2024-04-28 19:26:53
image source, SAM ATTAR
Item information
- Author, Fergal Kane
- Role, Special correspondent – Jerusalem
-
7 hours ago
Dr Sam Al-Attar admits he left part of his soul in Gaza. This is the part that saw the suffering and mightn’t turn away from it. The part that can’t be forgotten now.
Sam can be sitting on the shores of Lake Michigan in the US state, where the wind raises waves on the green water, and at the same time you can return to Gaza, where heat and death reign.
It’s been 3 weeks since Sam returned to the United States, but it feels like he came back yesterday. He sees the faces of Palestinians suffering in Gaza everywhere he goes, including Jana Ayyad, the little girl who was suffering in his hospital. bed, while her mother showed Dr. Sam a music video to celebrate her birthday just days before she was injured.
Warning: This article contains details and images that may be disturbing to some readers.
Sam recalls: “Another mother who had just lost her child, aged 10, looked at him with a confused look saying that he had died only 5 minutes ago, and while the hospital workers tried to to cover his body, she was preventing them, because she wanted to spend as much time as possible with him, even if “he was crying and crying. It lasted 20 minutes and she didn’t want to leave him.”
Another example Sam remembers: “A man in his fifties had his legs amputated. He lost his children, his grandchildren and his home. He was alone in an isolated corner of the hospital, his wounds were so contaminated that worms were coming. outside, and he cried out in pain, saying that the worms were devouring his body, asking for help. .”
Sam is a 40-something medical professional, the son of two doctors, born and raised in Chicago and working as a surgeon at the city’s Northwestern Hospital. During his time in Gaza, he kept a video diary and filmed his experiences.
For two weeks in March and April, Sam teamed up with the Palestinian NGO American Bridge and worked in Gaza hospitals that were suffering severe shortages of everything except seriously injured patients. The day he entered Gaza, Gaza was suffering from a lack of all abilities, the first being hunger, which was the first thing he noticed upon entering the strip.
He said: “People surrounded the car and started hitting the windows with their hands, and some of them tried to jump over. The driver knew that if he stopped, people would jump on the car. They didn’t want to hurt us. , but we asked for food.”
image source, Reuters
Sam saw every day in Gaza as bringing with it countless sufferings and pressures. Doctors decided who had priority for rescue and who had lost all hope of being saved. The wounded lay on the ground, amid pools of blood and bandages, amid screams and pain. were everywhere, mixed with the tears of loved ones.
A horror like this cannot be erased from memory, even if you are a professional, trained doctor who has been to the sites of other conflicts, including Syria and Ukraine.
He says: “I still think of all the wounded and all the doctors who remained there, and there is an inner feeling of guilt because I left despite their great need of my presence, and despite that I I had to leave.”
His latest trip is the third to Gaza since the war began, and the World Health Organization took over his organization following warning of famine in Gaza, where regarding 30 percent of children under the age of two suffer from malnutrition, while 70 percent of Gaza’s population as a whole suffers from what the United Nations calls “catastrophic hunger.”
Last week, the head of the United Nations human rights agency, Volker Turk, accused Israel of committing a war crime over the food crisis in Gaza.
Volcker said: “The extent of Israeli restrictions on the entry of aid into Gaza as the country continues its military operations might go as far as using starvation as a weapon of war. »
Israel denies this and blames the United Nations and humanitarian agencies for the aid delay.
Israel says the UN’s calculations were based on “theoretical and not practical information” and that the amount of food available in markets in the northern Gaza Strip is plentiful.
An Israeli government statement said: “We oppose accusations that civilians in Gaza are deliberately starving.”
Sam remembers a 32-year-old woman who admitted she was severely malnourished, with her son, mother and father, all living in the same room. Despite his attempts to revive her heart and save her, he failed. .
He remembers the woman lying on the bed, her hand falling beside him, as her eyes looked up following her death.
image source, ALAMIE
Jana Ayyad, 7, was a skeleton covered in skin. His mother hoped to go to the south of the Gaza Strip, where the situation of medical organizations was better.
Jana was traumatized by the war and the lack of food, which is one of the things that traumatizes children in general and prevents them from eating. In the photo taken by a BBC photographer, Jana appears to have lost the ability to speak. , but now she only speaks with difficulty to her mother.
Nesma Ayyad, his mother, said: “What can I do? She cannot be cured. His psychological state is very complex. She doesn’t talk to anyone else and there’s nothing I can do.
Sam adds that as he was packing his things to leave Gaza, Jana’s mother came up to him and said, “I thought we would leave with you, why are you leaving and we are staying?”
Sam had to explain that the convoy of cars was heading south for the purpose of getting permission to bring in fuel and food, not to evacuate people.
The problem is that every time Sam spoke to Jana’s mother, the rest of the people in the room, filled with patients and their loved ones, heard him and gathered around him to ask for help.
Later, Jana was transferred to Rafah hospital, run by international medical teams.
According to the United Nations, the majority of those killed on the Palestinian side are women and children, with thirteen thousand children and nine thousand women killed.
The war is now in its seventh month since it began, as negotiations for a ceasefire and the release of hostages falter. People suffering from malnutrition continue to arrive daily in the few hospitals still functional. The World Health Organization says only 10 of Gaza’s 36 hospitals are still functioning.
Seven aid workers have been killed in Gaza, highlighting how difficult it is to get to the Strip to deliver aid. Among the aid workers were British citizens when the Israeli army bombed the convoy of cars carrying them on April 1.
Sam says: “We usually stand at least 4 hours in boring queues to get permission to pass through the checkpoints on the Israeli side, and it depends on whether they are allowed to pass according to the procedures followed when conducting the checkpoints. military operations.
image source, SAM ATTAR
Comment on the photo, Dr Sam Attar
Sam says: “Northern Gaza needs more food, fuel and clean water. Roads must be opened and many patients evacuated to prevent treatment.
Sam will soon return to Gaza, while paramedic Nabil, who worked with Sam every day in the Gaza Strip and transported the injured to the hospital, until he himself was injured and was rescued from the rubble by his colleagues, and although he is alive now, he will not be able to leave the area.
Sam, the doctor whose daughter was killed, was strong enough to help the mother of a child hit in the head by a shrapnel.
Ultimately, relatives of the injured always turn to doctors and nurses as a means of practical assistance to save the injured and save the face of humanity in a place dominated by terror and dismay.
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