Dr Mohammed Awad recently returned from Gaza where he provided medical support through the Palestinian Australian New Zealand Medical Association (PANZMA) treating Palestinians injured by Israel’s genocidal and brutal violence. AMUST’s Manarul Islam sat down with Dr Awad to discuss his experiences and thoughts.
AMUST: Please tell us a little bit about your background,
Dr Mohammed Awad: I’m born to Egyptian parents, so I’m of Egyptian heritage. But born and raised in the UK, I’ve been out in Australia for 10 years. Now, I live here (Melbourne) with my wife and three children, I’m in neurosurgeon, and trained mostly in the UK, but also here as well, partly. And I practise at the Royal Melbourne (Hospital). I live a pretty comfortable life, alhamdulillah.
A: What motivated you to go to Gaza?
MA: I’ve always wanted to do humanitarian work and, alhamdulillah, I get involved with charity quite a fair bit, in various countries. But never really hands-on. And then, this opportunity arose, maybe a few months ago or I was told that the need surgeons was to go out to Gaza because of the situation there. But with the bombing it was a bit too dangerous and, I have a family and children and it was not something that would have gone unnoticed by the family.
So eventually the ceasefire came into place and I got a call (from PANZMA) almost exactly as soon as the ceasefire came in saying, hey, they still need a neurosurgeon. I said, you know what, I’ll do it. And so I put my hand up and less than two weeks later, I was on a plane.
A: What was your impression in the early days of your visit?
MA: The first thing of course you noticed, as soon as you go into Gaza is the landscape. You know, The buildings are collapsed and you can see clear signs of war where there’s been lots of damage to vehicles, property, land telecommunications, sewage works. You know, you just noticed in the infrastructure is all being completely crushed, the roads are damaged. So that’s the first impression you realise you’re in a war zone.
And then, the next thing you realise is, when you meet the people, of course, is how, how is resilient these people are like, how happy they’re smiling, I didn’t see any signs of depression, or (of) people want to curl up in a corner and cry. They just get on with life and so that really hits you, it’s quite striking.
And it makes you realise how lucky we are in our life that we’ve got all these amazing things and they have nothing but yet they’re so happy and they just they just they just smile and get on with life.
A: What environment were you operating under as a doctor? What was your contribution?
MA: So when I got to Gaza, I very quickly realised there were only a few functioning hospitals throughout the whole strip. I was placed in the south of Gaza initially, the European Gaza (Hospital) or EGH. The reason they’re placed me there was because it had was one of the only few hospitals that had a reasonably functioning operating theatre for neurosurgery and actually wasn’t too bad. Of course, they’re lacking a lot of things but they made it work.
I also saw patients at the other hospitals and I visited the other hospitals for consultations and to meet the hospital directors, see what their needs are, as I was there on behalf of PANZMA as well. So I was seeing what their requirements were so I could feed that back.
So I was having to operate in substandard conditions. The equipment I used was not to standard, certain things weren’t available and you had to makeshift with other things. You just had to make it work. For example, we do a lot of our diagnosis with MRI scanners and there’s no MRI. So you have to diagnose with a CT (and) you’re second guessing half the time. Alhamdulillah, we made it work.
A: How did your experience affect or change you as a person?
MA: You know, before I went to Gaza, I was the kind of guy, and I know lots of people like me who, you know, you you get a scratch on your car and you’re upset. Or, I didn’t get the car I wanted. “I got the one with the 18 inch alloys. I wish I bought the one with the 20 inch alloys” and whatever, all these sort of first world problems that we have.
You realise how insignificant and stupid (these issues) are. (In Gaza) you’re sitting there with people who are driving around in cars with bullet holes, no windshield. If the windshield’s there it’s completely smashed in, they can’t change it. There’s no water to wash the car. So the cars are filthy dirty. But you know what? They get in this, well, they make it work, they use that vehicle from A to B. It does the job. And and that’s just one example of many things that they do in their life that they make shift.
With food: there wasn’t much food availability, of course, as you can imagine. So we’d sit there with a little bit of cheese, a little bit of zatar and a little bit of bread and it was fantastic. You had a bit of cheese and bread and it was great and you walked away happy, content, full and you say alhamdulillah. And so you realise that all these things that we have here are a blessing but sometimes also unnecessary. And so it makes you appreciate life, greatly.
A: How long were you there?
MA: I was on the ground there for two weeks. I was gone for almost three and a half weeks, but you have to wait in Jordan to get in and to get out.
A: So do you have any message for the Muslims in Australia? We sit here in Australia and we wish we could do more. Quite a lot of us are frustrated. Do you have a message on how to cope with this, or what we can do?
MA: Well, you’re right. I know that a lot of people are frustrated and when I told people I was going, I had the world of people saying they would love to come with me and I get that and I get we’re all frustrated. But you know, Allah’s given us each a capacity and we have to work to the maximum of that capacity and that capacity may be dua’a, praying to Allah that things get better.
It may be financial. If that’s your capacity to be able to give money for medical reasons, like I did, or for food, or for clothes, whatever that capacity may be. In other people’s capacity, maybe that they’re really good speakers and they’re very intelligent and lobbying governments, lobbying councils etc, to come together to say, “hey we need to stop this. What’s going on with this very bad.
So you just need to work to whatever your maximum capacity is, identify your strengths as a person and say, “what can I do to help these people” and starting from the bottom up. And you can do all of them. But what’s your maximum capacity and do the best you can.
The worst thing you can do is just sit there and wallow in your sadness, and go “I wish I could help”. Well, you could help, even if it’s putting a dollar forward, even if it’s that prayer at the end of your own prayers for them, or writing a letter to government saying “what can we do to stop this?” Whatever it may be. That’s what I would suggest you.
A: Is there is the capacity for other professions or people with other skills to help out in Gaza?
MA: At the moment, unfortunately, the regulations, set by COGAT, which is part of the Israeli Army, is that only healthcare workers are allowed in or people involved in healthcare. So you don’t necessarily have to be a doctor or a nurse. You might be someone who coordinates medical missions etc.
But anything to do with healthcare is allowed in at the moment and anybody else isn’t, but we’re hoping that may change and they may allow, builders and carpenters and whatever to come in to help rebuild it and that’ll be wonderful. I know there’ll be loads of people who want to come forward and do that. But At the moment that’s that’s on hold; just for healthcare workers.
A: Do you have a message for the Australian government and the Australian public generally beyond the Muslim Community?
MA: I would say the problem that’s going on, it’s beyond religion. It’s not a religious thing at all. This is not a Muslim/Jewish war as some people have you think. This is a humanitarian problem.
Anybody who has a heart, would understand what’s going on, that it is not right. It’s a terrible war. Innocent people have been killed. I would urge everybody to come together to stop this horrific war, all backgrounds, all walks of life, all religions should come together and say “we need to stop this, we need to put an end to this.”
Everybody deserves the right to a good life and a safe life, the Palestinians included and so I would urge everybody to come together. Drop your differences. Don’t think about where your background is from, what your religion is, come together and do the right thing and lobby government to stop.
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