An American doctor, who volunteered at a hospital in Gaza, said upon his return that what he saw in the war-torn Strip was “unspeakable” and that the Israeli army deliberately killed children with sniper fire.
In an interview with CBS, orthopedic and hand surgeon Mark Perlmutter said that he had never seen children mutilated and injured in his life as he had seen in the Strip.
“All of the disasters I’ve seen, combined – 40 mission trips, 30 years, Ground Zero, earthquakes, all of that combined – doesn’t equal the level of carnage that I saw against civilians in just my first week in Gaza,” the doctor explained.
He added that the Israeli army deliberately sniped children, saying that they have evidence of the systematic targeting of children and the war crimes committed against them.
📰 Dr. Perlmutter on CBS News, same physician in the Politico article below.
👉 war on children, many gunshot wounds in toddlers and many shot twice.pic.twitter.com/QAIa39sE1X https://t.co/u9hr9C0PF2
— Dr. KHAL (@Hal9000_T1) July 22, 2024
The American doctor added that he saw children who had been deliberately killed by snipers.
“I have two children that I have photographs of that were shot so perfectly in the chest, I couldn’t put my stethoscope over their heart more accurately, and directly on the side of the head, in the same child,” Dr. Perlmutter said, adding that “no toddler gets shot twice by mistake by the ‘world’s best sniper.’ And they’re dead-center shots.”
In late March, the Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor said it documented the Israeli army’s execution of 13 children by direct fire at Palestinian children in and around Al-Shifa Medical Complex in Gaza. The rights group described these executions as a flagrant violation of the rules of international law, including international humanitarian law.
CBS said that the Israeli military declined their request for an interview but that a spokesperson claimed in an email that “the IDF has never, and will never, deliberately target children” but that “remaining in an active combat zone has inherent risks.”
Children in the #Gaza Strip are intentionally shot by Israeli snipers, says orthopedic surgeon Dr. Mark Perlmutter from North Carolina, who was there during the end of April and first few weeks of May.
Perlmutter told CBS News Sunday Morning on 21 July that throughout all his… pic.twitter.com/Z02G2PqMxt
— Lana (@RashadLana18915) July 23, 2024
Dr. Perlmutter also spoke about the “emotional wounds” these children have to endure.
“How can you measure that? I can’t measure my own,” the doctor told CBS. “How do you be an orphan, watching your family, you know, melted in front of you and shredded in front of you – how do you fix that, ever fix that?”
The report noted that “so many Palestinian children have had family members killed that doctors created a shorthand term: WCNSF (Wounded Child No Surviving Family).”
Ongoing Genocide
Currently on trial before the International Court of Justice for genocide against Palestinians, Israel has been waging a devastating war on Gaza since October 7.
According to Gaza’s Ministry of Health, 39,090 Palestinians have been killed, and 90,147 wounded in Israel’s ongoing genocide in Gaza starting on October 7.
Moreover, at least 11,000 people are unaccounted for, presumed dead under the rubble of their homes throughout the Strip.
Israel says that 1,200 soldiers and civilians were killed during the Al-Aqsa Flood Operation on October 7. Israeli media published reports suggesting that many Israelis were killed on that day by ‘friendly fire’.
Palestinian and international organizations say that the majority of those killed and wounded are women and children.
GAZA LIVE BLOG: Khan Yunis Death Toll Announced | Massacre in Bureij | WHO: 14,000 Must Be Evacuated
The Israeli war has resulted in an acute famine, mostly in northern Gaza, resulting in the death of many Palestinians, mostly children.
The Israeli aggression has also resulted in the forceful displacement of nearly two million people from all over the Gaza Strip, with the vast majority of the displaced forced into the densely crowded southern city of Rafah near the border with Egypt – in what has become Palestine’s largest mass exodus since the 1948 Nakba.
Later in the war, hundreds of thousands of Palestinians began moving from the south to central Gaza in a constant search for safety.
(The Palestine Chronicle)
