Dr. Adam Al-Hamwi, a physician in Gaza, performed an amputation on a 14-year-old boy, and as soon as he finished, he heard sirens indicating an imminent airstrike. Al-Hamwi (53 years old), a former soldier in the U.S. Army, works at the European Gaza Hospital in Khan Younis and spoke with American doctors to the "Washington Post" about the dire conditions of children in Gaza, calling for the U.S. to stop arms shipments to Israel amid ongoing military operations in the Palestinian territory. Al-Hamwi spent two weeks at the European hospital and, along with a team working on a volunteer mission with the Palestinian American Medical Association based in Virginia, witnessed a continuous influx of injured children.
He explained to the newspaper: "Think about the injuries you see in war, the blood everywhere, and the munitions intended to kill soldiers and destroy tanks and bunkers, then think about them passing through the body of a child." The American team, which arrived in Gaza for a two-week volunteer mission, called for an immediate ceasefire and urged the U.S. government "to halt arms sales to Israel and use its influence to make Israel reopen the vital Rafah crossing."
"There are children everywhere," he noted. The "Washington Post" report stated that Israeli airstrikes shook the walls of the hospital where Al-Hamwi and his team work, with the sounds of one of the aerial attacks occurring as the doctor spoke to the newspaper on Thursday. Medical supplies ran out, and the homes of doctors and hospital staff were destroyed, drastically reducing their numbers as they were forced, like the rest of the population, to evacuate or move their families to safety.
Al-Hamwi mentioned that a medical student working at the European Gaza Hospital brought in unexploded munitions, which bore the inscription: "Made in the United States, Lockheed Martin." He said, "There are children everywhere in Gaza, so any bombing can result in children being among the victims," pointing out that among the injured at the hospital was a one-year-old girl with burns covering 40 percent of her body, while her three-year-old brother suffered burns on his arms, legs, and chest. Additionally, two other injured brothers are receiving treatment for less severe injuries at a nearby field hospital.
The American doctor recounted seeing "a girl about five or six years old who lost her arm, and another four-year-old who entered the emergency room and didn’t survive." Mahmoud Sabha worked at Al-Aqsa Hospital in central Gaza during a ten-day medical mission last April. His wife, Samia Mushtaq, told the Washington Post that he was psychologically shattered and cried after his evacuation on Friday.
She explained that she met him in Jerusalem outside Al-Aqsa Mosque, "and he was crying, saying: 'I saw Khan Younis completely disappear. All the buildings are destroyed.'" The newspaper noted that medical personnel before the evacuation on Friday acknowledged the fear shared with their counterparts in Gaza that the hospital would become a "target" after the foreign doctors left.
A spokesperson for the U.S. State Department confirmed on Friday that some American doctors who were stranded in Gaza had safely exited and reached safety with the assistance of the U.S. Embassy in Israel. The spokesperson said: "We have been in close contact with the groups to which these American doctors belong and with their families." According to reports, 17 out of 20 American doctors successfully left Gaza with the help of the U.S. Embassy and are now making necessary travel arrangements.
