On Sept. 12, dozens of community members and anti-war activists sat in silence as a Maryland doctor shared a shocking account of her experience treating casualties in Gaza without basic medical supplies.
“The patients that were brought in, we didn’t have any patient beds for them,” Dr. Hina Syed, an internal medicine physician in Montgomery County, told those gathered at St. Mark’s Lutheran Church in Baltimore.
Some in the crowd wiped tears from their eyes as Syed, who traveled to Gaza from April 1-10 with the World Health Organization, described her inability to treat the badly injured or control the spread of infectious diseases.
“They would just die on the floors, right in front of your eyes, and there’s nothing you can do,” Syed said
“They would just die on the floors, right in front of your eyes, and there’s nothing you can do,” Syed said, standing before images of casualties and blood soaked hospital rooms projected on a screen. She said the casualties she treated were primarily noncombatants. “The patients that I saw were mostly women and children and older men.”
The event came ahead of the one year mark of Israel’s assault on Gaza, which it launched in response to Hamas’s deadly Oct. 7 surprise attack that killed over 1,100 Israelis. Activists are demanding the U.S. government halt military support for Israel until it agrees to a ceasefire with Hamas and ends its occupation of the West Bank, a region designated for a future Palestinian state where hundreds of thousands of Israeli settlers have built homes, violently uprooting Palestinian communities.
Most of Gaza’s 2.3 million residents have been displaced and over 41,000 people have been killed; most of them women and children and thousands more are thought to be buried under rubble. The United Nations World Food Programme says a quarter of Gaza’s population is nearing starvation.
The issue of the United States’ ongoing military shipments to Israel is a major focal point in the November presidential election, especially for young voters. According to a Sep. 23 poll by the Institute for Global Affairs, 67% of Democrats want the U.S. to either stop supporting Israel’s war efforts or make that support conditional on a ceasefire.
The Biden administration has failed to negotiate a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas that secures the release of some 100 Israeli hostages held in Gaza and rejected calls to halt weapons sales to Israel.
Democratic Presidential nominee and Vice President Kamala Harris has been vocal about Palestinian suffering and says she supports a ceasefire. “We cannot allow ourselves to become numb to the suffering,” she said, “and I will not be silent.”
But Harris has not detailed any policy changes with President Joe Biden. Citing human rights concerns, a growing number of countries including Canada and the UK have blocked some weapons exports to Israel.
U.S. law prevents weapons from being sent to countries that block deliveries of humanitarian aid during war. The Biden administration rejected two government reports that found Israel deliberately blocked deliveries of food and medicine into Gaza and killed aid workers, the investigative newsroom Propublica recently reported.
After the Biden administration recently approved a new $20 billion weapons package to Israel, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) sought to block the sale. Speaking on the floor of the Senate, Sanders said Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who faces massive domestic protests for his refusal to agree to a ceasefire for the release of hostages, was plunging the region into war to avoid corruption charges.
“Every time an agreement appears close, Netanyahu introduces new demands and sinks the deal. It is clear that Netanyahu is prolonging the war to cling to power and avoid prosecution for corruption.” Sanders said.
Israel has continued to escalate its attacks unchecked. In late September, it launched massive airstrikes on Lebanon and killed hundreds of civilians as it sought to destroy the leadership of the political and military force Hezbollah. Hezbollah, which was born from opposing the Israeli invasion of Lebanon in the 1980s, has said it will halt hostilities with Israel once a ceasefire is established in Gaza.
Meanwhile, the “uncommitted” movement, over 700,000 voters — including 10% of Maryland Democratic primary voters- who withheld their support of Democrats over their parties unconditional support for Israel, declined to endorse Harris but said they oppose a Trump presidency who they say will be even worse for the region. “[His] agenda includes plans to accelerate the killing in Gaza while intensifying the suppression of anti-war organizing,” Abbas Alawieh, an uncommitted leader said at a press conference .
Syed spent much of her presentation discussing how much conditions have worsened since her visit, as well as dangers faced by aid workers in Gaza.
Just hours after her harrowing entry into the region on April 1, seven members of Chef José Andrés’ World Central Kitchen, following the same route as Syed, were killed in an Israeli airstrike, despite having coordinated their movements with the Israeli military.
In July, Syed joined 44 American medical workers who volunteered in Gaza since Oct. 7 and signed an open letter to President Biden, sharing their firsthand experiences: “We urge you to see that Israel has directly targeted and deliberately devastated Gaza’s entire healthcare system, and that Israel has targeted our colleagues in Gaza for death, disappearance, and torture,” the letter states.
Before the presentation ended, acclaimed Gazan doctor and artist Dr. Khalil Khalidy joined the conversation via Zoom to highlight the resilience of the Palestinian people and share his appreciation for the anti-war movement in the US.
When asked about his message to the American people, Khalidy said “Use your voice, or otherwise someone will use your silence.”
Before gathering at the church, activists rallied at Johns Hopkins University, where students and faculty have renewed demands the university divest from Israel.
“We will not rest until our demands are met for a complete demilitarization of the university system including the boycott and divestment of companies engaging in genocide and apartheid in Palestine,” said a student who declined to be named over safety concerns.
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