A British surgeon, Professor Nizam Mamode, has provided harrowing testimony to the UK Parliament, detailing alleged atrocities committed in Gaza. Speaking to the International Development Committee in the House of Commons, Mamode described incidents of Israeli snipers targeting civilians and drones “picking off” children in the aftermath of airstrikes.
Mamode, who worked at Nasser Hospital in Gaza from mid-August to mid-September, said women and children made up 60 to 70 per cent of the patients he treated. “We saw a number of children with sniper injuries to the head, a single shot to the head. No other injuries. So clearly, they were deliberately targeted by Israeli snipers… that was day after day,” he said.
Mamode recounted what he found most disturbing: drones attacking civilians after bombings. “We operated on children who told us, ‘I was lying on the ground after a bomb had dropped, and this quadcopter came down, hovered over me, and shot me.’” Such incidents, he noted, occurred “day after day.”
The retired surgeon described extracting small cuboid pellets from injured children, calling the ammunition way more destructive than conventional bullets. He operated on children as young as three, noting extensive internal damage caused by a single pellet.
One case involved a seven-year-old boy with injuries to his liver, spleen, bowel, and arteries caused by a single entry point.
Having worked in other conflict zones, including Rwanda during the genocide, Mamode declared, “I’ve never seen anything on this scale. I’ve never been in a conflict area where medical aid has been restricted to that extent… It’s not allowing supplies in, bombing health care facilities, attacking ambulances, killing health care workers.” He highlighted the unprecedented restrictions on medical aid, citing bombed healthcare facilities, destroyed ambulances, and the killing of medical workers.
When asked if the situation in Gaza constituted genocide, Mamode replied that it is “difficult to find another word for it, given what we’ve seen. And I certainly think that the Palestinian people feel that’s what’s happening to them and there’s a sense of resignation that they’re all just waiting to die with no chance of escape. So, in a word, yes.” He added that Palestinians in Gaza “feel they’re just waiting to die with no chance of escape.”
Committee Chair Sarah Champion described Mamode’s testimony as profound and deeply chilling. She urged the UK to seriously consider whether international humanitarian law had been egregiously broken in Gaza. Champion vowed that the Committee would amplify Mamode’s experiences, stating, “If leaders are not yet listening, they should be by now.”
