By the time she had collapsed, there were over 100 of these patients at Shifa Hospital. And we started seeing phosphorous burns. That was London based British Palestinian doctor Ghassan Abu Sitta, who specializes [00:00:16] in plastic and reconstructive surgery. He spent 43 days under bombardment in the Gaza Strip, risking his life to provide medical care to Palestinian civilians at Al-Shifa hospital. But placing himself in harm's way isn't rare for this doctor. [00:00:34] Abu Sitta has worked in Gaza since 2009, and has provided medical care in various war zones in the middle of wars across Yemen, Iraq, Syria and Lebanon. While speaking at a press conference in London on behalf of the International [00:00:49] Center for justice for Palestinians, Abu Sitta described the horrific scenes at the al and Al-Shifa hospitals, which later ceased to function due to repeated bombings by the Israeli Defense Forces and the restriction of fuel into the region, [00:01:07] which of course is necessary to run the machines in medical facilities. I want to revisit his claims about the IDF allegedly using incendiary white phosphorus bombs in a moment, but it's worth getting into what Abu Sitta experienced in regard to the victims who are suffering [00:01:26] the brunt of this brutal war. During my time at Shifa Hospital, it became apparent that 40 to 45% of all the wounded were going to be children. The primary target of the bombing was people's residential homes. [00:01:44] Really by the day for day five. Half of my operating list, which was around 10 to 12 cases every day, starting at 8 or 9 in the morning and finishing at one in the morning were children. And my estimate is that there are now between 700 and 900 children [00:02:03] with amputations of limbs, in some of whom multiple limbs have been amputated. On one night at Al Ahli Hospital, I performed amputations on six children. [00:02:20] His claim that 40 to 45% of the wounded and dead have been Palestinian children can be corroborated by breaking down the death toll numbers. As we've been doing on this show, at least 14,800 Palestinians, mostly women and children in Gaza, have been killed, per the Ministry of Health. [00:02:39] About 6000 Palestinian children are among those killed since October 7th. Abu Sitta was working at the Al Shifa hospital as it was under heavy IDF bombardment. In the next clip, he describes the suffering his medical staff [00:02:54] both witnessed and personally experienced during the air raids. While in Shifa, the number of burns and the number of pediatric injuries were increased. One of the most horrific scenes that. [00:03:12] I witnessed in Shifa hospital was when, after the air raid and the the the dead and the wounded were brought in, members of the Shifa medical staff and nursing staff would be running frantically in the emergency department, looking at the faces [00:03:30] of the wounded and the dead to see whether their relatives had been amongst the wounded, and in many cases, their children had been amongst the dead and the. So just place yourself in the shoes of the medical staff. Not only did they have to provide care in impossible the absolutely worst [00:03:50] possible conditions, but they too were confronted by the reality that they were losing members of their own families, in some cases their own children. As the hospital was relentlessly attacked with Israeli airstrikes, children were being rushed in with serious and gruesome injuries. [00:04:07] They suffered from shrapnel lodged into their small bodies. Many of them had lost limbs or were in need of amputations without anesthetics because they had run out. Medical machines were losing power as Israel barred the entry of fuel into the Gaza Strip. [00:04:23] It was a litmus test, Abu Sitta claimed, for what the IDF had planned to do to the rest of the health system. Following the attack, four pediatric hospitals were targeted, he said. Last week, Israel targeted the Al-awda and Indonesian hospitals in Gaza's north [00:04:42] and arrested Shifa hospital's director and several medics. And while the two day extension of the pause in bombing has been repeatedly described as a respite for Palestinians, Abu Sitta said the recent supply of medicine, food and water did not come close [00:05:00] to dealing with the humanitarian crisis. Now, as if the barbaric treatment of Palestinian civilians wasn't horrifying enough, Abu Sitta then makes the stunning claim that the IDF has been using incendiary bombs that break international laws. [00:05:18] We started seeing phosphorous burns. I had treated white phosphorus burns in the Gaza Strip during the 2009 war, and was very familiar with the very characteristic injuries and burns that they make. [00:05:34] And as a chemical burn, phosphorous burns burn right through to the inner core of the body and only stop when they have no exposure to oxygen. And so the burns would be, the patient would be basically puckered with burns [00:05:52] that core right into the ribs, the bones. And. And unlike thermal burns that spread from the surface more horizontally. Allegations of the IDF using white phosphorus bombs [00:06:09] definitely seem shocking and unbelievable. And in fact, I had trouble believing that Israel would go so far as deploying chemical weapons that would burn the flesh of Palestinian civilians, including children. However, as The Guardian reports, these claims are not new and have [00:06:26] been corroborated by other sources. Claims of the use of white phosphorus in Gaza were also made by Humanitarian Rights Watch or Human Rights Watch. I apologize in October, while Amnesty International claimed to have evidence of its use in southern Lebanon. [00:06:44] Of course, Israel denies the use of incendiary weapons, referring to the claims made by Human Rights Watch as unequivocally false. Like many Western militaries, the IDF claims the IDF possesses smokescreen shells that include white phosphorus that are legal under international law. [00:07:04] These shells are used by the IDF for creating smoke screens and not for targeting or causing fires, and are not defined under law as incendiary weapons, so they're denying it. But in a subsequent interview, Dr. Abu-sitta elaborates [00:07:20] on why he firmly believes that the IDF is in fact using white phosphorus bombs. Take a listen. Israel insists it hasn't used white phosphorus. So can I ask you, are you absolutely certain these are a very distinctive form of wound? - You wouldn't be mistaken about? - Absolutely. [00:07:36] So the phosphorus will continue to burn into the body, and your job as a surgeon is to try to cut the burnt tissue out. And what you end up with are cores of tissue that go all the way to the bone. And so the dad had burns into and part of his ribs, [00:07:55] and the child had multiple burns all the way in his back, down to the bone. Wow. So that's so that is a very, very serious thing for Israel to confront at some point. If it is in fact true that the IDF is deploying these bombs, [00:08:11] the notion that Israel would have to confront it at some point is laughable. As long as the United States continues to provide unwavering support for its Middle East ally. So far, the US government has provided cover for Israel's war crimes, [00:08:26] and until American voters make it crystal clear that there is a political price to pay for doing so, there's no reason to believe that Israel will be deterred. But Scotland Yard is actually investigating the claims made by Abu Sitta. My lawyer had been contacted by Scotland Yard to be interviewed as a British [00:08:47] citizen who was the victim of a potential war crime, as a survivor of the attack on Laleh Hospital and as someone who had witnessed these wars, these attacks on civilians and I, we will be interviewed and hopefully for me, Andrew, as a parent, [00:09:07] if the world sweeps under the carpet, the killing of 8000 children in 40 days, the world that we will be living in is a frightening place. The sheer number of children who have been killed, there has to be [00:09:25] some justice done for these children. You know, I have to say what Abu Sitta is saying there sounds eerily similar to what we heard from the United States government. Not in regard to Israel, of course not. [00:09:41] But in regard to the barbarism and use of chemical weapons by the leader of Syria when Bashar al-Assad uses chemical weapons. Well, it is a humanitarian crisis, a violation of international law, something that needs to be condemned, [00:10:00] something that he needs to be ousted for. I just wish that there was some consistency with the United States government and its condemnations, rather than engaging in these condemnations, specifically based on which country they're talking about. [00:10:18] If it's a ally of the United States, whether it be Israel or Saudi Arabia. Oh, the barbarism is totally fine. If it is an enemy of the United States, a regime that the United States is not at all in favor of, then all of a sudden, international law matters. [00:10:37] War crimes matter, and something needs to be done. Clearly the United States government, considering these inconsistencies that I'm bringing up right now, has really no moral leg to stand on. But they love to talk about human rights abuses in countries that they're [00:10:54] considering a conflict with, whether it be a military conflict, a Cold War, as we're currently engaging in with China. Just keep that in mind. Keep in mind the double standards that we're experiencing in real time now. [00:11:10] Abu Sitta left Gaza nearly two weeks ago, and he says that he feels an overwhelming sense of guilt for those left behind. He says the following quote. My fear is even those who are steadfast enough to stay will eventually leave on their own. [00:11:27] And we will have what the Israelis want, which is another 1948. This war is the continuation of the 1948 Nakba. Obviously, that fear is shared by many. On October 13th, Israel's Defense Minister Yoav Galant made [00:11:44] Israel's intentions crystal clear quote, Gaza won't return to what it was before. We will eliminate everything. And guess what? The IDF's actions make that clear. What witnesses on the ground in Gaza have experienced make that clear. [00:12:02] The dozens of Gazan journalists who have been killed during this war make that clear. It is precisely the fearless reporting provided by journalists like Aseel Moussa in Gaza that help us really understand the genuine plight of the Palestinians. [00:12:20] He shares details of the terror witnessed by those fleeing northern Gaza through Salah al-Din road. Dogs biting at a human corpse, an exhausted, heavily pregnant woman carrying a toddler on her back, a seemingly lifeless body pushed on a cart. [00:12:39] The sights of the Salah al-Din road, the main highway that runs like a spine through Gaza, remain with those who have walked it. At some point, Americans need to ask themselves how comfortable they are providing financial and military support to a country [00:12:59] that publicly boasts about its annihilation of the Palestinian people. I know that I have a problem with it. I don't think any country deserves unwavering, undying, committed support regardless of what they carry out, regardless of what war crimes [00:13:15] they're committing. And the real question is, why is it that the United States government is so obsessed with providing that unwavering support to Israel, even despite what we are hearing about what is transpiring on the ground in Gaza? [00:13:30] Thanks for watching. If you become a member, you get to watch all this ad free. Except for of course, this ad still hits the join button below.