No hope for UK stance on Gaza, British surgeon says

A medic who volunteered to help the wounded in the enclave is frustrated by his government's response to the conflict

A Palestinian at Nasser Hospital holds a child wounded in an Israeli strike. Reuters

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A British surgeon fears that the UK government will not act to save healthcare services in Gaza, after meeting Foreign Secretary David Cameron last week.

Prof Nick Maynard, a surgeon in Oxford who also teaches at the university, recently returned from Gaza where he went with a team of British doctors to work at Al Aqsa Hospital.

He met Lord Cameron and Development Minister Andrew Mitchell privately last week to give an account of what he saw there.

This included operating in overcrowded rooms, sometimes on days when there was no running water or available blood supplies.

“I told them the stark details of what’s going on,” Prof Maynard said during an online seminar hosted by British charity Balfour Projects.

“The response was profoundly disappointing. I do not have any hope at all that it has made a difference.”

Less than half of Gaza's hospitals – 14 of 36 – are functional and only partly so, according to UN figures.

Hospitals have been damaged by shelling, or lack the fuel and supplies to operate.

Displaced Palestinians hold a white flag as they pass an Israeli tank position while fleeing the Hamad Town district of Khan Younis. Bloomberg

A Palestinian woman cuts material to be used for sewing nappies at a workshop in Rafah. AFP

Smoke rises following an explosion in Gaza, as seen from southern Israel. AP

Parachutes carrying relief for Palestinians drop from an Egyptian Air Force cargo plane over central Gaza. Bloomberg

A Palestinian boy who is suffering from malnutrition is treated at a healthcare centre amid widespread hunger. Reuters

Palestinian children attend an English class in the library of the school housing displaced people in Rafah, the southern Gaza Strip. AFP

An UNRWA-run school housing displaced Palestinians in Rafah. AFP

Palestinians search for bodies and survivors in the rubble of a residential building destroyed in an Israeli air strike in Rafah. AP

A wounded Palestinian man who lost his wife and daughter walks past a neighbours' house destroyed by Israeli bombing in Rafah. AFP

An injured man is rescued from the rubble after an Israeli air strike on the Rafah camp in Gaza. EPA

Palestinians walk amid the rubble of houses destroyed by the Israeli bombardment of Gaza city. AFP

Aid is dropped into Gaza from US military aircraft. Reuters

Palestinians gather at air lorries in Gaza. More than 100 were killed when Israeli troops opened fire. AP

The sun sets behind destroyed buildings in Gaza. AFP

A Palestinian man enters a heavily damaged house following an Israeli strike in Rafah, in the southern Gaza Strip. AFP

A wounded Palestinian is assisted at the site of an Israeli strike in Deir Al Balah, in the central Gaza Strip. Reuters

Palestinians gather in the hope of getting bags of flour carried by air lorries near an Israeli checkpoint in Gaza city, as the enclave's residents face crisis levels of hunger. Reuters

Palestinian children wait to receive food cooked by a charity kitchen as the conflict between Israel and Hamas continues in Gaza. Reuters

A displaced Palestinian child holds a crying baby in a camp in Rafah, in the southern Gaza Strip. Reuters

Military action preventing aid deliveries

Although limited amounts of aid has been entering Gaza, it cannot be delivered to hospitals because Israel's military offensive makes it unsafe.

“Aid is always welcome, but none of it can be distributed while there is military action,” Prof Maynard said.

“I don’t know if our government understands that."

Israel has been preparing a ground operation into Rafah in southern Gaza – where more than 1.4 million Palestinians are sheltering – despite warnings from its western allies.

Lord Cameron expressed his "deep concern" about the possible offensive in a social media post last week.

Prof Maynard feared that such an operation would lead to the expulsion of Palestinians from Gaza, a move that Egyptian leaders have said they would not tolerate.

“There is nowhere to go … other than into the Sinai,” he said.

Although Prof Maynard has been going on training missions to Gaza for years, he was not prepared for what he saw on this trip.

“When I went into Gaza on Christmas day, I really thought I was prepared for it. And I wasn’t,” he said.

As they approached the Rafah border crossing from Egypt, he saw hundreds of aid trucks lined up outside, waiting to get in. A truck full of nappies had been turned away, Prof Maynard said.

He showed pictures taken during his time at Al Aqsa hospital, of his team operating on a six-year-old boy with an open chest wound, while other children with fatal injuries were being left to die on the floor near by.

Professor Nick Maynard, centre, at a vigil mourning healthcare workers killed in Gaza, on November 10, 2023. AFP

“There is nowhere for people to die other than lying on the floor in the ED [emergency department],” he said.

He does not know if the boy survived, as the hospital was too crowded and he couldn’t find him the next day.

Prof Maynard feared that widespread malnutrition and disease would spread without adequate food, clean water and medical supplies.

Deaths from these quarters would overshadow the number of people killed in air strikes, he said.

Israeli bombs landed within five metres of where his team of British doctors were staying in Mawasi – a designated safe zone, he said.

“That is clear evidence of the IDF targeting a house where they knew UK doctors were living," Prof Maynard said.

He continues to receive updates from his colleagues and friends in Gaza, with whom he has long-standing relationships.

Placards indicating the names of people killed in Israeli bombardments are placed on shallow tombs at a makeshift cemetary in the vicinity of Al-Shifa Medical Complex in Gaza City. AFP

Doctors at the Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis, which has been surrounded by the Israeli military for days, received an evacuation notice from the IDF this morning, Prof Maynard said.

Yet a quadcopter drone had already entered the hospital through the window and shot at the brother of a friend of his.

Palestinians in Gaza had lost hope, with many wanting to flee for good, marking a change to his earlier encounters.

“They all want to go now. They’ve been broken,” Prof Maynard said.

The healthcare system in Gaza will take “years” to rebuild and “billions of dollars”, he said, calling for better co-ordination among aid agencies.

“Aid agencies are working in isolation and not together,” he said.

The British charity Medical Aid for Palestinians, with which Prof Maynard works, had started speaking with other UK agencies to better co-ordinate their response.

Asked whether he had seen evidence of Hamas operating from Gaza’s hospitals, a claim made by the Israeli military, he said had not.

“No I didn’t. In two weeks at Al Aqsa, I went into every single department repeatedly,” Prof Maynard said.

“Over the years I’ve never seen any evidence in any hospital. I have no idea what’s going on in the tunnels."