A Manchester-based urologist Dr. Omar el-Taji was woken up at 2 am to operate on an urgent case, days after arriving in Rafah. "A man in his 30s was brought in after his entire building was bombed," he tells The Guardian. "He had an open wound to his abdomen, his hand was falling off, and his ankles were completely mangled."

"I had never seen anything like it," he says, as he recounts the horrors he witnessed as a doctor operating in Gaza amid the ongoing genocide by "Israel" against the Palestinians. 

The patient died two days despite surviving the injuries, due to renal failure as a result of sepsis since there was no dialysis available. "This would not have happened in a healthcare system that was adequately resourced."

El-Taji was partaking with a group of international doctors who spent almost a month in Gaza under the umbrella of the World Health Organization. They arrived at the European Hospital in Khan Younis at the beginning of this month with suitcases filled with medication, surgical instruments, and boxes of Quality Street chocolates, "for the kids," says el-Taji.

Read more: Italian doctor details horrific Israeli crimes in Gaza's al-Shifa

"I thought I was mentally prepared," he says. "But what we witnessed in Gaza was beyond anything I could have imagined."

Dr. Mohammed Tahir, a London orthopedic surgeon, expressed, "Nothing, absolutely nothing, justifies what we have witnessed here," adding, "People bring in their children, who are dead on arrival, and want us to try to resuscitate them – even though their bodies show no sign of life. They then leave carrying the limbs of their dead children in cardboard boxes."

A key goal of the mission was to teach and train local medical staff and students currently in Gaza and Rafah.

'It was apocalyptic'

Tahir said, "The Palestinian medical students are the real heroes," noting, "They have had their universities destroyed and flock to us for any knowledge we can impart that may help them, help others. They are young volunteers, who aren’t getting paid, but turn up to work every day, trying desperately to prop up a failing health system because the world has failed them."

A Wisconsin-based wound care specialist, Dr. Laura Swoboda, described the situation as "apocalyptic", saying, "The sheer destruction was unlike anything I’ve ever seen. Decomposing bodies still stuck beneath the rubble. All around us, we could smell death."

She describes seeing overturned ambulances and a burned-out dialysis center, medical supplies scattered everywhere, and the sound of black body bags flapping in the wind.

"There were notes scribbled on the walls of theatre rooms by doctors who had been hiding there," says Swoboda. "And then in the rubble, I came across a human finger. It was like a horror movie."

Dr. Ahlia Kattan and her husband Dr. Sameer Khan also described letting their parents babysit their children while they left for Gaza. The Californian couple wondered what if these children had been their own. They both served as anesthetists in Gaza, and Dr. Kattan recalls one case in particular that she will never forget.

"One day I went to the emergency room and lying on a stretcher was a small boy, the exact same size as my four-year-old son; his ashened baby hands were becoming toddler hands... His name was Mahmoud and he was a victim of an Israeli bombing campaign that left more than 75% of his body burnt. His eyebrows were singed off, his hair smelt of smoke."

As she uncovered his wounds, an ultrasound revealed a shattered spleen and crushed lungs. “We did not have the resources to save him and he died in front of us – cold and in pain with no one who knew him,” she says, holding back her tears. "I wish I could have protected him. He was only four."

Read next: Israeli forces killed over 360 Gaza health workers since Oct. 7: MoH

Remembering Dr. al-Bursh

As "Israel" began its assault on Rafah in May, the doctors saw it was no longer safe and left while still in their scrubs and moved into the European hospital, where they slept on the floor. However, the situation worsened as the hospital was low on fuel, the generator stopped working during surgeries, and medical supplies were running out.

Since returning home, many of them express having mixed feelings about leaving Gaza. 

"As I woke up for the first time without the sounds of airstrikes and gunfire, my thoughts immediately went to those I left behind," says el-Taji.

"We can’t look away. In the face of such immense suffering, we all have a duty to act."

Not all doctors were able to leave, and among them was martyred Dr. Adnan al-Bursh who was killed as a result of torture at the hands of the Israeli forces at Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza. Martyr al-Bursh was a resident of Jabalia, northern Gaza. He was arrested by the Israeli forces in January 2024 while carrying out his duties at Al-Awda Hospital with his staff.

Information obtained by the Palestinian civil affairs committee indicated that al-Bursh was martyred in Ofer prison on April 19, 2024, and his body is still being held by Israeli forces. It also reveals that al-Bursh sustained injuries while in an Indonesian hospital approximately five months prior to his death.