Every war has its villains and its heroes. This maxim is more accentuated in the ongoing genocidal Israeli war on the besieged Gaza Strip than any other.
While it is quite obvious that there can be no heroism in the killing or wounding of over 100,000 civilians, mostly women and children, and the starvation of a whole population, there is plenty of heroism on the Palestinian side.
The latest celebrated Palestinian hero is Dr. Amira al-Assouli.
Dr. al-Assouli’s courage requires no video documentation or evidence. Her work at the Al-Nasser Medical Complex in Khan Yunis, literally saving lives every single day, speaks for itself.
But a single video made Dr. al-Assouli an international phenomenon.
The video showed the brave Gaza doctor bending over as she ran late last night from the compound’s inner gate towards another area in the hospital, to rescue a young man who was shot by an Israeli sniper and was left alone, bleeding.
Israeli snipers have been stationed around Al-Nasser for over 20 days, shooting at everyone, including animals that would dare venture in or out of the hospital.
Doctors, patients, relatives, or displaced refugees have fallen that way.
But Dr. al-Assouli was ready to risk her life to save another.
BREAKING: HEROINE NURSE RUNS INTO GUNFIRE TO SAVE A WOUNDED GAZAN
Legend pic.twitter.com/X8G3dfaSTW
— Sulaiman Ahmed (@ShaykhSulaiman) February 10, 2024
Displaced
Dr. al-Assouli is herself a displaced refugee. Her home in Abasan Al-Jadeeda, east of Khan Yunis, was destroyed in an Israeli bombing.
Since then, she has been living at the hospital, or more accurately, working around the clock, at a hospital that lacks everything.
“The occupation forces are firing heavily towards the gates, buildings, and courtyards of the Al-Nasser Medical Complex,” a statement by the Palestinian Ministry of Health said on Saturday.
The statement said that a number of Palestinians were killed and others were injured as a result of the relentless Israeli bombardment.
According to the ministry, there are over 300 medical staff inside the hospital, looking after 450 wounded, and over 10,000 displaced refugees.
The ministry, along with other Palestinian organizations, called on various United Nations institutions to enter the complex to provide protection for those inside. This is yet to be actualized.
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War on Hospitals
Even though the Israeli war on Gaza began on October 7, the war on the Al-Nasser Hospital did not start until January 22. Like all other hospitals in Gaza, the Israeli army besieged and attacked Al-Nasser as if it was a military base for the Resistance.
Though Palestinian doctors have now fully understood the purpose of the Israeli attacks on hospitals, the displacing of yet more refugees, they stood their ground, attempting to heal the wounded with as little medicine and equipment they have.
Dr. Al-Assouli is one of those heroic Palestinian medics who continue to risk their lives, and often die, to save the lives of others.
According to a Gaza Government Office statement, as of February 8, 340 medical staff have been killed since the start of the war, in addition to 46 civil defense workers.
According to Gaza’s Ministry of Health, 28,176 Palestinians have been killed, and 67,784 wounded in Israel’s ongoing genocide in Gaza starting on October 7.
Two Killed inside Nasser Hospital, as MSF Warns against ‘Catastrophic’ Invasion of Rafah
Moreover, at least 8,000 people are unaccounted for, presumed dead under the rubble of their homes throughout the Strip.
Palestinian and international organizations say that the majority of those killed and wounded are women and children.
The Israeli aggression has also resulted in the forceful displacement of nearly two million people from all of the Gaza Strip, with the vast majority of the displaced forced into the densely crowded southern city of Rafah near the border with Egypt – in what has become Palestine’s largest mass exodus since the 1948 Nakba.
(The Palestine Chronicle)
What is the meaning to life? we are born into this world amd we do nothing that is loving and good only to kill each other. May the heavenly Father bring Judgement on the evil doers and there agenda.
You’re a true heroine medical doctor, true to your Hippocratic oath. Hoping and praying that Israeli medical doctors will lrecture their IDF that medical health personnel and facilities should not be targeted during wars or armed confrontations because you are bound to treat all combatants needing medical treatment. Our prayers are with you and your colleagues there in Palestine.