Gaza surgeon has ‘witnessed things he would never have expected to see in the civilised world’

A LEADING consultant, who has volunteered in Gaza since 2010, has told of the horrific scenes he has witnessed working in a hospital in the region during the latest Israeli bombardment.

Professor Nick Maynard, from Oxford University Hospital, works in Gaza with Trócaire’s partner organisation, Medical Aid for Palestinians.

Speaking to The Irish News about his experiences in Al-Aqsa Hospital, mid Gaza, which he left on May 6, Professor Maynard said: “It’s awful. I have seen things I would never, ever have expected to see in a healthcare setting, things I would never have expected to see in the civilised world.

“I have witnessed appalling atrocities in Gaza, the war crimes, the deliberate attacking of hospitals and healthcare workers and I feel an overriding duty to tell everyone what is going on.

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“I don’t think the true reality is being broadcast by the media. There is a lot of stuff on social media, but I don’t think the media is representing what is going on.

“I think there is a lot of bias in the media, and I think our governments are abdicating responsibility for trying to hold Israel to account.

“I know they have been told because I have met members of the Government. I have shown them photographs of literally burnt children, children without their limbs, but I think they are not willing, for whatever reason, to confront the reality of what’s going on in Gaza,” said Professor Maynard.

Al-Aqsa Hospital normally caters for 160 patients but, according to Professor Maynard, it constantly has had more than 800 patients, with thousands living in its grounds.

“It is overwhelmingly crowded, far more patients than it can cope with,” said Professor Maynard, “so, whenever there is an influx of trauma patients from a bombing, which happens all the time, you get dozens of people coming in and it completely saturates the system, it overwhelms the whole capacity of the hospital.

“The injuries coming in are awful. Many of them are little children and women. Far more than 50% of the injuries I saw were to women and children. More than 50% of the population of Gaza is children because the average age there is 17.

“The narrative coming out of Israel is it is specifically targeting Hamas militants. I don’t think there is a grain of truth in that. We are seeing so many women and children because they are the majority of the population, which simply illustrates the indiscriminate killing of whole civilian populations.

“Maybe Israel has the intention of killing some Hamas militants, but it is indiscriminately bombing these huge refugee camps and constantly the majority of the victims coming in are children and women,” said Professor Maynard, who saw predominantly bomb blast injuries, gunshot wounds, traumatic amputations, along with severe malnutrition.

The surgeon said the situation was also distressing because frequently there was no pain relief to administer.

In one harrowing incident he recalled how a girl of about eight years-old died in agony from burns.

“She came in with the most awful burns, which she was never going to survive. She wouldn’t have survived in England, Ireland or the US.

“We knew she was going to die, and we knew she would take several hours to die, but we had no pain relief to give her, so she died in agony.

“There was no privacy. She was literally lying on the floor, in the corner of the waiting area of the emergency room.”

Despite the challenging environment Professor Maynard said he is hoping to go back to Gaza in October.