Aid worker murders in Gaza didn’t start with Zomi Frankcom’s death

My pal “Amjad”, whose voice I just lately shared, was murdered on Friday, March 29. He was shot within the chest 3 times by Israeli Defence Forces sniper bullets as he took some daybreak air on his balcony. In a house simply close to the besieged Al-Shifa Hospital, he couldn’t be reached by ambulance and suffered deadly bleeding. 

“Amjad’s” actual identify was Mahmoud El Hendy. Mahmoud was a father to eight youngsters, a businessman who dabbled in cashew and almond nut imports to Gaza, and a skilled nurse. He held a grasp’s in well being administration and administration from Emory College within the US. Mahmoud was working because the chief improvement supervisor at Al-Ahli Hospital in Gaza Metropolis, the place he was notably devoted to enhancing diagnostic, therapy and care providers for girls with breast most cancers.

Just a few weeks earlier than his loss of life, Mahmoud had graciously thanked me and my colleagues for checking in on his well-being through WhatsApp. He was hungry and consumed with the place to seek out the following meal for his household. 

Mahmoud final messaged me on March 10:

I would like to hunt refuge in any nation. My first alternative is Australia. I would like to begin this course of however I don’t know the way. For those who may also help me and my household to seek out refuge in Australia to stay this is able to be a fantastic assist. I can really feel your love. All whom undergo are civilians.

I discovered of his loss of life through a Fb submit from a mutual pal, some brief hours after it occurred. On a visit to Gaza lately once I met Mahmoud, I walked a well-recognized path from the bustling Al-Shifa Hospital to my guesthouse lodging, slowing as I handed an unassuming guide and stationery retailer. The shop window was laden with vibrant Goosebumps teen horror novels by RL Stine. These have been Arabic variations of these sitting on my childhood bookshelf at dwelling, somewhat reminder of our sameness.

Within the days since Mahmoud’s loss of life, horror-like photos have emerged of Al-Shifa Hospital — as soon as the most important medical advanced within the Gaza Strip — following the withdrawal of Israeli troops. Photographs present it now torched and confettied, and of the deprivation, torture, kidnapping and bloodbath of so many who supplied important healthcare in its partitions and neighborhood. 

This was not the primary time that Al-Shifa Hospital has come beneath siege by Israeli forces inflicting huge panic, trauma, accidents and deaths. Our healthcare colleague and co-author of this text, Dr Hammam Alloh, messaged from his father’s home close to Al-Shifa on November 11 “The sounds I’m listening to now are worse than within the motion video video games. Bombing hasn’t stopped for hours”. 

Hammam was one among Gaza’s handful of nephrologists who supplied important dialysis therapy for folks with kidney illness. He was unsure then if he would be capable to go to work that day owing to the safety dangers and the shortage of electrical energy to function his dialysis machines. 

The following morning, as I messaged, “I’m sorry. The scenes at Al-Shifa look devastating. Are you continue to at dwelling?”, Hammam was killed by an IDF bomb strike on his father’s dwelling, alongside his father, brother-in-law and father-in-law. He was 36 years previous. He’s survived by his spouse and two younger youngsters. 

Many people have been outraged this week by the information of assist employee Zomi Frankcom’s loss of life, and the killing of her six co-workers as they drove in convoy in Deir el-Balah alongside a chosen “de-conflicted zone”. My fellow well being and humanitarian employees are particularly reeling — it might have been any one among us international employees skilled to offer assist, save lives and relieve struggling in battle settings and making an attempt to go about these caring duties. It might have been me.

The reality of Zomi’s slaughter is despicable. The photographs of her bloodied Australian passport and lifeless physique strewn throughout social media in actual time — have been we seeing these earlier than her family and mates? — is horrendous. Listening to of Zomi’s bravery and adventurous spirit from her grieving family and friends is totally heartbreaking. 

My colleagues and I grieve for Zomi and all these killed on this assault, and we’re outraged at Israel’s impunity in the direction of safeguarding assist employees, humanitarian corridors and worldwide humanitarian regulation. On this second of terrible grief, it feels concurrently low cost and surprising that we’ve to so pointedly say it — all lives are equal. My mates mattered. We additionally know that this depravity didn’t begin, and seemingly won’t finish, with Zomi’s loss of life.

Israel has killed extra assist employees — most of them Palestinian — in Gaza than have died in all international locations mixed this year. Greater than 450 healthcare workers have been killed. And all of it not solely in full view of the world, however in all foreshadowing and warnings since October 7. 

In one among his final interviews on October 31, Hammam tells Democracy Now! interviewer Amy Goodman of his resolution to remain and deal with his sufferers quite than transfer to so-called “protected zones” of Gaza for private security:

And if I’m going, who treats my sufferers? We’re not animals. We have now the correct to obtain correct healthcare. So, we will’t simply depart … You suppose I went to medical faculty and for my postgraduate levels for a complete of 14 years so I believe solely about my life and never my sufferers? I’m asking you, Ma’am. Do you suppose that is the explanation I went to med faculty, to suppose solely about my life? This isn’t the explanation why I grew to become a physician.

He spoke on: “We’re being massly eradicated. And also you fake to look after humanitarian and human rights, which isn’t what we live now. To show us unsuitable, please do one thing. Thanks.”

Hammam final messaged me the morning earlier than he died: “Your shouting means quite a bit to every of us. Please stick with it.”

After my mates died, I despatched them every a tribute through WhatsApp. I’m nonetheless ready for them to message again.