AN "unprecedented" book documenting the experience of healthcare workers in Gaza is set to launch in Scotland.
Diary Of Gaza Surgeons: A Witness To The Genocide features eyewitness accounts of UK-based health workers who volunteered in Gaza, and is described as "an essential reference for all those who care about humanity and human rights"
The book will have its Scottish launch in Edinburgh on Friday, at Hadeel Palcrafts, with another event also being held at The Ark on Coplaw Street in Glasgow on Saturday.
Both events will feature guest speaker Dr Khaleel Albayouk, a consultant orthopaedic surgeon from Gaza, who will speak about his experiences as a doctor.
Dr Bashier Oudeh, an executive member of the Scottish Palestine Health Partnership, which is helping to launch the book, believes it should be treated as a "historical document" and that it is "unprecedented".
While many articles have been written about what has happened in Gaza to medics and to hospitals, Oudeh said that "no book has actually come to describe what they went through, what they saw".
"The book gets into minute details about daily life in hospitals, and what it meant to try and help so many people," Oudeh said.
"It has intimate details about the threats they were under and what they had to do with their families and how they're targeted to the extent that if any doctor left the hospital and went to their family, they'd be targeted and they'd be bombed themselves, and their family, and killed."
Oudeh, who is a retired GP, said that around 80% of Gaza's healthcare infrastructure has been completely destroyed by Israel's brutal bombardment, which the UN has determined amounts to genocide.
Meanwhile, the charity Medical Aid for Palestinians estimates that more than 1700 healthcare workers have been killed in Gaza by Israel.
Much of the book features the diaries of Dr Ahmed Al-Mokhallalati, a plastic surgeon who was born in Ireland but is the son of Gazan doctor, Dr Mofeed Al-Mokhallalati – who founded the faculty of medicine at the Islamic University of Gaza and went on to serve as the Palestinian minister of health in Gaza.
Ahmed trained in London before working at the Al-Shifa medical complex, Gaza's largest hospital, where he was the head of the plastic surgery department.
"The book is authentic," Oudeh said. "It comes from someone who is not trying to be a mouth organ for anything; he's describing his life as a doctor in a place that has been totally destroyed.
"He was doing his best to help children and women and patients as he's duty-bound to do.
"He had to do that in situations where it's totally impossible to treat people, with no equipment, no medicine, no antibiotics, no sanitation.
"And yet it was his choice – he felt that it was his duty, his place, and he had to do it."
Oudeh said the book is "not for the faint-hearted", but added: "Yet it does not actually wallow in gruesome details – it just tells things as they are."
He said it shares a "story that has to be told" and should serve as a "document for anyone who has witnessed through the media what has happened in Gaza in the last three years".
Oudeh continued: "Unfortunately, the crimes that are being committed in Gaza are sort of receding in people's memory now.
"Now everyone is talking about what's happening in Iran, and Gaza has become a sideshow, which is very sad considering that there was a real genocide going on there, and it's something our generation should not forget."
He added: "This book should really be part of the history of what happened in Gaza."
The book launches are being held in collaboration with the PalMed Academy, the International Medical Professions Association, the Scottish Palestinian Health Partnership and Hadeel Palcrafts.
The Edinburgh launch will take place at Hadeel Palcrafts on 123 George Street on Friday at 5.30pm.
Following the event, the book will be available to purchase in English, Arabic and Bengali.
Meanwhile, the Glasgow launch will take place at The Ark on 70 Coplaw Street, in Govanhill, on Saturday at 2pm, where signed copies will also be available to purchase.
Both events are free, with donations welcome.
