When Dr Ammar Darwish went to Gaza in January 2024 as a volunteer medic, his team narrowly escaped an Israeli airstrike on their accommodation. By the time he returned in August, the level of destruction, the severity of patient injuries and the lack of essentials in the territory had significantly worsened.
“Gaza is one of the worst missions that I’ve done, especially this time around. It has affected me and affected the whole team,” said Darwish, a general and major trauma surgeon from Manchester who has also worked in Syria, Yemen, Iraq, Libya and Ukraine.
