London, June 12 (RHC)-- A British-Palestinian doctor who spent months in the Gaza Strip to help treat the injured in the besieged territory has likened the devastation there to a tsunami, saying the Israeli regime has deliberately destroyed healthcare in what he described a "genocidal project."
Ghassan Abu Sitta, an experienced surgeon who has witnessed the aftermath of several violent conflicts worldwide and volunteered in Gaza last year, made the remarks in an exclusive interview with Press TV in Lebanon’s capital Beirut.
“When I'm asked how this war is any different than the wars that I've worked in over the last 20, to 25 years, it really is the difference between a flood and a tsunami," he said. "This is a genocidal project that had at its heart the destruction of the health system that found hospitals were the main targets of its attack,” he added.
“Therefore, the killing, the destruction, the ferocity is like nothing else that we've ever seen.”
Abu Sitta, a reconstructive plastic surgeon, treated the wounded in Gaza for 43 days, and eventually left the territory in late November. Since his departure, the doctor has tried to raise awareness of the plight of Palestinians by giving his firsthand testimony of the horrors in Gaza, which has been a target of constant bombardment by the Israeli regime over the past eight months.
However, he made headlines in April after he was prevented from talking about the regime’s brutal invasion in some European countries, in what was widely viewed as an attempt to silence witnesses of the ongoing genocide in Gaza.
Speaking to Press TV, Abu Sitta said European governments don’t want people to know about the sufferings of Gazans as they’re complicit in the war. “One of the reasons why they've been trying to silence us is that these European governments are complicit in the war. They increased the supply of weapons to Israel ten times since the beginning of the war,” he stressed.
“They've maintained the genocidal project for over now eight months, and that's why it's critical that we, as witnesses to this genocide, campaign inside Europe so that the voices of the victims of this genocide are heard,” he concluded.
