BEIRUT: Dr. Hassan Hamdan was one of the few trained plastic surgeons in Gaza, a specialist in wound reconstruction. His skills were vitally needed as Israel’s military onslaught filled hospitals with patients torn by blasts and shrapnel, so the 65-year-old came out of retirement to help.
Earlier this month, an Israeli airstrike killed him along with his wife, son, two daughters, a daughter-in-law, a son-in-law, six grandchildren and one other person, as his family sheltered in their home in an Israeli-declared “safe zone.”
Israel’s 9-month-old war with Hamas in Gaza has decimated the territory’s medical system. It has not only wreaked physical destruction on hospitals and health facilities, it has devastated Gaza’s medical personnel. More than 500 health care workers have been killed since October, according to the UN.
Among them were many specialists like Hamdan.
Dr. Ahmed Al-Maqadma, also a reconstructive surgeon and a former fellow at UK Royal College, was found shot to death alongside his mother, a general practitioner, on a street outside Gaza City’s Shifa hospital after a two-week raid on the facility by Israeli forces in April.
One of Gaza’s most prominent fertility doctors, Omar Ferwana, was killed along with his family in a strike on his home in October. The territory’s only liver transplant doctor, Hamam Alloh, was killed in a hit on his home in Gaza City.
Israeli strikes in November on a northern Gaza hospital killed two doctors working with Doctors Without Borders. They are among six staffers killed from the international charity, which focuses on reconstructive and orthopedic surgeries, physiotherapy and burn care in Gaza.
Israel has detained doctors and medical staff. At least two have died in Israeli detention, allegedly of ill-treatment: the head of Shifa’s orthopedics department, Adnan Al-Bursh, and the head of a women’s hospital, Iyad Al-Rantisi. Israel has not returned either man’s body. Hundreds of other medical workers have been displaced or left Gaza altogether.
Along with the personal toll, their deaths rob Gaza’s medical system of their skills when they have become crucial.
Since the Hamas attack against Israel on Oct. 7 — which left some 1,200 people dead and 250 kidnapped — Israel’s campaign has killed more than 38,000 people in Gaza and wounded more than 88,000, according to local health officials. Malnutrition and disease have become widespread as hundreds of thousands of Palestinians cram into squalid tent camps.
Dr. Adam Hamawy, a former US Army combat plastic surgeon who volunteered in Gaza in May, said Hamdan’s death “leaves a significant void that will be hard to fill.”
Like many in Gaza, he believes Israel is deliberately destroying the health system, pointing to how Israeli forces have raided hospitals, destroyed medical complexes, fired on medical convoys and hit ambulances. Israel says it is targeting Hamas, which it says uses hospitals as command centers and ambulances for transport. The military has provided limited evidence for its claims.
Twenty-three of Gaza’s 36 hospitals are out of service, and the rest are only partially functioning, according to the latest UN figures. Only five field hospitals out of nine are operational. And more than 60 percent of Gaza’s primary health facilities have shut down.
Hamdan’s death leaves only one other specialist in reconstructive plastic surgery in Gaza. Other doctors have had to learn the skills of repairing major wounds on the job amid relentless daily waves of maimed patients.
Hamawy saw firsthand the need during his work in Gaza as part of an international medical team that came to help the territory’s health workers.
During three weeks at the European General Hospital in Khan Younis, he said he performed 120 surgeries, more than half of them on children, and all but one of them for treatment and reconstruction of war wounds. Two colleagues at the hospital were killed in strikes on their homes while he was there, and he spoke to doctors who had been released from Israeli detention and described being tortured, he said.
Hamawy said a general surgeon at the hospital stepped in to fill the demand for plastic surgeons, but he had no formal training. Five medical students volunteered with him.
They “are doing their best to fill in the gap,” Hamawy said.
On July 2, the European General Hospital evacuated its staff and patients, fearing it would be attacked. That left Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in Deir Al-Balah and a field hospital in Rafah as the only facilities able to offer reconstructive surgery, said Dr. Ahmed Al-Mokhallalati, Gaza’s last reconstructive plastic surgery specialist.
Al-Mokhallalati said he has been rushing between hospitals, at one point overseeing treatment for 400 patients in one and 500 in another. At the Rafah field hospital, he was doing up to 10 surgeries a day.
“It is a very critical situation,” he said.
Hamdan founded the burns and plastic surgery department in Khan Younis’ Nasser Medical complex in 2002, after serving at the territory’s first such unit, at Shifa hospital. He headed the department at Nasser until 2019, when he retired.
When the Israeli army invaded Hamdan’s home city of Khan Younis in December, he returned as a volunteer at Nasser, Gaza’s second largest hospital, said his son Osama Hamdan, an orthopedic surgeon. His colleagues said he was cool under pressure. “The smile never left his face,” said Dr. Mohamad Awad, a surgeon who worked with him.
Soon after, Israeli forces besieged and raided Nasser Hospital, forcing its evacuation. Hamdan was displaced, taking shelter in the home of one of his daughters in Deir Al-Balah, further north.
Troops occupied Nasser hospital for weeks, wreaking extensive damage. After they withdrew, the facility was rehabilitated. In mid-June, Hamdan returned home and was discussing returning to work with hospital officials.
On July 2, Israel ordered another evacuation of Khan Younis. Hamdan and his family fled again, returning to his daughter’s home in Deir Al-Balah.
Only hours after they arrived, an airstrike hit the building on July 3 – “a direct hit with two rockets on my sister’s apartment,” Osama Hamdan said. He said no one in the family was affiliated with militant groups.
The Israeli military did not respond to requests for comment on the strike.
Osama was on duty in the emergency room at Nasser hospital when he received the call. His wife and two sons – 3 and 5 years old – were among those killed.
“I was only able to collect some body parts of my kids and their mother because of how huge the explosion was,” he said.
One of his sisters died days later in the hospital from her wounds. Another sister remains in intensive care.
Osama is feeling partially responsible. “I had pressed him to leave Khan Younis,” he said in a text message, marked with two broken hearts emojis.
As Gaza’s doctors struggle to save lives, many lose their own in Israeli airstrikes
https://arab.news/5x6bn
As Gaza’s doctors struggle to save lives, many lose their own in Israeli airstrikes
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- Israel’s 9-month-old war with Hamas in Gaza has decimated the territory’s medical system
- One of Gaza’s most prominent fertility doctors, Omar Ferwana, was killed along with his family in a strike on his home in October
Iraq issues arrest warrants for ‘heist of the century’
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The scandal, dubbed the “heist of the century,” sparked widespread anger in Iraq, which is ravaged by rampant corruption, unemployment and decaying infrastructure after decades of conflict.
The criminal court issued the warrants for businessman Nour Zuhair and Haitham Al-Juburi, a former adviser to then prime minister Mustafa Al-Kadhemi, state news agency INA reported.
The two suspects are among several facing a trial which opened in mid-August, but are on the run and failed to appear in court.
According to the tax authorities, the defendants allegedly expropriated the $2.5 billion between September 2021 and August 2022 through 247 cheques cashed by five companies.
The money was subsequently withdrawn — in cash — from the firms’ accounts.
The owners of those accounts — most of whom are also on the run — have also been subject to arrest warrants.
Around 30 suspects are facing trial, INA reported, including six already behind bars or awaiting extradition to Iraq, the national anti-fraud agency has said.
In October 2022, Zuhair was arrested at Baghdad airport as he was trying to leave the country.
A month later he was released on bail after giving back more than $125 million and pledging to return the rest in instalments.
Juburi also returned $2.6 million of the allegedly embezzled funds before disappearing, a judicial source told AFP.
The current whereabouts of both men is unknown.
However, wealthy businessman Zuhair was back in the news over the few days after he reportedly had a car crash in Lebanon, following an interview he gave to an Iraqi news channel.
“The Nour Zuhair affair is a scandal... that concerns the entire political system,” Iraqi journalist and commentator Hamed Al-Sayyed told AFP.
He blamed the authorities for releasing him on bail two years ago, allowing him “to flee.”
“His release from jail, at a time when he was being investigated, shows that the political system, at the highest echelons, is complicit,” Sayyed added.
Corruption is endemic in Iraqi state institutions, with the top echelons of power often evading accountability.
Army says Israeli hostage rescued from Gaza
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- Kaid Alkadi, a 52-year-old Israeli Bedouin, was abducted by Palestinian militants during the October 7 Hamas attack on Israel
JERUSALEM: The Israeli military said its forces rescued an Israeli hostage in southern Gaza on Tuesday after a “complex operation.”
Kaid Alkadi, a 52-year-old Israeli Bedouin, was abducted by Palestinian militants during the October 7 Hamas attack on Israel, the military said in a statement.
“Kaid AlKadi was rescued... in a complex operation in the southern Gaza Strip,” the military said.
“He is in a stable medical condition and is being transferred for medical checks to a hospital.”
Alkadi is a resident of Rahat, a predominantly Arab town, and on October 7 he was working as a guard at a warehouse in southern Israel when he was seized by militants.
Iran former top diplomat Zarif returns to VP post
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TEHRAN: Iran’s former foreign minister, Mohammad Javad Zarif, on Tuesday announced he was returning to his post as vice president to Masoud Pezeshkian after submitting his resignation earlier this month.
Pezeshkian named Zarif as his vice president for strategic affairs on August 1, but the former top diplomat resigned less than two weeks later, citing his disappointment with the line-up in the 19-member cabinet.
He also said he faced pressure because his children hold dual US citizenship.
Conservatives in Iran have criticized Pezeshkian for choosing Zarif, who became known on the international stage for his vital role in negotiating the landmark 2015 nuclear deal with world powers.
“After the follow-ups and consultations conducted by the president and with his written order, I will continue to exercise my duties as Strategic Vice President,” Zarif said in a post on X.
Zarif — who attended on Tuesday the new cabinet’s first meeting with Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei — also praised the new cabinet in his post.
Last week, all the members of Iran’s new cabinet were granted a full vote of confidence from parliament, marking the first time in over two decades a president got all his nominees through the body.
Zarif, who has represented Iran in the United Nations, served as the country’s top diplomat between 2013 and 2021 under moderate president Hassan Rouhani.
The 2015 nuclear deal was effectively torpedoed three years later when the US unilaterally pulled out, but it helped cement Zarif’s reputation as a combative negotiator who nonetheless opened Iran up to the West.
A dam collapse in eastern Sudan kills at least 30 people following heavy rains, a UN agency says
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- The flooding has either destroyed or damaged the homes of 50,000 people living in the areas west of the dam
CAIRO: The collapse of the Arbaat Dam in Sudan’s eastern Red Sea state over the weekend flooded nearby homes and killed at least 30 people following heavy rains, a UN agency said.
The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said late Monday, citing local officials, that the actual number of fatalities from the collapse on Sunday might be higher. Additionally, about 70 villages around the dam were affected by the flash flooding, including 20 villages that have been destroyed.
The Arbaat Dam, which is about 38 kilometers (nearly 25 miles) northwest of Port Sudan, was massively damaged because of heavy rains. In areas west of the dam, the flooding either destroyed or damaged the homes of 50,000 people — 77 percent of the total population living there. Those affected urgently need food, water and shelter, OCHA warned, adding that damage in eastern parts of the dam is still being assessed.
More than 80 boreholes collapsed because of the flooding, OCHA said citing officials, while 10,000 heads of livestock are missing, and 70 schools have been either damaged or destroyed.
Heavy rain and flooding across Sudan this month impacted more than 317,000 people. Of those impacted, 118,000 people have been displaced, exacerbating one of the world’s biggest displacement crises due to the ongoing war in the country.
Tuesday marks 500 days since Sudan plunged into war after fighting broke out between the Sudanese Armed Forces and the Rapid Support Forces, or RSF.
The conflict began in the capital, Khartoum, and raged across Sudan, killing thousands of people, destroying civilian infrastructure, and pushing many to the brink of famine. More than 10 million people were forcibly displaced to find safety, according to the UN
Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF), or Doctors Without Borders, said in a statement Tuesday that “this is a shameful moment” for international humanitarian organizations, which for more than 16 months, “have failed to provide an adequate response to the country’s escalating medical needs — from catastrophic child malnutrition to widespread disease outbreaks.”
“At the same time, heavy restrictions from both warring parties have drastically limited the ability to deliver humanitarian aid,” MSF said.
Abdirahman Ali, CARE’s Sudan country director warned in a statement Tuesday that the war “shattered” the health care system, “leaving countless without care.”
More than 75 percent of health care systems have been destroyed since the war began, according to a World Health Organization estimate in July.
US backs UN bid to resolve dispute over Libya Central Bank
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- Libya is struggling to recover from years of conflict after the 2011 NATO-backed uprising that overthrew longtime dictator Muammar Qaddafi
TRIPOLI: The United States gave its backing Tuesday to UN efforts to resolve differences between Libya’s rival administrations over the mangement of the central bank without cutting off vital oil income.
The US embassy said the move by the UN Support Mission in Libya “offers a path forward to resolve the crisis” sparked by the eastern administration’s announcement on Monday that it was suspending operations at all oil fields and export terminals under its control.
In a statement late Monday, UNSMIL said it was “convening an emergency meeting for all parties involved” in the crisis.
It also called for “immediately lifting force majeure on oil fields and refraining from using the country’s primary revenue source for political ends.”
Libya is struggling to recover from years of conflict after the 2011 NATO-backed uprising that overthrew longtime dictator Muammar Qaddafi.
It remains divided between the UN-recognized government in Tripoli led by Prime Minister Abdulhamid Dbeibah, and the rival administration in the east backed by military strongman Khalifa Haftar.
Most of its oil fields are located in regions controlled by Haftar, but oil revenues and the state budget are managed by the Central Bank based in Tripoli.
On Monday, Libya’s eastern-based administration said it was shutting down oil fields and terminals it controls in response to what it said were attempts by the western-based government to seize control of the Central Bank.
UNSMIL said “resolving this emerging crisis is an urgent necessity” and called for measures to protect the Central Bank’s employees from “threats and arbitrary arrests.”
On August 18, the bank’s head of information technology was kidnapped, and the bank said it was suspending its operations until his release later the same day.
A week earlier, Libyan media reported that armed men had besieged the bank in a bid to force the resignation of its governor, Seddik Al-Kabir, who has faced mounting criticism from people close to Dbeibah over its management of oil resources and the state budget.
On Monday morning, the eastern-based administration said an “outlaw group” close to the Tripoli authorities had forcibly taken over the bank.
Reports later said that the Presidential Council, which is close to Dbeibah, had established a commission tasked with leading a “transition of powers” which had installed a new bank board.