News Announcer:
After 200 days of war, journalists are still not being allowed into Gaza by Israel. It makes those voices who risk their lives on humanitarian missions inside the territory even more invaluable. The British surgeon, Dr. Junaid Sultan, is one of them. He’s just returned from what’s now described as Gaza’s last fully functioning hospital, which is increasingly overwhelmed by injured patients, the majority, women and children. Dr. Junaid has spoken to ITV News about the horrors he saw, sights he says he can’t take out of his head. He’s appealing to British and US leaders to listen to doctors like him and act urgently, a warning that Martha Fairlie report contains some distressing images and accounts.
Dr. Junaid:
You cannot even understand the scale of devastation what they are going through.
M.F.:
Six months of fighting has destroyed most of Gaza’s hospitals, vital medical services lie abandoned. But despite the dangers, international doctors are volunteering to go there and offer Palestinians a lifeline.
Dr. Junaid:
We had a lot of casualties which came and there was a huge need for blood.
M.F:
NHS consultant Vascular Surgeon, Dr. Junaid Sultan, has just returned from Gaza after two weeks with the medical charity FAJR Scientific.
European hospital is essentially the last working full functional hospital in Gaza right now.
What was it like when you first arrived there?
Dr. Junaid:
There was a constant noise of drones, and it was a feeling that you’ve been constantly monitored and under surveillance. The gunshot moves all the time from any direction, makes you literally jump all of a sudden, and constant bombing.
M.F.:
According to the Gaza Health Ministry, the death toll has now passed 34,000, among the more than 9,500 women and 14,500 children, over 77,000 people have been wounded. At the European hospital medics are trying to save 9-year-old Karim Abu-Aram, brought in by his family after he was injured in a bombing in Rafa two days before Eid.
Translated from Arabic: Ibrahim Arram, Kareem’s father: I have not other wish in life but to hold him in my arms. Please do your best to save him.
After 12 hours of surgery by the FAJR team, he’s in a critical condition. His arms and legs shattered, along with his dreams of being a policeman when he grows up.
Dr. Junaid:
We had a lot of women and children who presented to A&E with that sort of trauma and the worst thing was the gunshot wounds. The gunshot wounds in kids, which makes absolutely no sense.
On video from the hospital:
This was a bullet which was in the left upper thigh of a six-year-old child for the last few months. And he was unable to walk. He had a lot of pain. This is a jacket standard bullet and we managed to retrieve it fully.
We had kids with gunshot moves to their different parts of the body and we were just treating them on every day. And it was very sad to witness a 10-year-old boy who came on the last day, as a victim of the bombardment. He had multiple injuries but the most devastating which you could see were his both of the feet were completely mangled and they were just hanging by a small amount of tissue. This was just a 10-year-old boy who was screaming because of the pain. He didn’t have any pain killers because of lack of the pain killer medications. When he arrived, we had no other solution apart from to offer the amputation of his legs because otherwise he could have bled to death. But the way, when I saw this in a 10-year-old, that was, I cannot just take that out of my head. I literally cried watching him screaming and asking for help. It was very painful.
M. F.:
Was it difficult to emotionally detach from the patients and do your job? Did you find that you and your colleagues were having to take moments just to take in what you were seeing?
Dr. Junaid:
I will be very honest with you, you see this so many times every day and you hear the story of everyone, it’s so painful. So you have to really compose yourself and you have to keep on working because if you won’t, you will not be able to work.
Video from hospital, Dr. Junaid with colleague.
Colleague:
Junaid, how are we excited about today? Hoe are you feeling?
Dr. Junaid:
Very excited. A lot of work still needs to do and we are doing our best and I’ve got four cases on the list today.
M.F:
The situation at the European Hospital is desperate. Wards and cubicles are overcrowded as patients are treated cheek by jowl with over 20,000 refugees. Their homes now no more than these sheets in the corridors.
Video from the hospital. A woman shows around: Another home that we’re visiting as we’re seeing at the European Gaza hospital. This woman is literally making bread in the hallways of the European Gaza hospital.
M.F.:
Preventing infection in these conditions is almost impossible.
Dr. Junaid: The medical supplies, you name it and that thing is just short there. There is not a single thing which I could say in that hospital or within Gaza is sufficient kind of numbers. Like suction tubes, sutures, cleaning equipment, the patients are not getting any sort of a painkillers. At times I operated without any scrub nurse, without any runner, without any anesthetic.
M. F. :
Now back in the UK, Dr. Junaid’s mission is not over. He’s urging world leaders to see what he has witnessed.
Dr. Junaid:
Please, if you get the chance, send your own ambassador, let them assess the situation. Because we as doctors, mission after mission are coming and we are trying to highlight the situation to you guys. We are showing you the pictures, we are showing you the stories, we are showing you the ground facts, what we have witnessed and what we have gone through. But we feel like that no one is listening to us.
M.F:
And act before more lives are lost.
Martha Fairley, ITV News.