Rosanne Symons – Physician from South Africa
Friends, I have been struggling to write this post all day. I attended a meeting last night where a British neurosurgeon was sharing about his most recent mission to #Gaza. He explained the arduous process volunteer doctors go through in order to obtain Israeli clearance, and showed videos of his bus ride approaching the Kerem Shalom Checkpoint into Gaza. He shared pictures of entire suburbs reduced to piles of dust, and thousands upon thousands of water bottles donated by NGOs that had been trampled and emptied by Israeli settlers in order to prevent the Gazans from having potable water. He described the operations he did on babies and children – some intentionally shot in the head and spine by snipers (yes, soldiers actually taking aim at children’s heads and spines), and on those with brain matter oozing out of their skulls from shrapnel injuries. We saw the x-rays and CT scan images of people paralysed from blast injuires fracturing their necks or backs.
It was hard to imagine operating under those conditions – fuel, food and water denied entry into the Strip since 2nd March 2025, working with the lights from cell phones, little clean water to wash wounds, blunt drills, and inadequate antibiotic cover. Doctors and nurses collapsing from hunger, exhaustion and grief, and everyone traumatised beyond what medical textbooks have hitherto described.
My eyelids are still swollen from all the crying I did. My heart feels like it will never recover from what we are witnessing.
Friends, please take time to understand what is happening in Gaza. This is a seminal/kairos moment in the world today. We cannot and must not stay silent in the face of such monstrous brutality and evil.