Exhausted after another marathon workday, Dr. Hawehie speaks to elDiario.es well into the early hours of the morning. In a slow voice he explains that he barely has any energy left and that he still has to talk to his wife, Dr. Ruba Alkurd, whom he has not seen for more than a year and a half when she had to leave Gaza to operate urgently on the eldest of her three children. When he wanted to return, Israel had already closed the Rafah crossing, which connects the Strip with Egypt.
Today, 16 months after his departure and 24 since the beginning of the Israeli offensive on Gaza – which has already left more than 67,000 dead and 168,000 injured – Mohamed says he is still in the operating room to be able to support his family and because of the adrenaline that his body releases “when he sees the bleeding patients who arrive at the hospital.”
He works at Nasser, the largest in southern Gaza and one of the few hospital centers that still function in the coastal enclave, although with constant electricity cuts, fuel shortages and at 200% or even 300% of its capacity. The complex has also been hit by Israeli fire on several occasions, most recently last August, when around twenty people – including doctors, rescuers and journalists – were killed in a deliberate attack by the Hebrew army just minutes after going to help the victims of a previous bombing. The massacre sparked global condemnation.
What do you think the agreement between Israel and Hamas on the first phase to end the war?
They are talking a lot about the ceasefire. It is supposed to be in effect by now, but so far it is not. There are still some airstrikes in Gaza City. I guess I don't believe it. I do not trust the intentions of the Israeli Government. I know from previous experience that they will try to sabotage this opportunity to end the war. I have mixed feelings. I don't know if I can be happy about that. It comforts me to have hope of seeing my family again, but I am afraid. I still fear that it won't be soon.
Now there are stages and negotiations. Many things will keep suffering. There are social problems that will come to the surface. I hope we can finally find some peace, even if it's just for a short time, some rest.
But there is still no clear vision. The reconstruction of Gaza will take many years. And now the only thing I think about is being with my children after almost 19 months. I need to reunite with my family and I think it will take time. They will put up obstacles just to delay everything. The help that's supposed to come, the rebuilding… they're not going to let it happen easily. I think they will continue their work to move us. I hope I'm not right, but that's how I feel.
Two years after October 7, the international community seems to have woken up regarding Gaza.
Yes, but here bombs continue to kill us or we continue to die of hunger without being able to do anything at all. This morning we received 4 patients in vascular surgery who had been bombed while digging the ground looking for potatoes because they had nothing to eat. That is only today and in my area because in others such as traumatology or in other hospitals such as Al Shifa or Al Aqsa they arrive by the dozens every day, especially between 10 and 12 in the morning, which is when they return from looking for food in the centers of the “Gaza Humanitarian Foundation” (FHG), orchestrated by the United States and Israel to replace the UN humanitarian aid distribution system.
Recent United Nations investigations indicate that more than 1,000 people have been murdered in these distribution centers.
They are a trap to generate chaos and death. People go to the hospital with shots in their legs, so that can't exactly be called “help”, on the contrary, they want to starve us. They use these centers because they know there will be chaos, they allow organized crime in these areas, they let criminal organizations steal aid, which does not reach the really hungry people, and all with the consent of the Israeli army.
In your opinion, who are these criminal organizations?
They are thieves who attack trucks coming from the border, from UNRWA or World Central Kitchen or even those carrying medical equipment for the Ministry of Health or hospitals. The Interior Ministry forces (under the Hamas administration) have a special unit called “Arrow” to prevent them from stealing aid, but many of its members have been killed in bombings by the Israeli air force.
But Israel has always pointed to Hamas as the main person responsible for the theft of humanitarian aid.
Look, today we hear that there are clashes between these gangs and Hamas over control of humanitarian aid, but before, when it did enter Gaza, European and American organizations stated that there was no clear evidence of massive thefts by Hamas. That is the propaganda of the Israelis to justify the presence of the so-called Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, which is completely unjustifiable and not said by me, but by the United Nations.
What I can tell you is that there are also people from Hamas who individually seek their own benefit, to make money for themselves or their families. I wouldn't say it's a generalized policy, it's human nature itself. As a doctor in the hospital, I can tell you that I have seen many of them with symptoms of malnutrition, like the majority of us in Gaza. There are also many common criminals who steal that same help.
The thieves also go to the hospital.
Clear. A patient, thief or not, should be treated as such, but if I'm honest, I sometimes fight with myself because I wish I didn't have to. Before there was food available, I ate and I was also able to support Ruba, the children and my family who are still in Gaza, my mother and my brothers, who live with me. As a doctor he told me “it doesn't matter what he's done. He's a patient and that's it.” Today I would like to be able to save my energy to save the lives of people who do not steal because these thieves mortgage our own livelihood. Obviously I don't, you can't stop treating them, but I do have an internal dialogue. Believe me, it is a general feeling in the hospital. We are exhausted and hungry.
Famine was officially declared in Gaza in August and more than 400 people, including nearly 150 children, are believed to have died from malnutrition. How does the lack of food affect you?
Like so many people, I have chronic fatigue, I'm constantly losing weight, and I don't know what to do anymore. I don't eat more than 1500 calories a day when right now I would need at least 3000 with the workload I have. I trade all day, every day. If I'm not working at Nasser Hospital, I'm at Al Aqsa. Even if I eat, if what I eat can be called food, I am always tired. I barely eat sugar because there is not enough sugar in Gaza, but in my case I need to be constantly functioning because I am one of the few vascular surgeons left in the Strip. I think what keeps me alive is the adrenaline that runs through my body when I see a bleeding patient in the hospital.
What do you eat on any given day?
For a few months now I have been rationing my meals in two doses: for breakfast I eat some bread with duqqa, a condiment based on spices and nuts that is normally put on the bread along with some tomato or cucumber, which is not always available due to the high prices. Then, at night I have my main meal, which will be the same as breakfast but double the amount. That's it, I don't eat anything else and it's not enough.
I'll give you an example. One day they asked me to go to Al Aqsa Hospital at 4 in the morning. A patient had arrived bleeding a lot, with a cut in the femoral vein, so I went there, entered the operating room and began to operate on him. When I had controlled the bleeding and got blood circulation back to the limb I started to feel dizzy and sweat a lot. I knew I was having a hypoglycemic attack and asked for a chair to be brought to me. I waited two, three, five minutes and it didn't go away. I knew I could lose consciousness of the patient's body, so I called one of my general surgery colleagues to close the wound. I went out and ate what they gave me, lay down and elevated my limb to revive circulation. That day I knew that I was also dying of hunger when, operating in the operating room, I couldn't even stand up. The lack of food was not only causing me to lose weight, it was also preventing me from continuing to function.
Talk about the high price of food. What is the situation right now?
A kilo of sugar costs about 100 dollars (about 85 euros). There is no sugar for less, no Nescafé, no cookies. Yesterday at 4 pm I decided to make dinner and I was able to eat something similar to some beans. Even so, I felt completely exhausted, depressed, once again feeling the lack of food and sugar. I decided to go to the supermarket to buy a bag with six packages of cookies. I paid 30 dollars (about 25 euros) for what before did not cost more than 2. Before each cookie cost about 0.25 euro cents, now it costs almost 4.
I assure you that I did not like paying such an amount, but I gave myself that luxury because I have some money left and I need it to continue working. Think that 95% of Gazans cannot afford it, they cannot even buy the simplest things like herbs to eat with bread, beans, much less cookies. Those who can wait for the food they make for free in the kitchens of World Central Kitchen; others to aid trucks that end up looting in desperation because criminal gangs prevent them from accessing aid. The rest go to the GHF distribution centers to try to get some food, but many are shot. I have cousins who tried it and came back with nothing, but even the one who succeeds that day will have looked death in the eyes to try to bring something to eat for their children. That's the situation.
Finally, Dr. Hawehie, what do you ask of the future?
I ask that you believe us, that you see us, that you hear our voices. We still have faith in humanity and that one day there will be justice. I pray that the time will come when we can live in peace alongside our Christian and Jewish neighbors in Palestine because that is how it was before Israel settled in our land. I ask that you look us in the eyes as human beings who are being slaughtered. Don't forget us. Talk about us. Raise our voice.