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Two Weeks Inside Gaza’s Ruined Hospitals

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Two Weeks Inside Gaza’s Ruined Hospitals

May 21, 2024, 5:04 a.m. ET
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By Samer Attar

Video by Alexander Stockton and Amanda Su

Dr. Attar is a surgeon at Northwestern Medicine in Chicago. He volunteered in Gaza three times, with Rahma Worldwide, IDEALS and Palestinian American Bridge. Mr. Stockton is a producer with Opinion Video. Ms. Su is an Opinion Video reporting fellow.

In the Opinion video above, Dr. Samer Attar, an American surgeon from Chicago, shows us the unfathomable brutality of the war in Gaza. He was a member of the first delegation of international doctors to embed in the northern part of the territory this spring.

Over two weeks, Dr. Attar volunteered at local hospitals and filmed what he saw. Al-Awda Hospital — one of the locations where he worked — has been under siege since Sunday and recently ran out of drinking water, with staff members and patients trapped inside.

Dr. Attar’s video diaries capture the war’s toll on civilians and the struggle among Palestinian medical workers to save lives amid extreme shortages of critical medicine, blood and basic supplies in Gaza’s shattered health care sector. As pressure for a cease-fire mounts, Dr. Attar argues in this video that any agreement must include three concrete terms to save thousands of innocent lives in Gaza.

Viewer discretion is advised: The video includes graphic images of severe injuries and suffering.

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