48 NEW REVIEW
48 NEW REVIEW
20 JUNE 2025 ausdoc. com. au
The life and deaths of health workers in Gaza
PAGE 47
It says it has lost 11 staff,
including two doctors, in Gaza since October 2023. Two of those deaths occurred in March and April.
The conflict’ s toll for MSF has been significant, only eclipsed by its aid work in Somalia and in Afghanistan, where a US military airstrike destroyed its trauma hospital in Kunduz, which killed 42 people, including 14 staff and four caretakers. 11
MSF recently claimed Gaza had become a“ mass grave” for both Palestinians and those coming to their assistance. 12
Given the confronting death rates faced by health workers, are doctors volunteering fully aware of the risks they take?
MSF says those who apply must have substantial prior experience in disaster and conflict zones. They also must speak with returning staff to understand the realities they will face, and they should be physically fit, as medical evacuation is not a guarantee.
They must then provide informed consent for the physical, psychosocial and mental health risks.
“ We often encourage International Mobile Staff to speak with colleagues who have recently returned from Gaza to better understand the realities on the ground,” an MSF spokesperson told AusDoc.
“ Some decide not to proceed further after these conversations.”
If a candidate’ s skill set is not matched with the current needs on the ground, they may also be knocked back.
However, the organisation said it has had staff return to Gaza for a second time.
‘ Doctor, doctor, we need you!’
Dr Mohammed Mustafa, a British-Australian emergency physician trainee, is one of
those doctors who has volunteered.
Through the Palestinian Australian New Zealand Medical Association, he first went for a week in June last year during what he describes as the height of the war.
He had never worked in a warzone before.
His mother was terrified to see him go, he says, as his trip was just two months after the death of Australian humanitarian worker Lalzawmi‘ Zomi’ Frankcom and her colleagues from World Central Kitchen. 13
“ These were international aid workers that were killed; their marked cars were targeted,” he said.
“ I was thinking to myself, are we going to be safe?”
But he says there was nothing anyone
could say that would have prepared him for what happened. His first morning in Gaza still haunts him.
“ I remember when I opened the first blanket, it was a kid with part of his head missing and brains hanging out,” he said.
“ And I remember just freezing for about 15-20 seconds, just looking at what I was seeing.
“ The nurses were shaking my shoulders and they were saying,‘ Doctor, doctor, we need you!’ It was injuries that I’ d seen before in an ED, but when you combine all of them in one body it becomes shocking to see.
“ And I remember just the mutilation of this child’ s body, the violence required,
‘ Sometimes, my job would just be cutting people’ s clothes off for the other doctors.’
Dr Mahmoud Abu Nujaila( left) and Dr Ahmad Al Sahar were killed while working for MSF in Gaza.
saying to myself,‘ What force caused this level of damage to this child’ s body?’ It scared me.”
When he went back during the ceasefire earlier this year, he says there was a period where he glimpsed normalcy.
During his shifts, he would tend to the wounded, and afterwards he and his colleagues would go out to the local market and the ice-cream shop.
As foreign medical professionals, they
were first in line for food, but Dr Mustafa said he preferred to go out and pay high prices for canned tuna or instant noodles than take valuable rations away from the locals.
“ There used to be almost this trend where the doctors would show you their pictures before the war and what they looked like now, and everyone must have lost about 15-20kg on average.”
He worked multiple shifts each day, each lasting a few hours, and was always on call.
Then the ceasefire collapsed. On 18 March in the early hours, the windows in his room were blown open. He says he was knocked out of bed.
“ For about 15 minutes, we just heard bomb after bomb going off and screams everywhere, sirens,” he said.
“ We went down to the ED, and then within about an hour, the ED was not just full, it was overflowing to the street outside the ED.”
That night was when their analgesic, muscle relaxant and sedative medicines, already carefully rationed, finally ran out, and they began treating conscious patients without proper pain relief.
“ We were told by the guys at the Indonesia Hospital that they did seven amputations that night with very little anaesthesia to no anaesthesia, on children,” the 35-year-old said.
Dr Mustafa does not know how many amputations were performed that night by the surgeons in his hospital.
He said he had to intubate children without muscle relaxants, and those procedures were further complicated by an absence of ventilators and having to share the hospital’ s single laryngoscope.
The tools doctors cannot access are not limited to high-tech machines. They are basic things like thermometers and scissors.
“ Sometimes, my job would just be cutting people’ s clothes off for the other doctors,” he said.
“ I’ d keep the scissors with me at all times because, it was just such a vital commodity.” Dr Mustafa spent five weeks in Gaza. Since his return, he has gone before the media, telling his story, and pushing for Australia to send more medical aid to Gaza. His advice for doctors who want to go into Gaza carries grim realism.
“ I would never say to someone,‘ Don’ t go.’ I would just say,‘ Be aware of the consequences.’
“ You have to make peace with the outcome, and the end outcome is you might die,” he said.
“ If you’ re not at peace with that outcome, then don’ t go.”
REFERENCES
1. IDF press release bit. ly / 45mMD5e
2. New York Times, 15 April 2025 bit. ly / 3H8crIs
3. New York Times, video of attack bit. ly / 44SRfA4
4. IDF investigation findings bit. ly / 3FtkQFR
5. Geneva Conventions Act bit. ly / 3Su9Db4
6. Healthcare Workers Watch healthcareworkerswatch. org
7. UN inquiry report bit. ly / 4kiIowp
8. IDF video bit. ly / 3ZF4nVP
Dr Mohammed Mustafa in Gaza.
9. Wikipedia,‘ Alleged military use of al-Shifa hospital’ bit. ly / 4kAwdKY
10. ABC News: UN accuses Israel of destroying Gaza’ s health sector bit. ly / 43BmRI9
11. MSF: Kunduz hospital attack bit. ly / 43AtPwT
12. MSF: Gaza mass grave claim bit. ly / 4mI7gzi
13. News. com. au: Frankcom’ s death bit. ly / 4kMuzWR