An Irish surgeon in Gaza: I have seen tiny bodies ripped apart, children eating grass

Irish Times

4 days ago

'WCNSF'. The unfamiliar acronym scribbled on charts attached to children's hospital beds at the Nasser hospital in
Gaza
had to be explained to me on my first visit there.
Working as a surgeon in University Hospital
Waterford
, I never had any use for the phrase 'wounded child, no surviving family'. But at the Nasser Hospital in Khan Yunis, it quickly became part of my medical vocabulary.
By the end of my second stint in Khan Yunis this March, the term had become so common that we had more or less stopped using it, as child after child woke from emergency surgery crying out for the embrace of parents who were no longer there to soothe them. 'WCNSF' had by now become the norm, so much so that those with surviving family were the exception.
Dr Morgan McMonagle
Famine unfolding in Gaza: 'Children are eating grass and weeds at the side of the road'
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23:23
Four months on, and now back home in Ireland, I still struggle to come to terms with the sheer numbers of children who arrived at our hospital every night. Some perfectly intact but already cold from death. Others still alive but with their tiny bodies ripped apart.
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Starving children with signs of wasting were a common sight, as were the horrific infections that rotted away young limbs. A routine day would include rapidly cutting open small chests and abdomens in an effort to stem the life-threatening bleeding caused by shrapnel. Others arrived to us with burns which would prove impossible to survive. Outside, makeshift graves were dug on the hospital grounds to bury the dead, some using what used to be the children's playground.
Yasmine (22) and her malnourished two-months-old daughter Teen await treatment at the Nasser hospital in Khan Yunis on July 24th. Photograph: AFP/Getty
All around us, Gaza was crumbling under the merciless assault from Israel's sophisticated war machinery. No running water. No flushing toilets. No street lighting. Children playing on the rubble of collapsed houses. Families living inside the ruins of what used to be their home. And everywhere, orphans. Hundreds and thousands of orphans.
The pictures of starving infants appearing on our TV screens every night appears to have finally awoken the world from the indifference it had been showing towards the suffering in Gaza. But why only now when the bloody images of children maimed by bombs and machine guns over the past 21 months did not?
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A father in Gaza: Our children are dying as the world watches. We don't want your pity – we want action
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It was clear from what I witnessed in Gaza this spring that people were already at the point of starvation. Children eating grass and weeds at the side of the road among piles of garbage. Families surviving on animal feed, ground down and mixed with measly bits of flour and stale bread, re-baked as a staple diet.
A former colleague tells me that he has begun getting his children to lick salt before bed to stave off the hunger pangs in an effort to help them sleep. I know it won't work but how do I tell that to someone whose children are starving in front of him?
There will be a stain upon our conscience forever if we don't do everything we can to stop this conflict when we have the chance
It is inexplicable that we were not collectively repulsed enough to stop the genocide before now. Many will be encouraged by the fact that some of Israel's staunchest allies such as
Britain
and
Germany
are finally expressing their unhappiness at how Israel is conducting itself. I desperately want to have hope too, but experience tells me we have been here before. We thought Germany was finally coming to its senses in late May when Chancellor Friedrich Merz declared that harming so many civilians could 'no longer be justified' when fighting Hamas.
Shortly after, Israel attacked Iran, and Merz was back on message. All criticism of Israel was forgotten and instead Merz praised the Israeli Forces for
doing the world's 'dirty work'
by sending missiles into Iran.
The speed and strength of Merz's U-turn is a worrying reminder that while even Donald Trump appears concerned at the suffering of Gaza's children right now, this unease may last only as long as the news cycle. Such lip service is both fleeting and ephemeral.
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Gaza death toll reaches 60,000 as global monitor warns of famine
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It is incumbent on all of us – and particularly Ireland's politicians – to take advantage of this brief window of opportunity to contact their counterparts around the world and demand immediate action.
The timing is favourable – with the broad terms of a trade deal having been struck with the United States, Europe can finally concentrate on ending this brutal conflict. The leaders of Ireland, Spain and other like-minded countries can raise the suffering of Gaza with the White House without fear of jeopardising trade talks.
I have no doubt that some of those conversations will be difficult. I have no doubt that ringing a powerful member of the United States Congress and urging them to stand up to Israel's lobbyists isn't easy. But there will be a stain upon our conscience forever if we don't do everything we can to stop this conflict when we have the chance.
In October 2023, only a few weeks after the bombardment of Gaza had begun, the journalist and novelist Omar El Akkad posted on X: 'One day, when it's safe, when there's no personal downside to calling a thing what it is, when it's too late to hold anyone accountable, everyone will have always been against this.'
We cannot wait until it's safe and risk-free to demand an end to this brutality. The chilling words of the UN-appointed driver who escorted us safely in an armoured car to the Kerem Shalom crossing when we finally exited Gaza on March 26th have stayed with me. As we said our goodbyes, he told us: 'anyone left in Gaza now, is either already dead, or will be soon. Goodbye and take care my friend'. I have no idea what happened to him after.
Morgan McMonagle is a consultant vascular and trauma surgeon who has completed two humanitarian missions to Gaza in 2024 and 2025