When Israel shattered the ceasefire in Gaza last month and resumed its large-scale bombardment, the British-Australian doctor Mohammed Mustafa had just clocked off at the emergency department of what was the last fully functioning hospital in Gaza City.
“It was so intense that the windows blew off their hinges and I had fallen out of my bed,” he tells Guardian Australia’s Full Story podcast.
The 35-year-old emergency physician from Perth was on his second medical mission in the besieged territory volunteering for the Palestinian Australian New Zealand Medical Association at al-Ahli Arab hospital, also known as the Baptist hospital.
Children and women began arriving at the hospital with extreme injuries, including burns and missing limbs. Mustafa knew many would not survive the night.
“The department was so full that it spilled out on to the streets and we were cutting people’s chests open to put in chest drains in the streets,” he says.
“Because I am 6’2” and about 18 stone I ended up just carrying two or three people at a time on my back, on my chest, carrying them and just running to the CT scanner to get people in.”
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His eyewitness testimony from inside the hospital went viral online. He has learned that the organisation he volunteered for feared the attention he received would get him killed.
“They actually prepared a press release of my death and they showed it to me a couple of days ago,” he says.
More than 400 aid workers have been killed in Gaza, with Médecins Sans Frontières saying Israel has turned the territory “into a mass grave of Palestinians and those coming to their assistance”.
Just days after Mustafa completed his stint at al-Ahli it was bombed by the Israeli army, which claimed it was being used as a “command and control centre” without producing any evidence.
Now back in Australia, Mustafa says he is on his own “campaign trail”, sharing what he witnessed in Gaza with anyone who will listen while seeking to galvanise individuals to action.
“A lot of people want me to stay in my lane and play things a certain way but there are children dying every single day and I’m not going to sit here and be patient,” he says.
He wants to meet the prime minister, Anthony Albanese, and the foreign affairs minister, Penny Wong, calling on them to sit down with him to discuss ways Australia can help on the ground while rejecting the government’s characterisation that Australia is “not a major player”.
“We don’t have to be a major player in the Middle East to feed children, we don’t have to be a major player in the Middle East to heal children, to help them,” he says.
“Obviously I’m disappointed in the lack of response in Gaza … and we can do more.”
Australia joined international calls for a ceasefire in December 2023 – by which point Israeli airstrikes had already killed close to 20,000 Palestinians. The number has now surpassed 51,000, according to figures from the Gaza health ministry, with thousands more missing and injured.
Guardian Australia has been told Wong has agreed to a meeting with Mustafa. Her spokesperson said Australia had “consistently” been part of the international call for a ceasefire.
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“Alongside our partners, we continue to press Israel to abide by its obligations under international humanitarian law, including to provide basic services and facilitate humanitarian assistance,” the spokesperson said.
“Since 7 October 2023, we have committed over $100 million in humanitarian assistance to assist civilians in Gaza and Lebanon impacted by conflict. This is on top of doubling annual funding to UNRWA.”
After the Israel Defense Forces’ killing of the Australian aid worker Zomi Frankom in a drone strike one year ago, Australia announced that it would work to build a coalition to promote the safety of humanitarian personnel, including local aid workers.
“The Foreign Minister is leading an influential group of countries to create a global Declaration for the Protection of Humanitarian Personnel, increasing pressure for countries to abide by international humanitarian law,” a spokesperson said.
In addition to more government aid, Mustafa has called for greater philanthropic funding, saying he would like to work with a fellow West Australian, the mining billionaire Andrew Forrest, on projects he has “ready to go”.
Last month Andrew and Nicola Forrest issued a statement through the Minderoo Foundation condemning the “atrocities continuing to unfold in Gaza” while calling on “countries with influence” to use their leverage to ensure the situation does not further deteriorate.
“I’m sure a lot of people ask you for things but I want to also thank you as well,” Mustafa says. “So, buddy, if you’re listening out there, please, please, please … get in touch with me.”
In a statement to the Guardian the Minderoo Foundation said it “is aware of the important work conducted by organisations such as PANZMA and all the individual medical professionals who commit their time to raise funds and provide medical aid and support for the people of Gaza”.
“Minderoo continues to support our existing humanitarian partners in Gaza. Since October 2023, Minderoo Foundation has provided more than AUD$43 million in humanitarian assistance to Middle East conflict zones, including Gaza and Lebanon”
While Mustafa is aware that the high profile he has gained may prevent him from being permitted re-entry to Gaza, he says if given the chance he “wouldn’t skip a heartbeat”.
“I miss Gaza so much, I miss the people there, how brave they are, how resilient they are, their kindness towards me.”
