Gaza surgeon describes drones targeting children

A retired surgeon who volunteered at a hospital in Gaza has told MPs that Israeli drones would target children who were lying injured after bombings.

Prof Nizam Mamode, from Brockenhurst, Hampshire, worked at Nasser hospital for a month in August and September.

Giving evidence to the parliamentary International Development Committee, he broke down as he described children's accounts of being shot by quadcopters.

Labour MP Sarah Champion, who chairs the committee, said his evidence was "profound and deeply chilling".

The 62-year-old surgeon told MPs: "What I found particularly disturbing was that a bomb would drop, maybe on a crowded, tented area and then the drones would come down."

His face shook with emotion as he paused for several seconds to compose himself.

He continued: "The drones would come down and pick off civilians - children.

"We [were] operating on children who would say: 'I was lying on the ground after a bomb had dropped and this quadcopter came down and hovered over me and shot me.'

"That's clearly a deliberate act and it was a persistent act - persistent targeting of civilians day after day."

Prof Mamode, former clinical lead of transplant surgery at Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust in London, said it was a "very consistent story".

He added: "The bullets that the drones fire are these small cuboid pellets and I fished a number of those out of the abdomen of small children. I think the youngest I operated on was a three-year-old.

"These pellets were in a way more destructive than bullets.

"With the drone pellets, what I found was they would go in and they would bounce around so they would cause multiple injuries.

"I had a seven-year-old boy... He had an injury to his liver, spleen, bowel, arteries, so quite extensive destruction from a single entry point.

"He survived that and went out a week later."

In a statement after Tuesday's hearing, Ms Champion said: "On this evidence, the UK needs to take seriously the prospect of international humanitarian law having been egregiously broken in Gaza.

“The Committee will do all we can to act on Professor Mamode’s extraordinary testimony and ensure his experiences are heard loud and clear."

Hamas gunmen attacked Israel on 7 October last year, killing about 1,200 people and taking 251 others as hostages.

The incursion was to become the deadliest attack in Israeli history and as of November 2024, more than 100 hostages remain unaccounted for.

Israel then launched a military campaign in Gaza that has now killed a total of 43,712 people, according to the Hamas-run health ministry.

The Israeli military insists it does not target civilians and has accused Hamas of using the population as a human shield.

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