“IT’S just as if an atomic bomb has hit. It’s devastation in every direction. Nothing growing, just dust.”
That was how now-retired NHS surgeon Nizam Mamode described the scene on the ground in Gaza. Almost complete siege by the occupying Israeli forces has left the atmosphere among the people there just as bleak.
“It has a sense that they're just waiting to die,” Mamode said. “I think many, many people feel that’s going to be the outcome. They’re all just going to be killed.”
The now-retired NHS professor of transplant surgery, and honorary consultant at Great Ormond Street Hospital, spoke to The Sunday National earlier in the week, as he headed up to Scotland after delivering evidence to Westminster’s International Development Committee.
Mamode, who learned medicine at Glasgow and St Andrews universities, had volunteered in Gaza’s Nasser Hospital for four weeks in August and September. Speaking to MPs, he recounted working on maggot-infested wounds with barely any supplies, the constant sounds of bombs exploding, and children being gunned down by drones.
Watch Professor Nizam Mamode break down as he tells @CommonsIDC about the systematic & persistent targeting of civilians by Israeli drones immediately after they drop bombs on areas of civilian population living in tents. Thanks to @SarahChampionMP's words as he composes himself. pic.twitter.com/7DeinujKzH
— Gary Spedding (@GarySpedding) November 12, 2024
A video clip of Mamode becoming emotional as he told his story went viral on social media, being viewed millions of times. But he told The Sunday National he had no intention of making waves online with his committee appearance. He was only hoping to spur action from the UK Government.
“One of the big problems I think is that Israel is acting with impunity, and there is an overt moral and a practical reason for the UK Government to take action,” he said. “That’s what I was hoping for.”
But the Labour Government has been reticent to criticise Israel, with Prime Minister Keir Starmer rejecting the idea that the atrocities in Gaza equate to genocide in the Commons on Wednesday.
Asked if this hesitation from Labour was emboldening Israel, Mamode said that was “absolutely” the case.
The medic, who also worked during the Rwandan genocide, said he had “never” seen destruction like in Gaza.
“If Keir Starmer doesn't want to use the word genocide, I would suggest he considers handing back his law degree,” Mamode went on. “He, of anybody, should know the definition.
“Even if he doesn't want to call it genocide, there's absolutely unequivocal evidence of war crimes being committed, consistently and persistently.
“If a Labour Government is not prepared to stand up and say something about that, then I think they should be absolutely ashamed of themselves.”
However, Israel’s ban on foreign journalists entering the strip makes it harder for the outside world to keep track of what is happening. Mamode said he believes this is part of a wider Israeli strategy to prevent news filtering out from Gaza.
“They've already killed, I think the latest figure [from Gaza’s health ministry] is 174 journalists,” he said. “I got interviewed a couple of times while I was there by local journalists … they were clearly targets.
“While I was there, there was a press tent in Al Aqsa Hospital, which was not too far from us. A missile was dropped on that tent and killed five journalists.
“I think if international journalists, if the BBC was reporting night after night on the news what we witnessed, I think it would be impossible for the US and the UK governments not to act – and that's why Israel is not letting them in.”
He said that foreign aid workers also had a target on their backs, which he suggested was an Israeli “attempt to get them to stay out”.
“We were advised by our security people, be very careful what you tweet, what you send back to the UK, for as long as you’re in Gaza,” Mamode told The Sunday National. Asked if that was to avoid becoming targets for the IDF, he said: “Exactly.
“The main danger in Gaza is not from Hamas, it is not from looters. It's from the Israeli army.”
It was for that reason that Mamode spent almost his entire time in Gaza confined to the Nasser Hospital. He would eat there, sleep there, and work there because, he reasoned, it would be safer than on streets watched by Israeli drones or snipers.
The former NHS surgeon told The Sunday National, as he had told MPs, that he believed civilians were being deliberately targeted.
Asked about those daily experiences, the medic told The Sunday National: “We’d get a mass casualty incident, one or two every day. That would be 10 to 20 dead, 20 to 40 seriously injured.
“There'd be people all over the floor in pools of blood, many of them dead, the majority of them women and children, doctors and nurses desperately trying to work out who was still alive.”
He went on: “My personal experience is reflected over and over again in evidence from others [who have worked in Gaza]. They all describe the same thing. They all describe persistent targeting of civilians, deliberate targeting of civilians, attacks on medical infrastructure and healthcare workers, restrictions on medical supplies.
“All of those constitute war crimes and all of them are unacceptable. It has been repeated by the UN, Amnesty International, Oxfam. It’s incontrovertible.”
Approached for comment, No 10 only directed this paper to Starmer’s statement in the Commons, where he said: “I'm well aware of the definition of genocide, and that is why I've never described this as and referred to it as genocide.”
Later, a Foreign Office spokesperson added: “The death and destruction in Gaza is intolerable and we have been clear that Israel must do much more to ensure civilians are protected. International humanitarian law must be upheld, and we have raised this with Israel at the highest levels.
“Our priority remains achieving a ceasefire in Gaza – hostages must be released, civilians protected, and aid allowed to flood in.”
The Israeli embassy was also approached for comment.
