An Irish surgeon who was working in a Gaza hospital when it was targeted in an Israeli air strike last week has said the majority of his patients, who had died or were severely injured, were children.
Dr Morgan McMonagle, a trauma surgeon based at University Hospital Waterford, returned to Ireland last week following a six-week humanitarian mission in Gaza.
Based at Nasser hospital in Khan Yunis, Dr McMonagle arrived while the ceasefire was in effect. However, on the morning he was due to return to Ireland on March 18th, the ceasefire was breached and all movement was prohibited.
Shootings, including from snipers in buffer zones, occurred during the ceasefire while others suffered injuries from collapsing buildings.
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He said the last two weeks of his mission were “extremely busy”.
“Every night, there were more blasts, more shootings, more children brought in dead and more children brought in severely injured.
“Men were brought in, but the majority were probably children under 14 and women as well. It was everything from really bad chest injuries requiring their chest to be opened to hearts needing to be oversewn,” he said.
The majority of cases arose from being shot or “blasted with shrapnel”, he said, including his youngest patient, about four months old, whose belly was pierced by shrapnel.
“I had an 18-month-old as well and when he came off the ventilator, he was crying for his mother and father and they were dead,” he said, adding that there are “scores” of children now orphaned in Gaza.
Other children have been left paralysed, having suffered brain and spinal injuries.
“Dealing with injured children is always difficult, especially when they’re injured to that level of severity or they’re brought in dead,” he said, describing the circumstances in Gaza as “heartbreaking”.
Dr McMonagle was in the ICU on the fourth floor of Nasser Hospital on the night of March 23rd, deciding on which of two patients, who were “badly bleeding” from injuries sustained earlier that day, to bring to theatre first when it was targeted in an air strike.
“We felt this enormous shock wave through the building and heard the blast. At first, I thought it was a bomb outside, but very quickly we were told that the hospital had been targeted,” he said.
The air strike targeted and killed a senior Hamas leader who was being treated at the time. A 16-year-old boy Dr McMonagle had operated on two days earlier was also killed in the blast.
“It’s actually a miracle nobody else was killed,” he said, adding that staff continued to operate until about 3am that night.
Healthcare facilities, ambulances and personnel have been targeted several times, he said.
“We’re dealing with the most sophisticated military in the world, second only to the United States.
“The person who was targeted that night, they knew where he was, they knew exactly where to target the missile and were willing to risk the lives of other patients, innocent staff, and the building and services to get one target.
“There are no morals in that,” he said.
On his second-last night, last Tuesday, a family of five was brought in, he recalled.
“They were shot by an Apache helicopter, one of the most sophisticated pieces of machinery in the world,” he said.
While the mother suffered minor injuries, her two children, aged about four and five, were killed, he said, while her 11-year-old daughter and her husband suffered “severe injuries”.
“The dad died later that night and we operated on the 11-year-old until about 3am. She’ll probably survive, but the chances are she’ll end up losing both of her legs and maybe one arm,” he said.
