Mike Phipps reviews Diary of Gaza Surgeons:  A Witness to the Genocide, by Magdi Saeed, published by the  International Medical Professions Association.

The core of this book is based on 23 audio interviews with Dr. Ahmed Al Mokhallalati, a consultant in precision plastic surgery and a holder of both Palestinian identity and Irish citizenship

His detailed testimony covers the start of the war through the blockade, assault and initial evacuation of Al-Shifa Medical Complex in late November 2023, and  his later experiences working at the European Gaza Hospital. It constitutes an invaluable account of the first months of the bombardment and invasion.

His testimony reveals a war primarily targeting civilians, demolishing homes over their inhabitants, striking refugee caravans and shelters, and using so-called ‘smart’ weapons, such as drones equipped with cameras to hunt down women and children. It details the use of highly destructive weapons which dissolve the bodies of their victims, accounting for the large number of missing persons and civilians with severe burns. These weapons also generate an overwhelming amount of shrapnel, causing grievous injuries across victims’ bodies.

The offensive aimed to dismantle the pillars of Gazan society by targeting any semblance of governmental infrastructure.  As part of this, the healthcare system became a primary target. As Dr. Al Mokhallalati  explains, “To destroy any civilization or people, the method is  simple: target schools, universities, hospitals, and healthcare centres. By eradicating the large institutions upon which people rely for their livelihood, you effectively push them towards forced migration in an indirect manner. This is a fundamental principle of settler-colonial regimes, which deliberately drive people to abandon their homeland.”

The aim is forced displacement – or annihilation. But the people of Gaza are resilient – over 70% have experienced such displacement before. Speaking of himself, Dr. Al Mokhallalati  says that people assumed that since he was coming from abroad, he “would leave Gaza at the onset of war. In contrast, I saw my presence in Gaza as a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity… I saw it as a blessing to help my people and a divine opportunity to contribute to the advancement of plastic surgery in Gaza.”

The genocide extended beyond bombardment. A strangulating blockade deprived Gazans of food, medicine, and essential supplies, permitting only minimal aid to trickle through. Food convoys were attacked, and access to water, food and medicine obstructed. Even medical equipment and devices needed to operate health facilities, including those from international organizations, were denied entry at the whims of the occupiers.

Beyond the increasingly appalling conditions in which medics had to work, with a huge influx of patients suffering from burns and shrapnel wounds, there are grim accounts of doctors being used as human shields by the Israeli military.

At one point, Dr. Al Mokhallalati was told by an Israeli interrogator: “As you know, we can reach anyone. If your family survived the bombing this time, we can bomb them again and kill them.”

He went on: “You know that all of you here in the hospital should be executed. However, because the world is closely watching what happens at Al-Shifa, we might let you live.” He added, “None of you will leave the hospital. You will either leave here for prison or leave here dead.”

Determined not to show fear, the doctor responded, “We remained in the hospital knowing full well that these were our possible fates. I never expected that you would let me go; I always assumed you would either imprison or kill me and my colleagues. You are a barbaric army that does not abide by any laws.”

Demonstrating composure and resilience was crucial, he concluded from this experience. If your interrogators detect weakness, they will resort to torture and threats, which is indeed what happened to another colleague, who was told his family would be executed if he revealed the details of his torture to anyone.

When the Israeli forces searched the entire hospital, many medica staff removed their uniforms as it became clear that health workers were being specifically targeted. The military occupied the pharmacy and deliberately destroyed the oxygen supply. When patients were evacuated, they invariably confiscated vital medical equipment, even from children. After the evacuation in November 2023, the Israeli forces began systematically demolishing all of the hospital’s vital facilities.

Dr. Al Mokhallalati relocated to the European Hospital in Gaza, which had been without a plastic surgeon for two months. Hundreds of patients awaited surgery; he formed a team and set to work. Foreign medical delegations played an indispensable role in keeping the hospital operational, even as conditions became increasingly desperate. As other hospitals were targeted, the facility increasingly shouldered the entirety of Gaza’s healthcare burden.

Dr. Al Mokhallalati was forced to leave Gaza by an injury to his hand that prevented him from working. He returned in March2024 with the American field hospital run by the International Medical Corps and worked flat out  -overall, he estimates that he performed 2,500 surgical operations – until he left in early June. Two days later, the occupation forces banned anyone of Palestinian origin from entering Gaza with international  medical organizations.

Other doctors are interviewed here, describing the operations they performed on the wounded, often very young children. Dr. Mohammad Abou-Arab discusses how Gaza has been used as a testbed by the Israelis for new weapons. In his view, children have borne the brunt of the conflict. Medical professionals have consistently been targeted: “Unable to strike them within hospitals, the attacks focused on their families, in some cases entirely eliminating family lineages.”

Dr. Mohamed Shaalan estimated the number of those present in the European Hospital reached nearly 30,000 displaced persons, despite the capacity of the hospital being for 122 beds only. The severe overcrowding was exacerbated by a lack of antibiotics and food – even before the complete sealing off of Gaza.

Since this book was completed, the situation in Gaza has become much worse. The intensification of the Israeli siege led to the total closure of the Strip in March 2025, which is now, according to the UN, the “hungriest place on earth”.  As for healthcare, Selma Dabbagh noted recently, “In the hospitals that still stand, blood transfusions are almost impossible as would-be donors are too malnourished and anaemic… Where they can, hospitals are setting up new units for starving babies. Some are reporting that they have not a single carton of milk left.”

The conditions under which they had to work had a major impact on the medics involved, both psychologically and physically. Many lost a great deal of weight. Today it is reported that doctors are becoming too weak to treat patients and that some staff are surviving on ten spoonfuls of rice a day. Many are collapsing from starvation.

I hesitated to read this book, which I expected to find intensely distressing. The stories of individual patients told here are truly upsetting and the situation in Gaza overall is beyond desperate. But the dedication of the health workers there, who carry on despite the very real danger to themselves and their families, is utterly inspiring. We can only salute their commitment and redouble our own efforts to help free Palestine from the nightmare Israel continues to inflict upon it.

Mike Phipps’ book Don’t Stop Thinking About Tomorrow: The Labour Party after Jeremy Corbyn (OR Books, 2022) can be ordered here.