British-Palestinian surgeon presents testimony to UK war crimes unit after returning from Gaza

British-Palestinian surgeon Ghassan Abu Sitta has given testimony to a British war crimes investigation unit after returning from a trip to the Gaza Strip, where he witnessed the harrowing ordeal of Palestinian civilians during Israel’s brutal onslaught on the besieged territory.

Abu Sitta, a plastic surgeon specializing in conflict medicine, spent weeks in Gaza as part of a Doctors Without Borders medical team and witnessed Israel’s atrocities during the regime’s ongoing war on the besieged Palestinian territory.

Abu Sitta said in an interview with The Associated Press during a visit to the Institute for Palestine Studies in the Lebanese capital of Beirut on Saturday that upon his return to the United Kingdom, he was asked by the war crimes unit at the Metropolitan Police to give evidence in a possible war crimes investigation and he “did so.”

The prominent surgeon said he presented his testimony after the police had issued a call for people returning from the Palestinian territories who “have witnessed or been a victim of terrorism, war crimes or crimes against humanity” to come forward.

Abu Sitta said much of his testimony was related to Israeli attacks on hospitals and health facilities across the Gaza Strip.

Abu Sitta, who worked in both al-Shifa and al-Ahli hospitals in Gaza, said the intensity of conflicts he had experienced and the war in Gaza was like “the difference between a flood and a tsunami.”

“The worst thing was initially the running out of morphine and proper strong analgesics and then later on running out of anesthetic medication, which meant that you would have to do painful procedures with no anesthetic,” he said.

Palestinian surgeon recounts ordeal following Israel's use of white phosphorus, incendiary bombs in Gaza

A British-Palestinian surgeon recounts harrowing ordeals the Palestinian civilians went through during the Israeli regime’s onslaught on the Gaza Strip.

The surgeon stressed that while in Gaza, he also treated patients who had burn wounds consistent with white phosphorus shelling, which he had also seen during the 2009 war.

Phosphorus shells cause a “chemical burn that ... bursts into the deep structures of the body rather than a thermal burn, which starts at the outside and (covers a) much larger surface area,” he said.

The British-Palestinian surgeon said 160 doctors and nurses have lost their lives during the occupation's aggression on the Gaza Strip.

Israel waged the war on Gaza on October 7 after Palestinian resistance groups carried out a surprise attack against the occupying entity in response to its decades-long crimes against Palestinians. Israeli strikes have so far killed nearly 18,000 people, most of them women and children, in its relentless air and ground attacks on Gaza since.

According to the UN, around 80 percent of the inhabitants of Gaza are displaced and more than 1.1 million are seeking refuge in UN Palestine refugee agency (UNRWA) shelters.

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