A British doctor who spent six weeks in Gaza has accused Israel of dropping white phosphorus on Palestinian civilians as he described seeing bodies pock-marked with burns like “Swiss cheese”.
Dr Ghassan Abu-Sittah, a British-Palestinian surgeon, said patients had distinctive burns that had penetrated deep into their flesh, wounds he said were consistent with the use of the incendiary chemical.
The Israel Defence Forces (IDF) have denied using white phosphorus in Gaza and Lebanon in their response to the October 7 Hamas attacks when about 1,200 people were killed and an estimated 240 hostages were taken.
White phosphorus can be used to illuminate battlefields but is very hard to extinguish once ignited and burns through human flesh. Its use in civilian areas is highly controversial and illegal in most circumstances under international humanitarian law forbidding the use of indiscriminate weapons in civilian areas.
Abu-Sittah, 54, said the wounds he saw while working in the al-Shifa and al-Ahli hospitals were consistent with previous white phosphorus injuries he had seen in Gaza in 2009 in a conflict in which the IDF has admitted using the incendiary chemical.
He described a 13-year old boy and his father who were covered with black burns like “Swiss cheese”. “Your job as a surgeon is to cut the burnt tissue,” he said.
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Abu-Sittah has been asked by Scotland Yard to provide first-hand testimony to the Metropolitan Police’s war crimes unit, which has been collecting evidence for the International Criminal Court’s investigation into “the situation in the State of Palestine” since 2014. Scotland Yard has received 20 referrals since the October 7 attacks for alleged war crimes. Israel is not a member of the court and does not recognise its jurisdiction.
Addressing a press conference in London organised by the International Centre of Justice for Palestinians, a not-for-profit campaign group, Abu-Sittah said he struggled with the guilt of leaving his patients after running out of medical supplies earlier this month. He arrived in Gaza two days after the Hamas terrorist attacks, having made his way there via Cairo.
Abu-Sittah, a plastic surgeon based in London, said washing-up liquid and vinegar were used to clean festering wounds by the end of his time in Gaza because of the lack of antiseptic. “I had kids with worms coming out … I had a man with an amputation above the elbow. When I went to clean out the wounds it was full of white larvae.”
He said hospitals had also run out of anaesthetic, forcing staff to carry out operations while patients were in “excruciating pain”. Without morphine or methadone, Abu-Sittah concluded that he could no longer work at the hospitals in Gaza and returned to the UK two weeks ago.
Abu-Sittah, who said he worked from 8am to 1am every day, estimated that 40 per cent to 45 per cent of the patients at al-Shifa hospital were children. He said he had carried out six amputations on children on one night of heavy bombing.
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The doctor, who has gained a worldwide following after documenting his experiences working in Gaza on social media, accused the IDF of using quadcopters with snipers that left devastating injuries. He said the exit wounds from these weapons were “bigger than a clenched fist”.
The IDF has claimed that Hamas has built a command centre underneath al-Shifa and released CCTV footage apparently showing two injured hostages being bundled into the hospital on October 7.
It has also published videos of tunnel entrances and caches of weapons, including Kalashnikovs, rocket-propelled grenades and explosives and released an alleged intercepted phone call in which Palestinians discuss Hamas fuel reserves kept underneath the hospital. The IDF has also accused Hamas of executing Noa Marciano, a 19-year-old soldier hostage, at the al-Shifa complex.
Abu-Sittah disputed Israeli claims that Hamas had built a military command centre under the hospital and said “at no stage” had he seen “men of fighting age” at the complex. He challenged claims from another British doctor who used to work at al-Shifa that medical staff were banned from parts of the hospital. Abu-Sittah said he would descend “unescorted” to the radiology department after the accusations of a military headquarters in the hospital’s basement. “I was never told there were areas off limits,” he said.
