Florida medical professionals speak of first-hand accounts from war-torn Gaza

Three Florida medical professionals who recently traveled to Gaza said they are on a statewide tour to bear witness to what they touched, smelled, heard and saw.

Rana Mahmoud worked at Gaza’s European Hospital providing wound care for mass-casualty events and injuries at the emergency room.

She relayed stories of tents that were available as aid, but being sold on the streets for $1,000, the kindness and generosity of the people who made baked goods for the medical workers, and a woman forced to cook for her children on the hospital floor after being ordered to move aside because mass-casualty patients were on their way in.

“Every child has a story,” she said.

Tampa-based nurse Mahmoud and two doctors spoke in Fort Lauderdale on Sunday about their two-week trip to Gaza’s European Hospital from late March to early April. Now appearing in their fourth city, they spoke last month in Orlando.

The event was organized by five organizations, including Tampa-based CAIR Florida, whose staff told attendees they need to elect representatives to “move the needle” to their position.

CAIR said they were traveling throughout the state to urge people to vote. On Oct. 7, the day Hamas attacked Israel, launching the war, CAIR Florida posted on its Facebook page: “CAIR-FL stands in unwavering solidarity with the Palestinian people and their fundamental right to freedom from the Israeli occupation.”

The October attack

Israeli forces withdrew from Gaza in 2005, leaving Hamas to run the enclave. The Gaza Strip had been captured by Israel from Egypt in 1967 after Israel was attacked by Egypt, Syria, and Jordan and won what is known as the Six-Day War.

This latest war, now approaching its ninth month, began when Hamas, the elected government of Gaza, infiltrated the border, killing more than 1,200 Israelis, and kidnapping 250 more — both dead and alive — back to Gaza from their homes and from a music festival. Victims were raped, burned alive, mutilated and shot.

As of Friday, The Associated Press reported that according to Hamas, Israeli ground offensives and bombardments have killed more than 37,400 people in Gaza, although that number does not distinguish between combatants and civilians. In March, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the death toll of terrorists was at least 13,000. He has pledged that the war would continue until both hostages were freed and Hamas — whose leaders have pledged on video to commit October 7 again and was continuing to fire rockets into Israel — was destroyed.

There are 120 Israeli hostages who remain in Gaza, including young women, a baby, eight Americans (five of them thought to be alive), and a senior who marked his 86th birthday in captivity in March. United States officials estimate that as few as 50 of the hostages in Gaza are still alive, according to a report Thursday.

Freed hostages have recounted stories of being held at civilian homes and a hospital.

CNN reported that the longevity of Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar, who has yet to be found, “is a personal victory.”

“We have the Israelis right where we want them,” he is said to have told other Hamas leaders, in leaked messages reported by The Wall Street Journal. He appeared to justify the deaths of Palestinian civilians as a “necessary sacrifice” according to the messages.

‘A story of misery’

But while Israel battles it out with Hamas, Florida’s medical professionals said civilians are suffering. They describe traumatic injuries, scarce medical supplies, and difficult living conditions.

Dr. Bahar Alzghoul, a pulmonologist in Gainesville, said the hospital where they worked turned into a refugee camp with at least 10,000 people at the parking lot and inside the rooms. “Each mattress had a story of misery,” he said. He said hospital patients suffer from a “lack of infection control” and many have died from sepsis.

Dr. Waleed Sayedahmad, an anesthesiologist from Parkland, also traveled to Gaza to provide medical care and said he was proud to get a “State of Palestine” stamp in his passport when he arrived. He said the current siege by Israel is from a “vicious and malicious oppressor.”

“They don’t have post-traumatic stress there because there is no post,” he said of Gaza civilians. “Gaza is the compass of morality: You have to be with it or against it.”

He said he has a message for “our Palestinian brothers and sisters” which is “Palestine, you’re not alone anymore. Free Palestine.”