2 days ago
Dr Abed has watched Gaza's healthcare system crumble. He hopes studying in Australia will help him rebuild it
Junior paediatrician Abdalkarim Alharazin has seen more suffering and death in Gaza than some doctors do in their entire careers.
The 28-year-old, who goes by the name Dr Abed, has spent the last two years moving between hospitals putting to use his medical training to treat fellow Palestinians as they have endured relentless Israeli bombardment, forced displacement, starvation and the spread of disease.
He is currently working from a tent operating as a medical clinic in northern Gaza, where he says the conditions are 'totally unimaginable'.
'It is extremely difficult – there is no way to describe how much it is not a suitable environment to treat children,' he told Guardian Australia's Full Story podcast over a weak internet connection.
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Abed said the overwhelming number of children he saw each day were showing signs of dehydration due to malnutrition and an outbreak of gastroenteritis was making a dire situation even worse.
'We are in 2025 seeing children dying because we don't have IV fluids for them,' he said.
'We have reached a level that we have to choose between our children, between the patients who we can give this IV fluid, and who can be strong enough for one hour or two hours.'
Some nations have begun conducting aid drops, but humanitarian organisations have warned they are ineffectual and woefully inadequate to meet the needs of the 2 million people facing a human-made famine, and that they also pose a danger themselves.
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Abed said a colleague was struck and killed by a falling pallet this week.
'We live day by day and we are trying to survive day by day,' he said.
Local media reported a nurse, Oday al-Quraan, was crushed when he was hit in Deir al-Balah in central Gaza on Monday, just days after he described the air drops as 'air humiliation' in an online video.
Over 21 months, Abed has watched Gaza's healthcare system crumble around him, as hospitals have been hit by Israeli airstrikes. More than 1,200 of his peers have been killed, and medical supplies have been blocked by Israeli authorities.
'The health system is totally destroyed. It has reached a level of zero, actually under zero,' he said.
Abed graduated from Al-Azhar University in Gaza in 2021, before eventually joining Kamal Adwan hospital's paediatrics department as an emergency doctor, where he worked under the leadership of its director, Dr Hussam Abu Safiya.
Both the university and hospital now lie in ruins and Abed fears the fate of his mentor.
Abu Safiya is among hundreds of doctors and medical workers who have been forcibly taken from Gaza by Israeli soldiers and held in detention without charge, according to the Palestinian group Healthcare Workers Watch.
'Dr Hussam has a special place in my heart … he gave me the first opportunity to work. He was determined and committed to his community and to serve them as much as he can,' Abed said.
Abed said he also wanted to continue to serve his community and one day contribute to rebuilding the health system, which the United Nations has said Israel has deliberately destroyed.
From the frontlines he applied for and has been accepted into a master of public health at the University of Sydney – a dream he said he thought would be 'impossible'.
'I'm not taking this as an opportunity just to leave Gaza, no – I did it for Gaza,' he said.
'The modules at this university will equip me with the knowledge and the skills that are needed to be a big part of rebuilding the healthcare system, rebuilding the sanitation system.'
Dr Abed said most healthcare workers in Gaza were not earning an income, despite working non-stop, and even those that were struggled to afford essentials for themselves and their families.
With support from the Brussels-based NGOs Children Not Numbers and Fill That Gap he has paid a course deposit, and is now raising funds to cover the necessary tuition fees, visa costs and living expenses.
On a fundraising page for Dr Abed, the director of Fill That Gap, Dr Mandana Mehta, said Abed wanted 'to be part of a better future for Gaza'.
'Paying for university studies is increasingly difficult for many of us and our families. So imagine how much more difficult it becomes when you are a young Palestinian struggling to survive the bombardment of Gaza,' she said.
'Imagine how much more difficult it is when you are one of the few remaining doctors in Gaza, working with almost no resources to try and save as many lives as you can.'
If Dr Abed can overcome the financial hurdles, he hopes to begin studying in Australia next year.
'If I am not able to secure the rest of the funds I will not lose this dream,' he said.
