I read with interest your article based on the recent report by Human Rights Watch (Israel accused of crimes against humanity over forced displacement in Gaza, 14 November). I am surprised that there is any debate. In my personal and non-legal view, crimes are being committed. I have been a war surgeon in Gaza on three occasions. The first two were for the Great March of Return in 2018, when I was operating in Gaza’s Khan Younis. There, I treated dozens of gunshot wounds to the shinbone (tibia) in men who were aged between 18 and 35. As most doctors will tell you, a shattered shinbone assures a lifetime of disability. It appeared that the intention was to disable, not to kill.
I was also in Gaza this year and have written about it in my recent book, Gaza Medic: A War Surgeon’s Story 2024. Most of the multitudinous patients I treated were children, women and elderly people. I never once saw fighters or tunnels, but I did see many families ripped apart and children rendered orphans in a blink.
I take no political view, am neither Jew nor Arab, have always been driven entirely by patients and have sleepless nights to this day. If I were a politician, I would be hanging my head in shame for not resolving what is so clearly a significant problem. Thank you for highlighting what is, to me, one of the most tragic issues of our time.
Richard Villar
Consultant orthopaedic surgeon, London
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