A British surgeon who labored for a month in Gaza mentioned Tuesday that he noticed numerous kids with bullet wounds to the pinnacle after they had been “deliberately targeted” by Israeli snipers.
“It doesn’t matter who you are in Gaza. If you’re Palestinian, you’re a target,” Nizam Mamode mentioned throughout a session of the International Development Committee in Britain’s House of Commons on the humanitarian scenario in Gaza.
Giving proof in his testimony, Mamode, who labored at Al-Nasser Hospital in Gaza from mid-August to mid-September, mentioned that 60% to 70% of the folks they handled in Gaza had been girls and youngsters.
Asked about his expertise with injured girls and youngsters, he cited the pinnacle wounds from snipers.
“We saw a number of children with sniper injuries to the head, a single shot to the head. No other injuries. So clearly, they were deliberately targeted by Israeli snipers, and yeah, that was day after day,” he famous.
The surgeon, who has labored in numerous harmful battle zones, highlighted that he had by no means seen something on the size of what he noticed in Gaza.
“I’ve labored in numerous battle zones in numerous components of the world. I used to be there on the time of the Rwandan genocide. I’ve by no means seen something on this scale, ever,” he mentioned.
“I’ve never been in a conflict area where medical aid has been restricted to that extent … It’s not allowing supplies in, bombing health care facilities, attacking ambulances, killing health care workers.”
“If all of that didn’t happen, then tens of thousands of lives would be saved,” he added.
Mamode mentioned that any military that’s engaged in a conflict has a duty to the civilian inhabitants on either side, including he’s seeing the other within the Gaza Strip.
Asked whether or not he regards what he noticed as a genocide, Mamode mentioned it’s “difficult to find another word for it, given what we’ve seen. And I certainly think that the Palestinian people feel that’s what’s happening to them and there’s a sense of resignation that they’re all just waiting to die with no chance of escape. So in a word, yes.”
He was then requested concerning the Israeli military’s claims that they’re dropping leaflets warning folks to maneuver to totally different areas earlier than concentrating on the places.
Mamode replied that the majority of their casualties had been coming from the Green Zone, which supposedly shouldn’t be focused, and lots of of them had no evacuation, no warning in any respect.
“We had a vehicle blown up 5 meters from the emergency department in the main street. We certainly didn’t get any warning. And if I’d been crossing the road to buy something, that would have been the end of me,” he added.
He mentioned that guesthouses, which had been designated as protected homes, had been additionally focused by Israeli assaults within the Gaza Strip.
“The aim behind it is to discourage aid workers from coming, and I think it’s the same as the shooting at the U.N. convoys in terms of attacking hospitals and ambulances and so on.”
He famous that what is going on in Gaza “cannot be anything other than collective punishment,” a constant try and primarily wipe out a big a part of the inhabitants.
The session got here because the deadline approached for Israel to make sure that extra help enters Gaza or face potential cuts in army help from the U.S.
Following the session, Sarah Champion, the chair of the committee, mentioned the examples Mamode gave had been “profound and deeply chilling.”
“On this evidence, the U.K. needs to take seriously the prospect of international humanitarian law having been egregiously broken in Gaza,” she added.
Citing Mamode’s testimony about kids who had been shot by drones, Champion additionally recalled him saying that he was conscious of 5 armored U.N. convoys that used to journey into and out of Gaza which had been shot at by Israeli forces.
“But the conflict’s devastating direct impact on the population is just the tip of the iceberg,” she famous.
“The committee will do all we can to act on professor Mamode’s extraordinary testimony and ensure that his experiences are heard loud and clear. If leaders are not yet listening, they should be by now,” she added.
Israel has continued a devastating offensive on Gaza since an assault by the Palestinian resistance group Hamas in October 2023, regardless of a U.N. Security Council decision demanding a direct cease-fire.
Nearly 43,700 folks have since been killed in Gaza, largely girls and youngsters, and over 103,000 others injured, in response to Palestinian well being authorities.
Israel additionally faces a genocide case on the International Court of Justice for its lethal conflict on Gaza.
Source: www.dailysabah.com