Doctor On the Frontline Gaza Praises Palestinian Resistance

Written by: Ned K. on 28 December 2023

Recently a YouTube video was circulated by supporters of the Palestinian people called "Wounds of War: The Gaza Experience Through the Eyes of Dr Ghassan Abu Sitta",

Dr Ghassan is speaking to other health workers in a forum organized by the Global Health Institute (GHI).

Dr Ghassan is a Palestinian surgeon living in the UK. He went to work in hospitals in Gaza in October and November 2023 to perform surgery for the Palestinian victims of the Israeli bombardment of Gaza.

He found that the Israeli Defense Force were systematically targeting hospitals, universities, water supply, power stations. He witnessed the Israeli attempts to destroy the health system and all major needs of society. 

He said Israel's strategy was to create a "self-catastrophe."  Bombing the health system and medical supplies needed for surgeries in turn created disease and epidemics. Bombing bakeries created catastrophe of starvation and malnutrition while destroying water and sewerage works created the catastrophe of no sanitation.

Dr Ghassan explained that the bombings of Gaza by Israel were to create what he called "performative deaths" that everyone could see. Added to this were deaths caused by Israel's experimenting with the latest phosphorous bombs to kill people and then conduct research on the dead bodies so as to be able to see the impact of these bombs on humans. Then Israel would showcase the research results as part of their marketing strategy for sale of weapons to other countries.

This strategy by Israel was designed to create a mindset within the Palestinians that the only solution was to leave Gaza via Egypt and become a refugee as thousands of Palestinians had done in the past 70 years.

However, Dr Ghassan said this strategy was doomed to failure because the Israeli Zionist regime did not understand that for Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank, there was something worse than death for them. That was becoming a refugee without a home as they had seen the impact of that on previous generations of Palestinians.

This resistance by Palestinians in the face of Zionist barbarism was creating mixed messages from Netanyahu. On 27 December he boasted about "voluntary migration", a euphemism for mass forced expulsion of Palestinians to Egypt and he claimed he was talking to other countries to take refugees. His plan was then to extend Israeli settlements throughout Gaza. 

However, on the 28 December, the ABC news and Murdoch press reported that Netanyahu said the Israeli war on Gaza would go on for many more months.

At the end of the interview with Dr Ghassan, he was asked how he saw the future for the Palestinian people.

He said "Acts of steadfastness of ordinary people doing ordinary acts of living gives great hope. Despite Israel's acts of barbarism, people are still there."

The ordinary people of the world are supporting the Palestinian people in any way they can and there is no sign of that support declining. 

Israel and its imperialist and pro-imperialist backers, including the Australian Government are increasingly isolated and more desperate to hide the truth of what they are doing in their support for the Zionist regime. 

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