We put a face to the names. As civilians, aid workers and medical personnel in Gaza continue to mercilessly lose their lives, we ask if they are children of a lesser God?
As the casualties continue to rise, Gaza is evolving into what could be considered the largest mass grave witnessed in the present day world. The victims are not merely statistics; they encompass men, children, women, and the elderly—real individuals with dreams, families, and roles in society. Each loss represents a genuine person, not just a number. The escalating death toll affects not only civilians but also humanitarian organizations, including the WHO, UN aid workers, and dedicated MSF doctors who tragically lost their lives. It is unsettling how those working towards peace and aiding society find themselves vulnerable in what is being called an effort to eliminate a terror organization, with collateral damage amassing in thousands of innocent lives, that too in a very brief time span – just 47 days and counting.
The death of these 5 aid workers and doctors is another example of the senseless loss of life in Palestine. Civilians have been killed in their homes, at their workplaces, while evacuating, while sheltering in schools, while being cared for in hospitals. These are not just numbers, but people who were soldiering on so that others could have a better life.
Across Gaza, helpless individuals continue to experience the loss of family members, homes, and lives, all while the world fails to take substantial action. Today, we put a face to only 5 of the innocent names who lost their lives trying to protect and aid civilians:
Dima Abdullatif Mohammed Alhaj, A WHO Staff Member
WHO, announced the death of one of their staff in Gaza, Dima Abdullatif Mohammed Alhaj, 29 years old, who had been with WHO since December 2019.
“She worked as a patient administrator at the Limb Reconstruction Centre, a critical part of the WHO Trauma and Emergency Team. Dima died when her parents’ house in southern Gaza—where she had evacuated to from Gaza City—was bombed. She was tragically killed alongside her husband, their six-month old baby boy, and her two brothers.
Dima held a Bachelor’s degree in Environmental and Earth Sciences from the Islamic University of Gaza, and continued to study and work on environmental issues and health. She was a master’s student at Glasgow University, Scotland, UK, as part of the Erasmus exchange program from 2018-2019. Dr Rik Peeperkorn, the WHO representative in the occupied Palestinian territory said “she was a wonderful person with a radiant smile, cheerful, positive, respectful.”
Mohammed Al Ahel, An MSF Laboratory Technician
Dr. Hammam Alloh, a 36-year-old nephrologist who practiced at Gaza City’s Al-Shifa Hospital, was killed by an Israeli airstrike in November.
During an interview with Democracy Now!, Palestinian doctor Hammam Alloh explained his decision not to follow Israeli directives and evacuate to the southern part of Gaza when asked about it: “If I go who would treat my patients? We are not animals, we have the right to receive proper health care. You think I went to medical school and for my postgraduate degrees for a total of 14 years so I think only about my life and not my patients?”
However, he took his last breath just days ago after an Israeli airstrike targeted his wife’s family home, adjacent to the Al-Shifa hospital and medical complex, where he was taking some much-needed rest.
Dr Mahmoud Abu Nujaila (MSF)
Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) has expressed profound horror at the tragic deaths of two of its doctors, Dr. Mahmoud Abu Nujaila and Dr. Ahmad Al Sahar, along with another physician, Dr. Ziad Al-Tatari. This devastating incident occurred following a strike on Al-Awda hospital in Gaza, Palestine. Al-Awda stands as one of the last functional hospitals in northern Gaza, and MSF has been actively involved in its operations since 2018, offering reconstructive surgery for adults and trauma surgery for children.
Dr. Mahmoud Abu Nujaila tragically lost his life while tending to patients inside Awda Hospital in Jabalia Refugee Camp when it was targeted and bombed by Israeli warplanes.
Dr Ahmad Al Sahar (MSF)
Dr. Ahmed Al-Sahar, another young doctor in Gaza met a tragic fate as he was providing medical care to patients within Awda Hospital in Jabalia Refugee Camp, a victim of an airstrike by Israeli warplanes.
Dr. Ziad Al-Tatari
Dr. Ziad Tatri, a Neonatologist and Pediatric Consultant, another doctor with MSF, met a devastating fate as he was treating patients inside Awda Hospital in Jabalia Refugee Camp when Israeli warplanes bombed the facility.
UNICEF emphasizes that a four-day truce falls short of addressing the gravity of the situation, given the alarming statistics of over 14,000 lives lost, predominantly women and children. Shockingly, within a span of 46 days, more than 5,300 Palestinian children have reportedly been killed, averaging over 115 child casualties daily. Disturbingly, children constitute 40% of the overall deaths in Gaza. According to these harrowing numbers, the Gaza Strip emerges as “THE most dangerous place in the world for a child”. This unprecedented crisis desperately calls for an urgent need for intervention.
As the clock ticks down to a ceasefire, dozens more Palestinians are reported to have succumbed to the violence in Gaza, further emphasizing the dire humanitarian situation.
