Targeting Children: What Healthcare Workers
Saw in  Gaza During the Past Year
Ybruti / The Daily Kos

(October 10, 2024) — On October 9, 2024 the New York Times published 65 Doctors, Nurses and Paramedics: What We Saw in Gaza. (The link should work for every reader.) Quoting emergency and critical care doctors and nurses, anesthesiologists, orthopedic and other surgeons, the article shows the terrible conditions these volunteers faced in Gaza after October 7, 2023. The article gives their names, specialties, and ages (from 23-69).

The writer is Dr. Feroze Sidhwa, a trauma and general surgeon who worked at the European Hospital in Khan Younis, Gaza, for two weeks in March and April 2024.
He explains:
“there is a group of independent observers who have seen this war from the ground, day after day: volunteer health care workers. Through personal contacts in the medical community and a good deal of searching online, I was able to get in touch with American health care workers who have served in Gaza since Oct. 7, 2023. Many have familial or religious ties to the Middle East. Others, like me, do not, but felt compelled to volunteer in Gaza for a variety of reasons.”

Dr. Sidhwa begins the article with his own experience in Gaza:

“Of the many things that stood out about working in a hospital in Gaza, one got to me: Nearly every day I was there, I saw a new young child who had been shot in the head or the chest, virtually all of whom went on to die. Thirteen in total.

X-ray of 3-year-old Palestinian child shot by an Israeli bullet.

Dr. Sidhwa also says:”

“after returning home, I met an emergency medicine physician who had worked in a different hospital in Gaza two months before me. ‘I couldn’t believe the number of kids I saw shot in the head,] I told him. To my surprise, he responded: ‘Yeah, me, too. Every single day’.”

Dr. Sidhwa quotes a doctor who worked in Khan Younis from Aug. 8 to Sept. 5, 2024. She said:

“I had multiple pediatric patients, mostly under the age of 12, who were shot in the head or the left side of the chest. Usually, these were single shots. The patients came in either dead or critical, and died shortly after arriving.”

Dr. Sidhwa worked with Times Opinion to poll 65 health care workers about what they had seen in Gaza. Dr. Sidhwa reports that 44 doctors, nurses and paramedics saw multiple cases of preteen children who had been shot in the head or chest in Gaza. These health care workers said:

“One night in the emergency department, over the course of four hours, I saw six children between the ages of 5 and 12, all with single gunshot wounds to the skull.”
“Pediatric gunshot-wound patients were treated on the floor, often bleeding out on the floor of the hospital due to lack of space, equipment, staff and support. Many died unnecessarily.”
“I saw several children shot with high velocity bullet wounds, in both the head and chest.”
“Our team cared for about four or five children, ages 5 to 8 years old, that were all shot with single shots to the head. They all presented to the emergency room at the same time. They all died.”
“One day, while in the E.R., I saw a 3-year-old and 5-year-old, each with a single bullet hole to their head. When asked what happened, their father and brother said they had been told that Israel was backing out of Khan Younis. So they returned to see if anything was left of their house. There was, they said, a sniper waiting who shot both children.”
“I saw many children. In my experience the gunshot wound was often to the head. Many had non-curable, permanent brain damage. It was almost a daily occurrence to have children arrive at the hospital with gunshot wounds to the head.”

Dr. Sidhwa also quotes 63 doctors, nurses and paramedics who observed severe malnutrition in patients, Palestinian medical workers and the general population.

“These people were starving. I learned very quickly to not drink my water or eat the food I had brought in front of the health care workers because they had gone so many days without.”
“Malnutrition was widespread. It was common to see patients reminiscent of Nazi concentration camps with skeletal features.”
“Everyone we met showed us pictures of themselves before October. They had all lost 20 to 60 pounds of weight. Most patients and staff looked emaciated and dehydrated.”
These changes were not just physical; they reflected the emotional and psychological toll the conflict had taken on those dedicated to caring for others, even as they struggled with their own personal losses and challenges.”
Regarding their patients:
“Every patient I treated had evidence of malnutrition. For example, poor wound healing and rapidly developing infections.”
“Mothers on the maternity ward delivered prematurely because of malnutrition, stress and infection. Milk production was poor due to lack of hydration and adequate food supply.”

Dr. Sidhwa quotes 52 doctors, nurses and paramedics who observed nearly universal psychiatric distress in young children and saw some who were suicidal or said they wished they had died.

“Every child I spent time with looked to me as a mother, for safety. They were lacking emotional security and physical security and it was very obvious to us from the way they clung to us and asked us to take them home in our suitcases.”
“One child who had lost all his family wished he had been killed, too, saying: ‘Everyone I love is in heaven. I don’t want to be here anymore.’”
“Most children certainly enjoyed moments of happiness, but in general the children were frightened, on edge, desperate, hungry, thirsty and disoriented. One severely injured child, a young boy with a right leg amputation and broken right arm and left leg, repeatedly asked his mother why he couldn’t have died with his other family members.”
“I saw children who had witnessed many family members be killed in front of them. They all expressed the wish to be dead and join their families. I saw preteen and teenage children who had evidence of self-harm such as cutting on their forearms.”
“Children who lost limbs and could not run or play specifically said they wished they had died, and some wanted to kill themselves.”
“Many said that they wished the next bomb would just hit them to put an end to their torture.”
“Many children in Gaza are not like normal kids. It seems like their childhood is wiped away. No smiles, no eye contact. They even don’t play like regular kids. I saw them just sitting and staring at their hands or their water bottles, not willing to interact with anybody.”

Dr. Sidhwa quotes 25 doctors, nurses and paramedics who saw babies who had been born healthy return to hospitals and die from dehydration, starvation or infections caused by their malnourished mothers’ inability to breastfeed and a lack of infant formula and clean water.

“Starved mothers would report to the I.C.U. begging for formula to feed their newborn children. Newborn babies only a few hours or days old would present to the hospital severely dehydrated, infected and hypothermic. Many babies died from these conditions which were 100 percent preventable deaths.”
“Every day, desperate families stopped by pleading for just a single can of formula to feed their starving newborns. Sadly, with supplies severly limited, we were often unable to meet their urgent needs.”

Dr. Sidhwa quotes 53 doctors, nurses and paramedics who saw many children suffering from easily preventable infections, some of whom died from them.

“One-hundred percent of my surgical patients developed infections. The wounds were dirty given the nature of the injury — rubble, debris.”
“Multiple young patients had amputations that became infected. Poor wound healing from lack of sanitation and nutrition led to further amputations.”
“Nearly all new children admitted during my time died. Almost all of these deaths would not have happened if we had proper nutrition, infection control abilities (as simple as soap and hand sanitizer) and adequate supplies.”
The mortality rate for injured children that I cared for was nearly 80 percent.”

Dr. Sidhwa quotes 64 doctors, nurses and paramedics who observed that even the most basic medical necessities, like soap and gloves, were usually unavailable in Gaza.

“We did surgery without drapes or surgical gowns. We reused equipment that should be disposable. I have been in other war zones, but this was exponentially worse than anything I’ve ever seen.”
“Babies and children would come in with gunpowder burns from explosives — which are very painful — and we had zero of the proper pain medications or burn ointment to put on their wounds.”
“Sterilization was awful in the operating room. There were flies all over the place. There was sewage water on the hospital grounds where people were sheltering.”
“We did not have P.P.E., including gloves, alcohol, gowns and soap. Flies were everywhere, transfering resistant bacteria and infections among patients. Patients who survived trauma died from infection.”
“If it wasn’t for the medical supplies that we brought in with us, there would have been none to use. Both the excessive morbidity and mortality attributed to just the lack of soap and proper sterilization was immeasurable.”
There were no antibiotics. Many times we ran out of running water, and power would go out in the hospital. We could not wash our hands.”

“Nearly every wound I saw was infected. I saw more maggots in one day than I had in my entire career as a wound specialist.”

Dr. Sidhwa concludes his article with a long and impassioned plea that the war end.