Thursday, May 17, 2018

Just One Casualty in Gaza

"All of the sudden I heard a bang, and I found myself on the ground. I looked at my leg, I saw blood."

Dr Tarek Loubani, a Canadian citizen who works as an emergency physician in southern Ontario, was shot in both legs as he was treating injured Palestinians on the Gaza Strip. He was in Gaza as part of a medical team that is field testing 3D-printed medical tourniquets.

He was wearing a green surgeon’s outfit and was standing with orange-vested paramedics about 25 metres from the protesters. There were no fires or smoke and he was within clear lines of sight to three fortified sniper posts. 

"The first rule of medical rescue is that you don't become part of the situation, you're no good to anybody if you're shot too," said Loubani, adding that his team had taken extraordinary measures to identify themselves to snipers as medical professionals.

“It’s very hard to believe I wasn’t specifically targeted, considering that there was a lull in activity, considering the fact that I was so clearly marked,” he told the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation.

The doctor who rescued Loubani, Musa Abuhassanin, was later killed as he was trying to reach another patient. Another 16 paramedics were injured.

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