Scottish Labour MP on Gaza testimony that was ‘most moving thing he’d ever heard’

It follows evidence from a doctor who treated injured children

A Scottish Labour MP has described harrowing testimony from Gaza as one of “the most moving things” he had ever heard.

Gordon McKee and the International Development Committee heard on Tuesday from Professor Nizam Mamode, who worked at Nasser hospital for a month between August and September this year.

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After the NHS doctor described the deaths of children and operating on patients without proper medical equipment, the Glasgow South MP told The Scotsman the stories have “stayed with him”.

He said: “The testimony that he gave was one of the most moving things I've ever heard. He spoke about three-year-old children that he'd operated on who had been shot by drones and he spoke about Un convoys attacked, he spoke about such a lack of medical supplies that he doesn't have a way of even sanitising the patients that he's operating on. Simple things that he would ask for a swab and the hospital didn't even have any swabs.

A woman cradles her son, eight-month-old Muhammad Bilal Abu Salah, as residents collect the bodies of Palestinians killed in reported Israeli air strikes in Gaza last month.A woman cradles her son, eight-month-old Muhammad Bilal Abu Salah, as residents collect the bodies of Palestinians killed in reported Israeli air strikes in Gaza last month.
A woman cradles her son, eight-month-old Muhammad Bilal Abu Salah, as residents collect the bodies of Palestinians killed in reported Israeli air strikes in Gaza last month.

“What it really brought home to me was just the scale of suffering that's happening in Gaza, and the responsibility that all of us have in the International community to make sure the aid is able to get into Gaza as quickly as possible.

“It does stay with you, it was 24 hours ago and I’m still thinking about it all the time, and the witness, Nizam Mamode, was so moving in his account, he was clearly emotional,

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he was nearly sort of crying multiple times, and you could see actually for him, it was traumatic, reliving this.

“I take my hat off to him, not just for doing it, for going out there and risking his life and treating people, but then for coming back and reliving that horror, that trauma, in front of MPs so that we can see via him, what’s happening on the ground, to make sure that suffering can be alleviated.”

Professor Mamode had described being fired at while operating on children, and bombs dropping on crowded tents.

He said: “The drones would come down and pick off civilians – children. We had description after description – this is not an occasional thing.

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“This was day after day after day, operating on children – who would say ‘I was lying on the ground after a bomb had dropped and this quadcopter came down and hovered over me and shot me’.

“So, that's clearly a deliberate act and it was a persistent act – the persistent targeting of civilians day after day”.

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