physician who has been working in Palestine and specifically in the Gaza Strip for the last 15 years. And I’ve also worked in numerous other war zones.
I’m an emergency physician. I see patients each and every day. What that means is that we make sure that doctors are in places where they can work, facilities like this that are well cared for and well attended. We make sure that they have the equipment that they need because it’s almost impossible to bring it in. That means that we put that equipment to work and produce it inside Palestine, inside Gaza. That’s where 3D printing happens with projects like the fixator, the tourniquets and stethoscopes like this one. It also means that we are involved heavily in a lot of training and capacity building. So we teach, we’re part of teaching programs, we’re part of structuring teaching programs in ways that are truly involved and egalitarian, not ways that come from above to sort of impose. We’re trying as much as possible to engage Palestinians in ways that they want and in ways that are respectful of the dignity and excellence of Palestinian doctors.
Yes, it’s true that the situation isn’t as bad as it was when there was a full war. There is a ceasefire of sorts, but that means that dozens of people sometimes a day are killed. Many more are wounded. People are starving. The need is tremendous. The blockade is severe. And the Israelis are relentless. So that’s why we both work on the medical front but also advocate on the political front to try to do everything we can to end this war, end this genocide and end this blockade immediately.

Dr. Zishan Siddiqui
My name is Dr. Zishan Siddiqui. I’m an international delegate with the GLIA organization. I’m here on a medical volunteer mission to Nasser Medical Complex in Khan Yunis, Gaza. I’ve been here for about three weeks, and inshallah I will be here for one month.
My mission was multifold. To show solidarity to the people of Gaza, to provide clinical care where appropriate, and to provide capacity building for the department of anesthesia so they can continue to provide excellent care despite the lack of resources that they have available.
So there has been a systemic destruction of the health care infrastructure, both at Nasser Medical Complex but the system as a whole, and this has affected the department of anesthesia in multiple ways, both from a human resource, equipment, and supply standpoint. It is an absolutely catastrophic crisis with daily human consequences.
A lot of the physicians were either displaced or unfortunately lost during this time. And there was a discontinuity, a disruption in the training system, and so a lot of the residents weren’t able to keep up with their training schedules. In addition to that, medical supplies in the operating room are exceedingly low.
I would say that, maybe outside of ongoing colonial and genocidal conflicts like Sudan, the supply shortage and the lack of resources in Gaza might be the worst in the world, if I had to guess.
So absolutely, what was very evident right from my first day here is that there has been a complete lack of ceasefire. I would say the ceasefire is in name only, because you can’t really even go 5 minutes without hearing gunshots or bombs.

Dr. Habib Rahman
I’m Dr. Habib Rahman. I’m a consultant cardiologist from the UK. This is the coronary care unit at Nasser Hospital in the Gaza Strip, Palestine.
The state of the wards is parlous. There are repairs that have been needed for a long, long time. There are still bullet holes in the walls, and the effects of the blockade are evident immediately. There are deficiencies of drugs, there are deficiencies of basic elements of medical equipment, things like central lines, surgical drains, medical drains, basic drugs that we would normally rely on a daily basis in the UK are not available because the Israelis will not let them in.
The gentleman we saw this morning is an 82-year-old man who came in with a fall and has been found to have complete heart block, which is a situation that requires an urgent pacemaker. Back home, this is the sort of thing that would be totally straightforward — he’d get a pacemaker within 24 hours and he’d be home probably 12 to 18 hours later. Here in Gaza, there are no pacemakers available at all. Again, this is an entirely predictable consequence of Israel’s blockade, which has been justified on the putative basis that somehow allowing medical supplies somehow promotes terrorism.
So the destruction one sees on TV is itself breathtaking. But when you see it close up, it’s beyond words, really. The hospitals haven’t been spared any of this, as I’m sure anyone paying attention knows. The Israeli military did not shy from attacking hospitals, which of course is a war crime. And that war crime continues because the hospitals are being deliberately deprived of supplies.