Doctors serving Gaza talk to Chapman students

Photo by Braylan Enscoe

Content warning: This article discusses details of traumatic injuries and injuries to children, as well as stories of people in an active war zone that some people might find disturbing.

“Horrific” is the word that Dr. Mohamad Abdelfattah and Dr. Ahlia Kattan most used when describing what they saw during their three-week mission to occupied Gaza. “Every part of this is a tragedy and I’m sorry to convey this, but I want to convey what we saw,” explained Abdelfattah. 

On Aug. 31, Abdelfattah, an intensive care unit physician, and Kattan, an anesthesiologist and specialist in critical care, spent an hour in Memorial Hall talking about their experiences treating patients in the European Gazan Hospital, which was also doubling as a shelter during their mission in May 2024. Their mission took place over 17 days and coincided with the Rafah invasion. 

This event was sponsored by Chapman’s Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) and is one of many events Chapman has hosted with regards to the conflict in Gaza. On May 2, Chapman’s Students Supporting Israel hosted Israel Defense Forces soldiers, to discuss the military institution and their time in service. On Oct. 26, Wilkinson hosted an Israel-Hamas conflict panel, which provided a broader analysis of international relations that have influenced the conflict. And on April 12, SJP invited TikTok influencer Maya Abdallah who is an outspoken advocate for Palestine.

“As you’re getting closer to Rafah, what stood out to me immediately was this,” said Abdelfattah. He proceeded to play a short clip of multiple trucks filled with vital humanitarian aid parked along the road. 

Abdelfattah and Kattan explained that before they left on their mission to Gaza, each member of the team filled upwards of 10 suitcases with supplies the hospital needed which included medical supplies, formula, sandals, coloring books, clothes for children and other necessities. 

“In Arab culture, in general, hospitality and being able to host a guest is so important and the lack of any ability to really host is really humiliating for them. They hold onto their culture so strongly as a form of resistance,” Kattan explained that when they got to the European Gazan Hospital they were immediately welcomed by children hugging them and helping them with the suitcases they brought. “The children took it upon themselves to be our hosts, to welcome us and to help us.” 

The doctors were immediately struck by the lack of supplies. “There’s no hand soap, you can’t wash your hands. There’s no sanitizer, there’s no sterile gowns and so infection is spreading like crazy,” said Abdelfattah. 

“They try to minimize whatever resources they have for these patients because they know that they’re not going to survive,” explained Abdelfattah, referring to a picture of a chart that had “hopeless case” written by the name of the patient. “By probably the third or fourth day we started to realize that they were right. They are pros now, unfortunately. 10 months of genocide treating these complex wounds. They are professionals with very limited resources: they know exactly what to use and what not to use.”

“A big issue, and what we realized early on is, no matter what we did, they would die a few days later,” Abdelfattah continued, detailing the consequences of the lack of supplies, due to which the patients would die from infections or from complications related to their injuries. “Every burn patient we saw died. Not one of them survived.”

“What we (were) seeing was horrific. These wounds, these are not normal wounds that I’ve seen in my life,” said Abdelfattah. Kattan added that due to the use of thermobaric bombs, not only are they treating burns and shrapnel injuries, but also seeing a lot of cases of ruptured lungs. These bombs suck the oxygen out of the lungs of any living thing around them, which means a lot of internal organ injuries.

Kattan, who spent all her time in the operating room, said that the most common procedures she saw were infected amputations that had to be further amputated and wound dressing changes that needed to be put under anesthesia due to the lack of pain medicine. It was also very common for her to treat young men and boys with popliteal artery injury behind the knee from sniper shots, which makes for very difficult repairs and a lot of patients bleeding out. 

“It’s not like any normal ICU,” continued Abdelfattah. “First and foremost, the majority of victims, the patients in the ICU, were children, which I’ve never seen before.”

“They bombed her and she died,” he said, remembering a girl whose house was right outside the hospital that he spent 30 to 40 minutes trying to resuscitate. “She had pink nail polish on her fingernails. She was a typical 10-year-old girl who had a full life ahead of her.”

“He died alone, cold and in pain and without anyone he knew,” Kattan spoke of the 4-year-old boy she treated who had burns on 80% of his body. His 12-year-old sister was also treated by Kattan for a brain bleed and multiple fractures as a result of the bombing that killed her whole family. “She was the only person left in her family and I couldn’t not let her wake up”

“This is Liliana. Liliana is also dead,” said Kattan. She explained that she was handed the lifeless body of Liliana and she attempted to resuscitate her. Kattan originally didn’t see any signs of burns or shrapnel injuries, until she looked at her head. “A bullet had gone through her head. She was the victim of a sniper shot. An 18 month old. She was her mother’s only daughter.”

“It’s very hard to let go of these children without trying,” said Kattan.

“They have seen so much death, they have seen so much destruction, they are just waiting for it to be their turn,” said Abdelfattah about his colleagues in Gaza, with whom he remains in contact. “They told us they are just waiting to die.”

“I didn’t know what to tell him,” Abdelfattah said of a father who said that he didn’t know where else to go. His child had drowned after being shot at in a place the family was told was safe. “There is no area in Gaza that is safe. So many stories of patients who were told to safe areas and then being attacked there.”

Most of the doctors who work at the hospital Abdelfattah and Kattan went to have been working there nonstop for 11 months with no pay and little to no resources, watching their colleagues be killed.

“Not only that but without the capacity to care for their own families,” said Kattan. “They are overwhelmed by this personal tragedy, however, they are continuing to provide for their own people as a form of resistance, as a form of trying to maintain any life that is there.”

Since October, more than 300 healthcare workers have been killed on the front lines and 300 more have been kidnapped and some of them tortured both physically and mentally. 

Abdelfattah, Kattan and their team ended up needing the United States Embassy to evacuate them from the hospital due to Israel taking over the Rafah crossing.

“That was the only time we were able to see the level of destruction,” said Abdelfattah of what they saw on their way out. 

“These are homes, these are mosques, these aren’t military targets. And it’s every building, either completely flattened or severely damaged,” Abdelfattah said while showing a video of decimated buildings. 

Since they left Gaza, the hospital they worked in has been evacuated. Abdelfattah and Kattan have no idea if the patients they treated are still alive or if they died after they left.

Abdelfattah has also heard of the death of one of the ICU nurses he worked with. Emad Abu Daqqa’s house was bombed. He and his whole family died. 

“The only thing they begged of us is to keep telling their story,” said Kattan when describing her goodbyes to the people of Gaza. “Share what you saw here is what they asked us.”

Since their mission back in May, the IDF has changed their requirements to the World Health Organization to allow for medical missions like theirs. Doctors now have to come for at least four weeks, doctors with Palestinian heritage are not allowed to go to Gaza to help and doctors are now restricted to two suitcases with no medical supplies or medications other than personal supplies. 

“What I did there was meaningless,” said Kattan when asked about what people can do to help. “Being here right now and talking to you all I think is the most important thing in terms of advocacy.” Kattan also added that targeted boycotting is the second best thing to do to help, other than sharing the stories. 

“Multiple times when I was in Gaza, I had multiple people come to me and tell me the only thing that’s giving us hope are the student encampments,” added Abdelfattah. “As students, I would say predominantly awareness. Bring back the encampment if you can. There’s a lot of community members who will support you and have your backs, who will support it.”

Many universities across the United States have changed their policies over the summer to ban encampments, including Chapman, whose Unauthorized Use of University Property and Facilities policy was updated to no camping of any kind is allowed.
The war in Gaza has been raging since October 2023, when Hamas attacked Israel leaving 1,200 dead and taking 251 hostage. Since then, there have been over 40,000 people killed and more than 90,000 injured according to Gaza’s Ministry of Health.