Foreign doctors in Gaza describe a pattern of children killed by a single gunshot to the head or chest as showing that Israel is deliberately targeting them.
On Saturday, Dutch newspaper De Volkskrant published an interview with 15 doctors who were among the last international eyewitnesses in the region.
They told the newspaper they’d treated 114 children aged 15 and under with such wounds, and most did not survive.
Witnesses said Israeli drones and snipers fired the bullets. Former Dutch army commander Mart de Kruif said accidental hits are almost impossible given the scale and consistency of the injuries.
American trauma surgeon Feroze Sidhwa, who arrived at the European Hospital in Gaza in March 2024, recalls four boys with head wounds admitted within 48 hours.
‘I thought: what the hell? How is it possible?’ he said, and over the next two weeks, he treated nine more children with similar wounds.
Doctors described working in extreme heat in hospitals filled with the smell of sewage, explosives, and decay, with ventilators and medical equipment scarce or broken.
Emergency surgeon Mimi Syed intubated a four-year-old girl shot in a humanitarian zone using a laryngoscope she had smuggled in, keeping the child alive and later documenting the bullet lodged in her head.
Doctors reported treating wounds likely caused by fragmentation weapons, where small cube-shaped fragments pierce organs and vessels, causing fatal bleeding or major amputations.
Weapons experts say the wounds match Israeli-made tungsten fragments, though the Israeli military denies using such weapons.
Mass casualty events occur daily, with children making up over 40% of Gaza’s population, and many arriving with grave injuries.
Doctors described children with shrapnel in the brain, bullets in the chest, and limbs destroyed by blasts, with some classified as WCNSF (Wounded Child, No Surviving Family).
British surgeon Goher Rahbour noticed another disturbing pattern, because the targeted body part changed each day, with one day being the chest or head, and another, the limbs or abdomen, suggesting a coordinated and deliberate method.
Doctors are speaking out despite the risks, as Israel often blocks reentry for those who testify, and ‘Being silent is not an option,’ said Sidhwa.
Doctors from the US, UK, Canada, Australia, and the Netherlands said their duty is to save lives and bear witness to Israeli crimes in Gaza.
Their testimony depicts the deliberate targeting of children, the destruction of hospitals, and the human cost of the ongoing genocide.
Since the Israeli regime launched its genocidal war on Gaza, it has murdered 64,803 Palestinians and wounded 164,264, most of them children and women.
- The medical charity Doctors Without Borders (MSF) has warned that the forced expulsion of Gaza City residents into overcrowded and under-resourced areas is tantamount to ‘a death sentence for one million Palestinians.’
In a statement released on Sunday, the charity warned that an estimated one million – including hundreds of gravely ill patients and newborns – displaced people now occupy just 15 per cent of the blockaded Palestinian territory.
‘MSF continues to distribute water in the city, but with no water reserves left, if the Israeli forces make drinkable water production and distribution impossible, people will die in a matter of days,’ said Jacob Granger, Emergency coordinator for MSF in Gaza.
MSF also said Israel’s relentless bombing and ground offensive in the northern city is killing hundreds of Palestinians and displacing countless people, often multiple times.
‘Some of our colleagues have been displaced more than 11 times since 2023,’ Granger added.
The Israeli military has issued multiple evacuation warnings for Gaza City, but many residents say they have nowhere else to go.
An Israeli military spokesman on Sunday issued a warning to those in Gaza’s port area and the al-Rimal neighbourhood to evacuate immediately to a so-called ‘humanitarian zone’ in the south, where Gazans say there is no more space to pitch tents.
Israel has repeatedly struck that same area in the south of the besieged Strip, where it has urged people to move.
Palestinian families streamed out of Gaza City on Sunday as Israeli forces pressed their assault on the territory’s main urban centre.
The scenes of mass flight from Gaza City came as US Secretary of State Marco Rubio arrived in Israel in a show of support, despite an Israeli strike in Qatar this week.
Before the latest assault, the United Nations had estimated that around a million people lived in and around Gaza City, where it officially declared famine last month.
In the city itself, ‘the bombardment hasn’t stopped since dawn,’ local residents and witnesses said.
‘We haven’t slept all night… The sounds of shelling and explosions have not stopped until now,’ said Umm Alaa Shaaban, 45, a resident of Tal al-Hawa district in Gaza City’s southwest.
Mohammed Ghazal, 32, who fled from Gaza City’s Shujaiya neighbourhood, also said the strikes were relentless.
The Israeli regime’s genocide in Gaza continues, with its focus remaining on destroying more residential buildings and infrastructure in Gaza City.
- In the Al-Nasr neighbourhood, northwest of Gaza City, thousands of residents are enduring a harrowing situation after the Israeli occupation army intensified its air and artillery bombardment, accompanied by orders to evacuate the entire area as part of its escalating military campaign to empty the city of its inhabitants.
Successive explosions have turned the main streets into rubble, with columns of smoke blanketing the sky.
Scenes of mass displacement are repeating: families carrying their children and meagre belongings leave in fear and confusion, while ambulances struggle to navigate through the debris to retrieve victims and the wounded.
Residential buildings have suffered extensive damage, and nearby hospitals, chief among them the Eye Hospital and Al-Nasr Children’s Hospital, were severely damaged, hampering the work of medical teams.
These facilities had already been hit during the 2023 invasion.
Main roads, including Al-Nasr Street and Palestine Street, have not been spared from the bombardment, making it difficult to access the neighborhood’s interior.
Al-Nasr is not just a residential area; it is considered one of Gaza City’s relatively modern neighbourhoods. It was founded in 1957 during Egypt’s administration of the Strip and was initially named ‘Al-Nasr City for the Children of Martyrs’, as it was established to house the families of soldiers and volunteers who fought in the 1948 war.
The neighbourhood is located in northwest Gaza, bordered by the Sheikh Radwan area to the north, with Al-Nasr Junction serving as one of its most vital entrances.
Before the war, the neighbourhood was known for its wide streets and relatively modern apartment buildings, and it was considered one of Gaza’s more upscale areas.
It hosts important health and educational institutions, along with notable commercial activity along some of its streets. The presence of hospitals, schools, and service centres made it a central area linking the northern and western parts of the city.
Al-Nasr faces a grim reality: from a lively residential area with a history spanning over six decades, it has become a disaster zone from which residents flee under relentless bombardment.
And as the Israeli occupation army continues its offensive to empty the neighbourhood of its residents and displaced people, haunting questions remain: will this displacement be temporary or the start of a new chapter of forced expulsion and destruction?