A Palestinian doctor’s fight to speak about Gaza on Nakba Day
The Take
Al Jazeera
4.7 • 748 Ratings
🗓️ 15 May 2024
⏱️ 15 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Dr. Ghassan Abu-Sittah treated patients at hospitals all throughout Gaza shortly after October 7. Last month, he was blocked from entering much of Europe to share what he saw. He has now won a legal battle challenging that travel ban. On the 76th anniversary of the Nakba, he explains his fight to share what he saw in Gaza.
In this episode:
- Dr. Ghassan Abu-Sittah (@GhassanAbuSitt1), Reconstructive Surgeon
Episode credits:
This episode was produced by Chloe K. Li and Sonia Bhagat with our host Malika Bilal. Tabish Talib and Catherine Nouhan fact-checked this episode.
Our sound designer is Alex Roldan. Our lead of audience development and engagement is Aya Elmileik and Adam Abou-Gad is our engagement producer.
Alexandra Locke is The Take’s executive producer. Ney Alvarez is Al Jazeera's head of audio.
Connect with us:
@AJEPodcasts on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, Threads and YouTube
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | Al Jazeera Podcasts. |
| 0:07.0 | Today, as a doctor in Gaza, he witnessed some of the worst atrocities of Israel's war. |
| 0:26.6 | But in Europe, Dr. Ghassan Abu-Sita was fighting a ban from sharing what he saw. |
| 0:33.6 | On the anniversary of the Nakhba, the mass displacement of Palestinians in 1948, we hear what was behind it. |
| 0:38.4 | I'm Malika Bilal and this is The Take. |
| 0:49.3 | Wednesday, May 15th marks the 76th anniversary of the Nekba, |
| 0:56.3 | which means the catastrophe in Arabic. |
| 1:06.6 | That's when more than 700,000 Palestinians fled or were forcibly displaced in 1948 during the war that created the state of Israel. |
| 1:15.9 | Dr. Gassan Aboussita is a Palestinian plastic and reconstructive surgeon, and his family was among them. |
| 1:18.1 | I am the son of Nakhba survivors who became refugees in Gaza in 1948. |
| 1:26.1 | And in the current war, I went into Gaza on the 9th of October |
| 1:30.3 | and I worked at Shifa and the Ahele hospitals for 43 days. |
| 1:36.3 | I tended to a man who had his leg blown off at the thigh |
| 1:42.3 | as I was walking towards the ambulance, there were body parts everywhere, and there were bodies |
| 1:49.3 | piled up in the courtyard of the hospital. |
| 1:54.7 | Dr. Abu Sita has worked in many different hospitals in Gaza over the years. |
| 2:00.7 | On October 9th, he traveled back to work |
| 2:03.9 | at El Shifa Hospital. I spoke to him from his home in London. So, Dr. Abbasita, |
| 2:14.9 | welcome to the take. You have testified to the UK's Metropolitan Police War Crimes Unit about what you witnessed in Gaza. |
| 2:24.0 | What did you tell them? |
| 2:25.7 | Well, I took them literally from day one, 11 o'clock on Monday, the 9th of October when I went to Gaza, and then going into Shifa Hospital. |
| 2:38.6 | What I had seen, the kids that I had treated, the effect of the blockade in running out of medication |
... |
Please login to see the full transcript.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Al Jazeera, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of Al Jazeera and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2026.