A surgeon based in London who has travelled to Gaza to treat patients at a hospital in the territory alleges that counter-terror police have “harassed” his family.
Prof Ghassan Abu-Sittah, a plastic and reconstructive surgeon with a practice in west London, has made several media appearances this week live from Gaza. He claimed on X, formerly known as Twitter, that officers showed up at his home in London.
British counter terrorism police has showed up at my house in the UK and harrased my family.
— Ghassan Abu Sitta (@GhassanAbuSitt1) October 16, 2023
He later told BBC Newsnight that the officers had questioned his wife on why he had travelled to the Palestinian territory, who paid for his ticket and which charity he was helping.
A spokesperson for the Met said: “On 16 October, police officers responding to a report that a man was planning to travel to a war zone attended an address in north London where they spoke with one of the occupants.
“Having identified that the man had left the UK for humanitarian purposes, the officers signposted the occupant to current FCDO advice.”
Abu-Sittah, speaking live from Gaza, told Newsnight: “I think it’s a brutal attempt at harassment and silencing us.
“I remain committed to speaking out on behalf of my patients and on behalf of the wounded here, on behalf of these families that are being destroyed. There are 50 families that are wiped out of the civil register, that means the grandparents, the parents and the grandchildren are all killed.”
He said it was his “duty to bear witness to the carnage being committed against them so it would stop”.
He added: “These police tactics, as if my wife didn’t have enough to worry about that she had to endure this today. It’s now been taken up by [my] lawyers.
“I need to find out why someone thought it would be a good idea for them to show up at my house and ask my wife which part of the hospital I’m in, and why did I go, and who paid for my ticket and which charity do I work for.
“At these times, these difficult times, my family is seeing this bombing unfold knowing I’m in the midst of it to have them harassed in this way has been just bizarre.”
“It’s a kind of brutish attempt at harassment… as if my wife did not have enough to worry about"
— BBC Newsnight (@BBCNewsnight) October 16, 2023
Professor Ghassan Abu-Sittah, a plastic surgeon in Gaza, says police turned up to his family home in the UK today, to ask why he's in Gaza and who paid for his ticket#bbcnewsnight pic.twitter.com/O3NuaOec8T
Abu-Sittah has become a voice from the frontline of the Dar Al Shifa hospital in Gaza, speaking for the injured children and medics trapped by the war between Israel and Hamas.
Since last Monday, two days after Hamas’s deadly onslaught on Israel sparked the conflict, he has been living and working at the hospital, treating the wounded virtually round the clock. But he has also told the world about the humanitarian disaster and near-impossible conditions at Shifa.
He has a wife and three sons at home in London. As soon as the news broke they knew he would be heading to Gaza, he said last week. “The kids have grown up with it,” he added.
And he has vowed to stay until there is a ceasefire. “I can’t now turn my back on my patients. I can’t turn my back on my colleagues. I came here knowing that this is a war zone, and you have a moral duty as a doctor towards your patients, and caring for your patients who can’t evacuate and can’t get away,” he told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme on Monday.
Abu-Sittah is familiar with what he and the population of Gaza are facing. He first came to the tiny coastal territory as a medical student during the first intifada in the late 1980s. He returned during the second intifada of the early 2000s, and attended to the injured during the Israel-Gaza conflicts of 2008-09, 2012 and 2014.
Since training as a doctor in Glasgow, the British-Palestinian surgeon has worked in many war zones including Syria, Yemen, Iraq and Lebanon.
In contrast to the chaos of the Shifa hospital, Abu-Sittah has a practice near Harley Street in central London. He treats facial deformities and trauma injuries alongside “signature procedures” including facelifts, lip lifts, chin augmentations and “gummy smile” corrections.
He spent 10 years as director of the plastic and reconstructive surgery department at the American University of Beirut medical centre, where he spent 40% of his time treating people with war injuries from across the Middle East.
