• ‘I don’t see the US … taking a serious step to stop the war and to focus on the rebuilding of Gaza,’ Sahloul tells Anadolu

WASHINGTON

A US doctor who returned from humanitarian missions in the Gaza Strip has once again urged the Biden administration to put an end to Israel’s war on the besieged Palestinian enclave.

Zaher Sahloul, president of NGO MedGlobal and a critical care associate professor at the University of Illinois, Chicago, was one of the health workers who earlier this month sent a letter to US President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris to demand an immediate stop to military, economic and diplomatic support to Israel.

Sahloul told Anadolu that health workers also met officials at different levels, ranging from the State Department to Congress and UN Security Council members.

“We organized a group of physicians that met in the White House, also with President Biden and Vice President Harris. I met with them in April of this year, and I spoke with them about the situation in Gaza. I showed them the pictures,” he said.

He said the doctors told them to stop the offensive in Gaza’s southern city of Rafah to prevent a worsening of the crisis but “unfortunately, the situation got worse since then.”

Referring to a recent letter sent by Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin to their Israeli counterparts, the physician said it is “maybe one piece of hope.”

“For the first time, the administration sent a letter to Israel telling them that they have to ease the humanitarian situation and improve the humanitarian situation in Gaza … and I believe that this is a good development.

“For the first time, there is a kind of implied threat that if you don’t improve the humanitarian situation, open the border crossings for humanitarian aid, food and medicine and stop the attacks on hospitals and civilians, then there will be consequences, which is limiting arms supply to Israel,” he added.

US ‘has a lot leverage that it did not use’

Israel launched a brutal offensive on Gaza following a Hamas attack last year and has now killed or wounded more than 141,000 Palestinians.

It has also expanded its aggression to Lebanon, ramping up deadly strikes on what it claims are Hezbollah targets, killing more than 1,500 people and injuring over 4,500 others since late September.

Despite international criticism and warnings, Israel also launched a ground incursion into southern Lebanon on Oct. 1, where it has even targeted UN peacekeepers.

“We are seeing right now the expansion of the war in the region. It will destabilize the region and cause more harm for the long term,” said Sahloul.

Israel’s assault has made a large part of Gaza “unlivable,” he said.

“That means you will have the impulse of a large number of people to leave, if they have the chance to. That is going to create a refugee situation that the region does not need.”

He emphasized that the US is Israel’s main supplier of weapons and “has a lot of leverage that it did not use.”

“I don’t see the US … which is the country that has more leverage than any party, taking a serious step to stop the war and to focus on the rebuilding of Gaza,” said Sahloul.

‘Children are victims every day’

Sahloul was in Gaza for two weeks and worked at the Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis and a clinic in Rafah.

He said every health worker returning from Gaza has a lot of harrowing stories, particularly of the suffering inflicted on innocent children.

One such story that has stuck with Sahloul was of Ahmad Abu Shahla, an 11-year-old Palestinian boy who had shrapnel in his head and abdomen after an Israeli attack.

“We put him on life support, on the ventilator. We took him to the operating room. He had surgery. The next day, I took care of him in the intensive care unit and he did not make it. He was brain dead,” he said.

“We could not communicate with his family because there were no phone lines, and there was a complete blackout at that time … I took a picture of his death certificate because I wanted to make sure that media here and policymakers understand that children are victims every day.”

Sahloul narrated the story of 5-year-old Alma to draw attention to the lack of sanitation and hygiene in Gaza.

“She was living in a tent with 15 other people and she had … bloody diarrhea, and she was dehydrated. That was the symptom of every child who was coming to the clinic every day,” he said.

Most children, he added, are also suffering from respiratory illnesses and facing a myriad of other health threats.

Asked if he would return to Gaza, Sahloul responded: “Of course, it is my duty and this is the worst humanitarian crisis that the world is witnessing.”