'Unique opportunity': Inside the push for an Australian-backed children's hospital in Gaza
In Gaza, malnutrition is severely affecting children, pregnant women and people with chronic conditions, while also delaying the recovery of patients with serious war injuries. Source: AP / Jehad Alshrafi A British-Australian doctor is pushing for a children's hospital — backed by Australia — to be built in Gaza as the health system in the besieged Palestinian enclave continues to crumble. "I want to return to Gaza with our Australian-built hospital — that's when I want to get back to Gaza," he said. "I would return tomorrow if I could, to help. But until that hospital is established, my mission is not complete."
Mustafa, who is training to be an emergency physician in Australia, returned from his second trip to Gaza last month. The 35-year-old is with the Palestinian Australian New Zealand Medical Association, a non-profit organisation that provides medical relief and support to Palestinians. Bombs could be heard in the background as he described the deteriorating conditions inside al-Ahli Hospital — one of Gaza's few functioning hospitals. That facility in an attack the Israeli military said targeted a Hamas "command and control centre" at the hospital, a claim the Palestinian political and military group denied.
Upon returning to Australia, Mustafa spoke to SBS News at the airport, as he detailed the dire medical shortages he witnessed, the surgeries performed without anaesthetics, and his calls for urgent humanitarian aid. "We would have people die waiting for their operations," Mustafa said at the time. "And we would have people die because we didn't even have scissors, to cut through clothes and to try and control the areas of bleeding." Mustafa said he chose to return home to press the Australian government in person, calling for a dedicated children's hospital near Gaza's southern border with Egypt, to treat everything from chronic diseases to war-related injuries. "Part of the mission is to establish a children's hospital," he said. "It would be a coalition, but we want it to be Australian-led … with operating theatres, emergency rooms, outpatient clinics — all to manage the growing needs of Gaza's children."
Mustafa recently had a private meeting with Foreign Minister Penny Wong which he said was constructive. "It was a very positive meeting. I thank the foreign minister for her commitment and the acknowledgement of the difficult circumstances," he said. "She understood the gravity of the situation." In a statement, Wong confirmed the meeting took place and paid tribute to Mustafa's "selflessness" and said she looks forward "to continuing to work with him". "I deeply appreciated meeting Dr Mustafa and the president of PANZMA and hearing their insights into the catastrophic humanitarian situation in Gaza," the statement said. "It has been weeks since aid entered Gaza, and we know the operating conditions for aid workers are unacceptable. "We are pressing Israel to facilitate unhindered humanitarian access, in line with the binding orders of the International Court of Justice." Wong said Australia is building a coalition to protect humanitarian workers and pushing a global declaration to pressure countries to follow international humanitarian law.
The Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC), a global hunger monitor, reported on Monday that half a million people in the Gaza Strip face starvation and there is a critical risk of famine by September. Israeli government spokesperson David Mencer said the IPC had "constantly talked about famine; famine has never happened because of Israel's efforts to get more aid in". Mencer reiterated Israel's accusation that Hamas had caused hunger by stealing aid meant for civilians, and had "engineered the humanitarian crisis".
Hamas denies these accusations and has, in turn, accused Israel of using starvation as a weapon of war. Malnutrition is severely affecting children, pregnant women and people with chronic conditions, while also delaying the recovery of patients with serious war injuries, as aid stocks near depletion, several agencies told the Reuters news agency last week. The humanitarian crisis continues to weigh heavily on Australians with family trapped inside Gaza. Perth resident Ayman Qwaider, whose extended family is still in Gaza, at a press conference last week showed video footage taken by his brother of displaced families building makeshift ovens under the rubble. "[In] the last 60 days, there has been no food, no drinking water, no aid allowed into Gaza," Qwaider said. "Their voices are getting thinner, and their bodies weaker." Qwaider said he has already lost over 40 family members, including his sister and her three children. "This is the crime of our time. And the silence is devastating," he said.
Ahmed Abumarzouq, also based in Perth, said his young niece was drinking dirty water, and his nephew hadn't eaten bread in days. "This is a man-made famine — a deliberate, calculated starvation," he said last week. "It's not just a humanitarian crisis, it's a moral failure. Silence is not impartiality." Israeli President Isaac Herzog on Monday called on the international community to help with a new plan to distribute aid directly to the people of Gaza and cut Hamas out of the process. The IPC report said the Israeli authorities' plan for delivering aid was "estimated to be highly insufficient to meet the population's essential needs for food, water, shelter and medicine".
Now that Labor has returned to government, Mustafa is turning up the pressure. "This is a very hot political topic, but children should not be political," he said. "More than half the population in Gaza are children. Their humanity should not be up for debate. "This is about a bipartisan, non-political humanitarian mission. Australia has a unique opportunity to help."
Independent senator David Pocock has backed Mustafa's calls. "The Australian government has stepped in previously with providing aid to Gaza, but I would urge them to do more, proportionate to the scale of the crisis and commensurate with the kind of support we've seen for other conflicts like the war in Ukraine," Pocock said. "The immediate priority must be to allow the flow of humanitarian aid to recommence, hostilities to cease and get more medical assistance to those in dire need." Israeli forces invaded Gaza after the Hamas-led attack on 7 October 2023 that killed 1,200 people and resulted in , according to Israeli tallies. Since then, over 52,000 Palestinians have been killed, according to Gaza's health authority, and large swathes of the heavily built-up enclave have been laid to waste. — With reporting by the Reuters news agency
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