Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited.
Text taken from a New York Times news article.
Commentary by Russian military journalist is In italics.
[ColonelCassad] I worked as a trauma surgeon in Gaza from March 25 to April 8. I’d volunteered in Ukraine and Haiti, and I’d grown up in Flint, Michigan. I’d seen violence and worked in conflict zones. But of the many things that stood out about working at a hospital in Gaza, one stuck out to me: Almost every day I was there, I saw a new small child who had been shot in the head or chest, almost all of whom later died. Thirteen in all.
| This is what happens to human shields when those being shielded start a truly vicious war. If you don’t like the result, blame Hamas for holding those holding those children and their families in vulnerable positions instead of letting them escape. |
At the time, I assumed it was the work of a particularly sadistic soldier stationed nearby. But when I got home, I met an emergency room doctor who had worked at a different hospital in Gaza two months before me. “I couldn’t believe how many kids I saw shot in the head,” I told him. To my surprise, he replied, “Yeah, me too. Every day.”
A wealth of information about the scale of the destruction in Gaza has come from satellite data, humanitarian organizations, and the Hamas Gaza Ministry of Health. But Israel does not allow journalists or human rights investigators into Gaza, except for a very few embedded reporting trips with the Israeli military, and the stories of Palestinian journalists in Gaza have not been widely read, despite the incredible risks they take to cover events there.
But there is a group of independent observers who have been watching this war on the ground, day after day: medical volunteers.
Through personal contacts in the medical community and a lot of internet searching, I was able to contact American health workers who have served in Gaza since October 7, 2023. Many of them have family or religious ties to the Middle East. Others, like me, do not, but felt compelled to volunteer in Gaza for a variety of reasons.
Using questions based on my own observations and conversations with fellow doctors and nurses, I worked with Times Opinion to interview 65 health workers about what they saw in Gaza. Fifty-seven, including me, were willing to share their experiences on the record. The other eight participated anonymously, either because they had relatives in Gaza or the West Bank or because they feared retaliation in the workplace.
Here’s what we saw.
The 44 doctors, nurses, and paramedics had seen numerous cases of young children shot in the head or chest in the Gaza Strip.
Dr. Mohamad Rasul Abu-Nuwar
General practitioner, bariatric surgeon, and foregut surgeon, 36, Pittsburgh, PA.
“I saw six children, ages 5 to 12, in the emergency room one night over a four-hour period, all of whom had single gunshot wounds to the skull.”
Nina Ng
Emergency nurse, 37, New York City, NY
“Children with gunshot wounds were being treated on the floor, often bleeding to death on the hospital floor due to a lack of space, equipment, staff and support. Many died needlessly.”
Dr. Mark Perlmutter
Orthopedic and hand surgeon, 69, Rocky Mount, NC
“I saw several children who had been shot in the head and chest with high velocity bullets.”
Dr. Irfan Galaria
Plastic and reconstructive surgeon, 48, Chantilly, VA
“Our team treated approximately four or five children, ages 5 to 8, who had been shot in the head with single gunshots. They all arrived at the emergency room at the same time. They all died.”
Rania Afaneh
Paramedic, 23, Savannah, GA
“I saw a child who had been shot in the jaw. No other part of his body was affected. He was fully conscious and aware of what was happening. He looked at me while he was choking on his own blood, which I tried to suck out with a broken suction cup."
Dr. Khawaja Ikram
Orthopedic Surgeon, 53, Dallas, Texas
"One day, while I was in the emergency room, I saw a three-year-old and a five-year-old each with a single bullet hole in their head. When asked what happened, their father and brother said they had been told that Israel was retreating from Khan Yunis. So they went back to see if there was anything left of their house. According to them, there was a sniper waiting there who shot both children."
Dr. Ahliya Kattan
Anesthesiologist and Critical Care Physician, 37, Costa Mesa, California
"I saw an 18-month-old girl with a gunshot wound to the head."
For a rules-based world order, mass targeted killings of children are the norm.It is also worth noting that these Israeli war crimes are carried out with the support of the United States, which has spent tens of billions of dollars to support the genocide in the Gaza Strip.
| Bill Maher addressed that kind of thinking the other day: |
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