Nearly a dozen healthcare workers in North Texas are joining ranks with others across the country, detailing their medical missions in Gaza and calling on President Biden to impose an arms embargo and ceasefire.
“This is probably the most moving experience of any of our lives," said Dr. Mohammed Khaleel, an orthopedic spine surgeon.
He and his friend, Dr. Syed Irfan Ali, a DFW anesthesiologist and intervention pain specialist, took their skills to Gaza in April.
They said they didn't fully realize what they would witness.
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"One of them was three siblings. If I show you the picture, all of them, they look exactly the same because their skin had just melted away from top to bottom," Ali said.
In another vivid case, Ali said as he looked at his colleague, “That 7-8-year-old girl who had been walking around with shrapnel in her groin for the last four months ... because they’re just being displaced from one place to another to another to another, there’s no continuity of care. Or any kind of care."
Ali and Khaleel are two of 99 healthcare workers from across the country who signed an open letter to President Biden and Vice President Harris this week detailing what they saw in Gaza.
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"With only marginal exceptions, everyone in Gaza is sick, injured, or both. This includes every national aid worker, every international volunteer, and probably every Israeli hostage: every man, woman, and child," the letter states.
Monday will mark one year since war broke out between Israel and Hamas after a Hamas attack that killed 1,200 Israelis and took 250 others hostage, according to Israeli officials.
Since then, Israel has killed more than 41,000 Palestinians in Gaza, over half of those women and children, according to local health officials.
"Children are universally considered innocents in armed conflict. However, every single signatory to this letter saw children in Gaza who suffered violence that must have been deliberately directed at them. Specifically, every one of us who worked in an emergency, intensive care, or surgical setting treated pre-teen children who were shot in the head or chest on a regular or even a daily basis. It is impossible that such widespread shooting of young children throughout Gaza, sustained over the course of an entire year, is accidental or unknown to the highest Israeli civilian and military authorities," the letter stated.
Doctors Ali and Khaleel are among those who witnessed and treated gunshot patients.
“When you see that there are kids who you see who have no other injuries, that means they were not part of an air strike, they were not under the rubble, they were just walking or doing something and they have not one, but sometimes two or three sniper shots. That tells you that they were the target. It was not a missed target. They were the target," Ali said.
“Indiscriminate bombing is one thing, but these were — appear to be targeted executions," Khaleel added.
"We appreciate that you are working on a ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hamas, but you have overlooked an obvious fact: the United States can impose a ceasefire on the warring parties by simply stopping arms shipments to Israel, and announcing that we will participate in an international arms embargo on both Israel and all Palestinian armed groups. We stress what many others have repeatedly told you over the past year: American law is perfectly clear on this matter, continuing to arm Israel is illegal," wrote the authors.
The U.S. has approved several weapons shipments to Israel worth billions of dollars over the past year.
“It almost gives you a bit of survivor’s guilt to come back to the comfort of the states, knowing that it’s bombs that you’re contributing, paying for that are destroying the lives of these people that you’ve met," said Khaleel, referencing his tax dollars.
He and Ali said they hope their experiences help spark change.
“If people could get a grasp of the devastation that we saw, hopefully, some of our elected leaders can make an effort to try to put an end to this," Khaleel said.
“We can show them. We can tell them for sure what we have seen, what we have on our phones, what we have witnessed," said Ali.
"President Biden and Vice President Harris, we wish you could see the nightmares that plague so many of us since we have returned: dreams of children maimed and mutilated by our weapons and their inconsolable mothers begging us to save them. We wish you could hear the cries and screams our consciences will not let us forget. We cannot fathom why you continue arming the country that is deliberately killing these children en masse," the letter stated.
Nightmares bring Ali to tears, even six months after bearing witness.
“He had his bone sticking out, he has facial injuries, he was barely like 8 years old. We asked him, we said, ‘How are you doing?’" As he teared up, Ali said the boy held up a peace sign, then a thumbs up.
They said their time in Gaza was spent rushing from one emergency to another.
“Leaving Gaza, that was the most difficult journey," Ali said, through tears. "That's when it all sinks in, you know."
He said what keeps him going is remembering the colleagues from all religions and races who have also gone to Gaza to help.
"That gives us a lot of hope that, you know, there is humanity everywhere," he said.
"That’s all it takes, is being human, to see suffering like this and want to help," Khaleel added.
They also find strength from those they helped heal, saying the resilience of those in Gaza is remarkable.
“The only thing they said was, ‘Please don’t forget us. And please keep telling our story.' So, us talking to you or us ... signing that letter is just part of telling their story," Ali said.
