{"id":63018,"date":"2025-08-13T02:17:31","date_gmt":"2025-08-13T02:17:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/63018\/"},"modified":"2025-08-13T02:17:31","modified_gmt":"2025-08-13T02:17:31","slug":"dr-abed-has-watched-gazas-healthcare-system-crumble-he-hopes-studying-in-australia-will-help-him-rebuild-it-israel-gaza-war","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/63018\/","title":{"rendered":"Dr Abed has watched Gaza\u2019s healthcare system crumble. He hopes studying in Australia will help him rebuild it | Israel-Gaza war"},"content":{"rendered":"

Junior paediatrician Abdalkarim Alharazin has seen more suffering and death in Gaza<\/a> than some doctors do in their entire careers.<\/p>\n

The 28-year-old, who goes by the name Dr Abed, has spent the last two years moving between hospitals putting to use his medical training to treat fellow Palestinians as they have endured relentless Israeli bombardment, forced displacement, starvation and the spread of disease.<\/p>\n

He is currently working from a tent operating as a medical clinic in northern Gaza, where he says the conditions are \u201ctotally unimaginable\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is extremely difficult \u2013 there is no way to describe how much it is not a suitable environment to treat children,\u201d he told Guardian Australia\u2019s Full Story podcast<\/a> over a weak internet connection.<\/p>\n

Sign up: AU Breaking News email<\/a><\/p>\n

Abed said the overwhelming number of children he saw each day were showing signs of dehydration due to malnutrition and an outbreak of gastroenteritis was making a dire situation even worse.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are in 2025 seeing children dying because we don\u2019t have IV fluids for them,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have reached a level that we have to choose between our children, between the patients who we can give this IV fluid, and who can be strong enough for one hour or two hours.\u201d<\/p>\n

Some nations have begun conducting aid drops, but humanitarian organisations have warned they are ineffectual and woefully inadequate to meet the needs of the 2 million people facing a human-made famine<\/a>, and that they also pose a danger themselves.<\/p>\n

Full StoryOne doctor\u2019s hopes to rebuild Gaza\u2019s health system \u2013 Full Story podcast<\/p>\n

Sorry your browser does not support audio – but you can download here and listen $https:\/\/audio.guim.co.uk\/2025\/08\/08-07446-FS_Gaza_peaditrician_ch_070825_1705.mp3<\/p>\n

Abed said a colleague was struck and killed by a falling pallet this week.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe live day by day and we are trying to survive day by day,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Local media reported a nurse, Oday al-Quraan, was crushed when he was hit in Deir al-Balah in central Gaza on Monday, just days after he described the air drops as \u201cair humiliation\u201d in an online video.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m not taking this as an opportunity just to leave Gaza, no \u2013 I did it for Gaza.Dr Abed<\/p>\n

Over 21 months, Abed has watched Gaza\u2019s healthcare system crumble around him, as hospitals have been hit by Israeli airstrikes. More than 1,200 of his peers have been killed, and medical supplies have been blocked by Israeli authorities.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe health system is totally destroyed. It has reached a level of zero, actually under zero,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Abed graduated from Al-Azhar University in Gaza in 2021, before eventually joining Kamal Adwan hospital\u2019s paediatrics department as an emergency doctor, where he worked under the leadership of its director, Dr Hussam Abu Safiya.<\/p>\n

Both the university and hospital now lie in ruins and Abed fears the fate of his mentor.<\/p>\n

\u2018We are seeing children dying because we don\u2019t have IV fluids for them\u2019 \u2026 Dr Abed is a Palestinian junior paediatrician who has been accepted to Sydney University. Photograph: Supplied<\/p>\n

Abu Safiya is among hundreds of doctors and medical workers who have been forcibly taken from Gaza<\/a> by Israeli soldiers and held in detention without charge<\/a>, according to the Palestinian group Healthcare Workers Watch.<\/p>\n

\u201cDr Hussam has a special place in my heart \u2026 he gave me the first opportunity to work. He was determined and committed to his community and to serve them as much as he can,\u201d Abed said.<\/p>\n

Abed said he also wanted to continue to serve his community and one day contribute to rebuilding the health system, which the United Nations has said Israel has deliberately destroyed<\/a>.<\/p>\n

From the frontlines he applied for and has been accepted into a master of public health at the University of Sydney \u2013 a dream he said he thought would be \u201cimpossible\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m not taking this as an opportunity just to leave Gaza, no \u2013 I did it for Gaza,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe modules at this university will equip me with the knowledge and the skills that are needed to be a big part of rebuilding the healthcare system, rebuilding the sanitation system.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dr Abed said most healthcare workers in Gaza were not earning an income, despite working non-stop, and even those that were struggled to afford essentials for themselves and their families.<\/p>\n

With support from the Brussels-based NGOs Children Not Numbers and Fill That Gap he has paid a course deposit, and is now raising funds to cover the necessary tuition fees, visa costs and living expenses.<\/p>\n

On a fundraising page for Dr Abed, the director of Fill That Gap, Dr Mandana Mehta, said Abed wanted \u201cto be part of a better future for Gaza\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cPaying for university studies is increasingly difficult for many of us and our families. So imagine how much more difficult it becomes when you are a young Palestinian struggling to survive the bombardment of Gaza,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cImagine how much more difficult it is when you are one of the few remaining doctors in Gaza, working with almost no resources to try and save as many lives as you can.\u201d<\/p>\n

If Dr Abed can overcome the financial hurdles, he hopes to begin studying in Australia next year.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf I am not able to secure the rest of the funds I will not lose this dream,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Junior paediatrician Abdalkarim Alharazin has seen more suffering and death in Gaza than some doctors do in their…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":63019,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[43],"tags":[102,2960,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-63018","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-healthcare","8":"tag-health","9":"tag-healthcare","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom","12":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63018","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=63018"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63018\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/63019"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=63018"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=63018"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=63018"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}