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Dr Mohammed Mustafa received a hero’s welcome back in Perth when he returned after working on Gaza’s medical frontline for five weeks, but he said he’s “not a hero” and never went to the devastated Gaza Strip for praise.
“I did this because my blood is not more important than those children’s blood in Gaza,” he said.
“And just because I have a blue passport that says Australian on it, doesn’t mean that I’m more worthy of living than those children.”
, Mustafa was brought to tears recalling patients he couldn’t save in Gaza, and the constant stream of brutally wounded children and adults who came into the hospital and couldn’t be treated with anaesthetics.
‘Response has been very, very poor’
after Israeli airstrikes on Sunday destroyed its intensive care and surgery wards, and severely damaged the emergency room and pharmacy. The Israeli military said it had take steps to reduce harm to civilians before it struck the compound, claiming it was being used by Hamas militants to plan attacks.
Now back in Australia, Mustafa is calling on Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and Foreign Minister Penny Wong to meet with returning aid workers like himself to hear about their experiences in Gaza and help develop a plan for medical support.
“I felt that the response has been very, very poor. My life was in danger during Gaza, and we reached out to the government,” he said.
“We felt when the hospitals were being bombed while we were in it, we felt vulnerable and we felt our government had abandoned us and they abandoned me like they abandoned Zomi [Frankcom].”
Mustafa said part of his motivation in Gaza was to honour the , an aid worker killed in an Israeli airstrike in central Gaza’s Deir al-Balah in April 2024.
He said he is yet to get a response from Albanese and Wong despite multiple requests for a meeting.
“I feel at times the remarks of the prime minister while I was over there in Gaza, put my life in danger because there were international aid workers that were killed when I was there and there were healthcare workers that were killed as well when I was there,” he said.
“Our prime minister was very dismissive of my concerns on national TV, and obviously, privately, they never responded to us.”
Independent senator Fatima Payman has backed Mustafa’s call for a meeting with Albanese.
“This should show everybody that the humanity has escaped our politicians. Both the prime minister and the foreign minister have not been providing any form of assistance or aid to our Australian doctors,” she said.
Palestinians inspect the remains of a displacement tent hit by an Israeli airstrike in Khan Younis on 17 April. Source: AAP / Abdel Kareem Hana/AP
Albanese responded to a question from SBS News about Mustafa’s calls for a direct meeting during a press conference on Thursday.
“With respect. I haven’t been sitting down watching the news for Mr Mustafa. I’m not aware of those [reports],” he said.
“I don’t know the issue that you raise, so I don’t know who Mr Mustafa is. I’ll have a look at it and give it consideration.”
SBS News understands Wong’s office is seeking to arrange a meeting with Mustafa.
A spokesperson for Wong’s office said since 7 October 2023 — when Hamas-led militants lauched a surprise assault on southern Israel, sparking — the Australian government has committed over $100 million in humanitarian assistance to civilians in Gaza and Lebanon affected by the conflict and has doubled the annual funding to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees.
“Australia is building a coalition for the safety of humanitarian personnel, including local aid workers, who provide the food, water and medicine civilians need to survive,” the spokesperson told SBS News.
“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.”
The Hamas-led October 7 attack killed 1,200 people and 251 others were taken hostage to Gaza, according to Israeli tallies.
Since then, more than 51,000 Palestinians have been killed in the Israeli offensive, according to local health authorities.
On the ground in Gaza
Mustafa, who is training to be an emergency physician in Australia, was on his second trip to Gaza with the Palestinian Australian New Zealand Medical Association, a non-profit organisation that provides medical relief and support to Palestinians.
He said in Gaza, he had to try to provide every kind of medical care possible.
“I became a pediatrician. I was assisting in surgery. I was also a neurologist, I was a respiratory physician and a nephrologist,” he said.
“I was a cardiologist. I pretty much had to take on any job that was going in the hospital anywhere that they needed help.”
Mustafa also spoke about what he said was a horrific night of Israeli bombardment in Gaza when “many children died”, including a man who took his last breath in his arms as he choked to death while waiting for a scan.
“I had to pick myself up, and I had to go back to the emergency department, and there was a bed,” he said.
“And on that bed were three young girls and they were between the ages of five to one-year-old and all of them were injured and they had skull fractures, they had intracranial bleeds.”
One of the girls had an open wound in her abdomen and trapped lung injuries, he said.
“These were the man’s three daughters and their mother had died. Their father had just died in my arms. And now I was fighting to save their life and I felt like I owed that man to save his children.”
The girls survived, but many others did not.
“There were a lot of people that I just couldn’t help, and it’s part of the reason why I’m fighting. I’m fighting for them because I let them down that night. I’m not going to let ’em down again,” he said.
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