Israel attempting to 'ethnically cleanse' Gaza: British-Palestinian doctor

Weeks of unrelenting attacks by Israel are part of an attempt to "ethnically cleanse" the besieged Gaza by making it uninhabitable, according to British-Palestinian surgeon Dr Ghassan Abu Sitta.

Abu Sitta, an experienced war surgeon, has just returned to the UK after weeks of caring for the wounded and sick in Gaza, including at the Al Ahli Baptist Hospital and the Al Shifa Medical Complex, as the Palestinian enclave was pummeled by over 40,000 tonnes of Israeli explosives.

Returning to Britain to provide a first-hand account of what has been happening in Gaza from inside the hospitals, Abu Sitta has agreed to work with UK police to provide eyewitness evidence of Israeli "war crimes" perpetrated over the past few weeks.

"My duty as a doctor is not just to give treatment to my patients, but also to find justice for them," he told Anadolu in London after giving a news conference organised by the International Centre of Justice for Palestinians.

'Situation in Gaza remains catastrophic'

Abu Sitta, who has over 30 years of experience, has worked on 12 wars across Yemen, Iraq, Syria, South Lebanon, and Gaza. He arrived in the Palestinian enclave following Israel's war in Gaza.

Shortly thereafter, he said British counterterrorism police "showed up at my house in the UK and harassed my family."

However, he said he would not "stop speaking out on behalf of my patients and bearing witness to the crimes that are being committed."

On the current situation across Gaza, where a humanitarian pause has been in place since Friday, he said that while some food and medicine have made it into the enclave after a devastating blockade, this was "not enough."

"The situation in Gaza still remains catastrophic. There are shortages of food and water and medication," Abu Sitta stressed, noting that out of 36 hospitals, only nine of them have survived the Israeli attacks.

'Hospital full of wounded with no anaesthetic medication'

Israel aims to "clear Gaza of its population," Abu Sitta asserted, adding that Tel Aviv sought "to ethnically cleanse Gaza to make it unlivable."

"If you want to make a place uninhabitable, you do two things: You injure 37,000 people, and then you destroy the health system so that they can never find treatment, which means that their families have to take them out of Gaza for their treatment, which means that you create an uninhabitable Gaza," he explained.

Recounting one of his worst experiences in the course of the several weeks he was there, Abu Sitta talked about an incident that took place after Israel targeted a mosque during nighttime prayers, just two days before he had to leave Al Ahli Baptist Hospital.

"They killed 60 people and hundreds were brought in wounded," he said, adding that they only had two operating rooms left but continued to operate on injured patients until they ran out of medication.

At that point, they had to leave the hospital, even though there were still 500 wounded after finishing "with all of the anaesthetic medication." Al Ahli was the only hospital left in the northern part of Gaza at the time.

"The hospital was full of wounded, everywhere on the floor, on the grounds, and all of them still needed more surgery, but there were just no operating rooms left."

On a possible worst-case scenario for Gaza, if the attacks continue, Abu Sitta said this would be a return to total blockade of the strip following the current pause, with no materials allowed inside to rebuild homes and bring hospitals back into operation.

"So, the war will continue as a silent death to make sure that Gaza becomes uninhabitable."