Up next in 10
Professor Nick Maynard, who has recently returned from volunteering at the Nasser Hospital in Gaza, recounts to Ben Kentish the 'horrific' scenes he observed and experienced.
Professor Maynard describes the 'distressing' nature of 'very clear targeting of specific body parts'. He tells Ben that he saw 'clusters of injuries' coming through the hospital all on the same day.
"One day, there'd be predominantly gun shot wounds to the head, the next day gun shot wounds to the chest, the next day gun shot wounds to the abdomen.
"Even on one day, we saw four young teenage boys all bought in within an hour of each other having been targeted and shot in the testicles."
The surgeon tells Ben that the 'cluster of injuries were so striking' that it was 'beyond coincidence'.
Listen to the full show on the all-new LBC App: https://app.af.lbc.co.uk/btnc/thenewlbcapp
#benkentish #gazasurgeon #gaza #palestine #surgeon #doctor #israel #netanyahu #hospital #aid #LBC
LBC is the home of live debate around news and current affairs in the UK.
Join in the conversation and listen at https://www.lbc.co.uk/
Sign up to LBC’s weekly newsletter here: https://l-bc.co/signup
Show More Show Less View Video Transcript
0:00
Let's get a perspective from somebody who has been in Gaza very, very recently
0:04
Indeed, Professor Nick Maynard is a consultant surgeon at Oxford University Hospital
0:09
has written for The Guardian, I'm witnessing the deliberate starvation of Gaza's children
0:14
Why is the world letting it happen? I'm recently volunteered at the NASA Hospital in Gaza
0:18
Professor, great to have you with us on the programme this evening. If I was asked to ask you in your own words to describe the situation in Gaza tonight
0:26
what would you respond? thank you for inviting me on um appalling it's quite horrific and to be to be honest it's almost
0:35
impossible to put it into words how terrible the humanitarian situation is there i left gaza just
0:42
a few days ago having spent four weeks at nasa hospital in hanunis and it's the third time i've
0:49
been in gaza uh since october the 7th 2023 i've been for many many visits before then
0:55
but each time I go I imagine I'm going to be prepared for what it's going to be like because
1:01
I know it so well I am in daily contact with friends there but each time it's much worse than
1:07
I expect and this most recent visit it was just awful the terrible malnutrition the terrible
1:14
injuries I saw the complete destruction of the whole country it was really horrific to see all
1:21
of that. And obviously in that context everywhere you look I imagine is horror and there is revulsion
1:27
and there is shock. Tell us about some of the things that shocked you most some of the people
1:31
you met and their stories. I think the thing that shocked me the most by a long way was the
1:40
targeting the shootings of young teenage males sometimes only 11 or 12 years of age
1:51
who were going to the food distribution points the bizarrely named gaza humanitarian foundation
1:59
food distribution points to get food for their starving families and they
2:03
were many of them were shot and i operate on many of them and not only were they 11 12 13 year olds being shot one 12 year old I operated on died on the table on the operating table because the
2:18
injuries were so severe. But what was even more distressing was the very, very clear
2:26
targeting of particular body parts on particular days. And what I mean by that is we saw
2:33
clusters of injuries coming on on particular days so one day there'd be predominantly gunshot wounds
2:39
to the head the next day there'd be gunshot wounds to the chest the next day gunshot wounds to the
2:44
abdomen and even on one day two and a half weeks ago we saw four young teenage boys all brought in
2:52
within an hour of each other having been targeted and shot in the testicles only the testicles so
2:59
the clustering of these injuries was so striking that it was beyond coincidence and it made us feel
3:07
that the israeli soldiers who were carrying out this shooting um it was some sort of target
3:14
practice or playing a game so that was probably the single most disturbing thing i saw and obviously
3:19
israel you know always rejects his allegations benjamin netany i want to put this to you professor
3:23
only yesterday uh posting on social media there is no starvation in gaza no policy of starvation
3:30
in gaza having witnessed what's going on in gaza your response to that well he's lying i mean there
3:37
is no credibility to that statement whatsoever and you know to be honest i'm i'm i know we keep
3:44
hearing these statements coming from the israeli government the israeli military and none of them
3:51
for 22 months have had any credibility at all. They've never backed up any of these statements with evidence
3:58
whereas there has been an overwhelming amount of evidence from people like me and other health care workers
4:04
who have seen with their own eyes the appalling effects of the malnutrition, the forced starvation
4:11
Only two weeks ago, when I was in Gaza, I was talking to some American doctors who'd come out there
4:17
who had brought formula feed with them to Gaza because they knew they were in such short supply They knew from people like me who were reporting
4:27
that newborn babies were dying of starvation there. And they brought formula feed to Gaza
4:34
and every single carton of formula feed in their luggage was confiscated by the Israeli border guards
4:41
They weren't taking other things. They were specifically taking out every single carton of formula feed
4:49
For why I, well, one can only speculate, but they were doing that deliberately and preventing any formula feed coming into Gaza
4:58
So for Netanyahu and his other spokespeople to claim that they are not responsible for any malnutrition, they are not carrying out a forced starvation is utter nonsense
5:13
Professor how do you deal with what you've witnessed the horrors the traumas of of what you
5:18
have seen what you've encountered what you've endured every time you go out to Gaza it must
5:24
live with you it must haunt you how do you deal with it? It does indeed it um I think it most
5:31
certainly lives with you and it does haunt us I mean I I guess my answer to that is that that
5:36
whatever we go through when we visit there for four weeks at a time is absolutely nothing compared
5:42
to what the Garzan healthcare workers go through, some of whom I've known for many years
5:47
some of whom are very close friends. And what they go through is
5:53
they are utterly inspirational or inspiring, how they cope with that. But I think, you know, it is tough on even those that visit for a few weeks
6:02
but we know we are going there to help. We know we are helping people that most of the world has forgotten
6:10
and that is what keeps us going. And just a word, I appreciate you not a politician
6:15
on the UK government announcement today that it is on the cusp this September perhaps
6:20
of recognising an independent Palestine. Do you have thoughts on that, Professor
6:24
Is that going to achieve anything? I mean, in short, no. I mean of course they should have announced this a long time ago So of course I welcome the fact that we going to recognise the state of power But it is utterly bizarre that our Prime Minister Keir Starmer has put conditions upon
6:41
that dependent upon whether there is a ceasefire, which I find bizarre, frankly. And I think it's a
6:48
smokescreen. I think that it is rhetoric coming from our Prime Minister, from our Foreign Secretary
6:54
in the absence of any actions that they should be doing or any really strong statements in support of Gaza
7:03
and recognising that what Israel is doing is carrying out a genocide, multiple war crimes and ethnic cleansing
7:11
That's what they should be saying and they should be carrying out actions
7:16
to make sure that we have, for example, a complete arms embargo against Israel
7:21
that we stop all reconnaissance flights from the RAF leaving Cyprus to go over Gaza
7:30
that we cease all trade agreements, not just pretend we're doing that by, say
7:37
by actually only restricting future trade agreements and applying sanctions throughout the whole of the Israeli government
7:44
That's what they should be doing, and putting pressure on the Israeli government
7:48
to make sure that aid, unlimited aid, unlimited food, unlimited medical supplies can enter by road immediately
7:57
Thank you very much indeed, Professor. Really appreciate you talking to us here on LBC tonight
8:01
Professor Nick Maynard, consultant surgeon at Oxford University Hospital who recently returned from volunteering at the Nasser Hospital in Gaza
8:08
Obviously, Israel strongly rejects any accusation of genocide. Netanyahu also rejecting yesterday that the widespread
8:15
and it is incredibly widespread now, claims that there is a starvation
8:20
there is a famine in Gaza. The professor's been there. He says it's seen him with his own eyes
8:24
and he's not alone in that when it comes to the famine. Pretty much everybody else
8:28
media organisations, charities, the US government, our government, European governments are all saying
8:33
there is a threat of widespread starvation in Gaza. The only people saying there isn't
8:38
is the Israeli government and some people will choose to believe them still over everybody else and all the other evidence
#Public Health
#news
#Injury
#War & Conflict