Exhausted on the Cross

"As in Gaza, where every corpse drags a hand from the rubble to beckon to God, everything there points to awar that is over and done with."

- Dalia Taha

Dr Ghassan Abu Sittah, a British-Palestinian surgeon, is known to the world as the man standing behind a podium addressing the media surrounded by a pile of dead bodies on October 17, 2023, at al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza, soon after a deadly explosion at al-Ahli Hospital. The blast killed 471 people and injured 342 according to Gaza health officials. Dr Sittah called it a “massacre” and warned that more hospitals would be targeted. He had arrived in Gaza on October 9 to volunteer with Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), working at al-Ahli, al-Shifa and al-Awda hospitals. He was the doctor who revealed the practice of performing amputations in Gaza without an-aesthesia, and became a key source of information on the war's impact through his tweets. After returning to the UK, he was elected Rector of the University of Glasgow, continuing his advocacy against the ongoing genocide. He currently lives in Beirut, treating victims of the war in Lebanon. Dr Sittah spoke to Shahina K.K. about his experiences in Gaza and how the war-altered biosphere affects people's well-being. Excerpts:

In a previous interview, you said that every wound has a narrative on war. Can you tell us more about the politics of war wounds?