We Volunteered at a Gaza Hospital. What We Saw Was Unspeakable. by Mark Perlmutter and Feroze Sidhwa

54. The two of us are humanitarian surgeons. Together, in our combined 57 years of volunteering, we’ve worked on more than 40 surgical missions in developing countries on four continents. We’re used to working in disaster and war zones, of being on intimate terms with death and carnage and despair. None of that prepared us for what we saw in Gaza this spring.

The constant begging for money, the malnourished population, the open sewage — all of that was familiar to us as veteran war zone doctors. But add in the incredible population density, the overwhelming numbers of badly maimed children and amputees, the constant hum of drones, the smell of explosives and gunpowder — not to mention the constant earth-shaking explosions… Then there were the odors: The intensive care units smelled like rot and death; the corridors stank like a kitchen filled with filth; the hospital grounds smelled of sewage and spent explosives. Only the operating rooms were relatively clean. It’s what we imagine the first weeks of a zombie apocalypse would look — and smell — like.

… We started seeing a series of children, preteens mostly, who’d been shot in the head. They’d go on to slowly die, only to be replaced by new victims who’d also been shot in the head, and who would also go on to slowly die. Their families told us one of two stories: the children were playing inside when they were shot by Israeli forces, or they were playing in the street when they were shot by Israeli forces.

… As Gregory Stanton, founder of Genocide Watch, a nonprofit whose mission is to eliminate mass murder worldwide, noted in his 2017 testimony on Myanmar: “Courts always come after a genocide is over, too late to prevent it.”

We had no illusions that two American physicians could prevent it, either.

… The moment the United States cuts off military aid to Israel the bombs will stop falling and the troops will withdraw. We must decide, once and for all: are we for or against murdering children, doctors and emergency medical personnel? Are we for or against demolishing an entire society? Are we for or against starvation?