Testimonies

About the archive of testimonies

A testimony is something entirely different from a report, a statistic, a headline. It carries within it the experience of a specific person, at a specific moment, and places on the listener an obligation that is hard to escape: to pay attention. This archive brings together testimonies of people who were there — doctors, medical staff, civilians — and presents their voices, unmediated and unfiltered, to anyone willing to hear.

Behind the Testimonies

Translators’ Introduction Introduction by Dr. Michal Feldon Letter from Dr. Ezzideen Shehab Compassion as a political act of resistance

International Doctors

When the war broke out, international journalists were banned from entering the Gaza Strip. The exceptions (those who could enter) were several dozen international doctors and healthcare workers, highly experienced in conflict zones, whose entry into the Strip was granted on a limited basis.

View testimonies About the project

Gaza Healthcare Workers

They are in the hospitals, struggling to treat the wounded — children, women, the elderly, civilians — to provide medical care without anesthesia, without equipment, without medication, in hospitals under siege and even directly bombed, as they themselves become targets.

Testimonies

About the archive of testimonies

Behind the Testimonies

International Doctors

Gaza Healthcare Workers

"I don't understand how shooting children deliberately is justified."

Dr. Mimi Syed

"I find myself wanting to cry constantly, but I just don't have the time moving from one person to another."

Dr. Mark Brauner

""Almost every day, you find out that one of your surgical colleagues, a nurse or a pediatrician here has had a relative brought in after being hit.""

Dr. Tom Potokar

"This man was so traumatized, I honestly can't imagine him ever practicing medicine again."

Dr. Ben Thompson

"In an explosion when a blast goes off, everything around you gets weaponized."

Dr. Victoria Rose

"In the ER there, ventilators were so scarce that if there was a 70-year-old and a 20-year-old both requiring one, we had to decide who gets it. "

Dr. Aziz Rahman

"The last thing I wanted to do was take his hope away. So I said, 'No, Inshallah, we're trying everything.'"

Dr. Irtaza Khan

"A doctor is obligated to speak for their patients – it's not enough just to perform the surgery. My job is also to tell people what I saw."

Dr. Feroze Sidhwa

"You can’t confuse a two-year-old for a combatant."

Dr. Adam Hamawy

"The locals, when I talk to them, they're always very hopeful and strong and resilient."

Dr. Mimi Syed

"As soon as her husband got home to be with the children while his wife was at work, on-call in the emergency department, the home was struck."

Dr. Tanya Haj-Hassan

"Mothers can't even breastfeed because they are so malnourished."

Dr. Nick Maynard

"He had been injured as a result of an Israeli air strike. "

Dr. James Smith

"I remember the anesthesia doctor on the phone begging the blood bank for blood."

Dr. Samer Attar

"These children would be laid on the floor, limp and lifeless, and we would declare them dead immediately. "

Dr. Tanya Haj-Hassan

Anna Halford

Rohan Talbot

Shaina Low

"It's not believable that the best-trained marksmen in the world accidentally shot a three-year-old boy in the head."

Dr. Mark Perlmutter

Dr. Feroze Sidhwa

"Do we really call this a ceasefire?"

Dr. Morten Rostrup

"Her father was there, crying and asking me, ‘Can you save her? She’s my only child.’"

Dr. Fozia Alvi

Dr. Irfan Galaria

Dr. Thaer Ahmad

Dr. Vanita Gupta

Dr. Osaid Alser

Prof. Ghassan Abu-Sittah

Dr. Ahmed Moghrabi

"On Saturday evening, four young teenage boys came in, all shot in their testicles. It appeared like a game of target practice."

Dr. Nick Maynard

Dr. Ambereen Sleemi

"There were no cardiac surgeons at the hospital, so it fell to me to lead the operation."

Dr. Khaled Dawas

"There's no triage, people are grabbing your shoulder left and right, please see my daughter, please see my mum."

Dr. Mohammed Mostafa

"I recall his vacant stare and his soft voice whispering into my ear. I wish I had died with them. "

Dr. Tanya Haj-Hassan

"Leaving to seek treatment for your child [...] versus leaving your family behind and knowing that you may never see them again."

Dr. Mohammed Tahir

"Any kind of disability in Gaza is a death sentence."

Dr. Yasser Khan

"These are not conditions for living."

Dr. Mimi Syed

"We go out searching for test strips and insulin, but they're nowhere to be found."

Dr. Ahmad Al-Farra

Dr. Wael Hijazi

Anneliese Stephenson-Wenn

"You can't get past these memories. "

Dr. Sanjay Adusumilli

Dr. Scarlett Wong

Dr. Modher Albeiruti

"Patients who suffer from cardiovascular disease, renal disease, they do not have their medicines."

Dr. Khamis Elessi

"Another day of devastation here in Gaza. "

Dr. Tom Potokar

"I can't leave if you're shooting at me."

Dr. Mohammed Abu Mughaisib