American Doctors Tell New York Times They Saw Pattern of Gaza Children Being Shot in Head: ‘Every Day I Was There’

American doctors polled by The New York Times revealed a disturbing trend they were witness to while working in Gaza: children being shot in the head.

Dr. Feroze Sidhwa, a trauma and general surgeon, served for two weeks Khan Younis, Gaza in March and April, and he wrote that he was shocked to learn other healthcare workers had also seen children being shot in head or chest while the war between Israel and Hamas rages on.

Sidhwa wrote:

I’ve seen violence and worked in conflict zones. But of the many things that stood out about working in a hospital in Gaza, one got to me: Nearly every day I was there, I saw a new young child who had been shot in the head or the chest, virtually all of whom went on to die. Thirteen in total.

At the time, I assumed this had to be the work of a particularly sadistic soldier located nearby. But after returning home, I met an emergency medicine physician who had worked in a different hospital in Gaza two months before me. “I couldn’t believe the number of kids I saw shot in the head,” I told him. To my surprise, he responded: “Yeah, me, too. Every single day.”

Sidhwa spoke to 65 other health care workers about what they had seen in Gaza, and 44 said they had seen cases of preteen children shot either in the head or the chest.

Out of the 65 who spoke about their experiences, 57 went on the record.

“One night in the emergency department, over the course of four hours, I saw six children between the ages of 5 and 12, all with single gunshot wounds to the skull,” Dr. Mohamad Rassoul Abu-Nuwar, a bariatric and foregut surgeon, said.

Others similarly said they had seen multiple cases of children shot.

“Our team cared for about four or five children, ages 5 to 8 years old, that were all shot with single shots to the head. They all presented to the emergency room at the same time. They all died,” Dr. Irfan Galaria, a plastic and reconstructive surgeon, said.

Another health care worker said children with gunshot wounds to the head was a daily occurrence.

“I saw many children. In my experience the gunshot wound was often to the head. Many had non-curable, permanent brain damage. It was almost a daily occurrence to have children arrive at the hospital with gunshot wounds to the head,” Dr. Ndal Farah, an anesthesiologist, said.

Nearly all of the health care workers also noted that Palestinians generally suffered from malnutrition.

“These people were starving. I learned very quickly to not drink my water or eat the food I had brought in front of the health care workers because they had gone so many days without,” a nurse named Merril Tydings said.

More than 20 health care workers said they had seen babies born healthy only to return to the hospital where they died of dehydration, starvation, or infections.

Much of Gaza has been destroyed by Israeli strikes targeting Hamas terrorists, but also leading to thousands of civilian casualties. Israel has said there will be no end to the war until Hamas is completely eliminated following the terror group’s Oct. 7 attack in which they kidnapped hundreds and killed more than 1,000.

The conditions of Gaza and the raging war has also led to “psychiatric distress” among children.

According to the poll, 52 health care workers “observed nearly universal psychiatric distress in young children and saw some who were suicidal or said they wished they had died.”

“One child who had lost all his family wished he had been killed, too, saying: ‘Everyone I love is in heaven. I don’t want to be here anymore,” Pediatric critical care Dr. Tanya Haj-Hassan said.

Others described kids disassociating and not speaking for days after suffering life-changing injuries or losing loved ones. Many also expressed suicidal thoughts.

Sidhwa called for an end to the United States arming Israel, saying Israel and the US are “turning Gaza into a howling wilderness.”

“The horror must end. The United States must stop arming Israel,” he wrote. “And afterward, we Americans need to take a long, hard look at ourselves.”

Read all of the accounts from health care workers here.

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