Two days when it's day drawn twenty fifth, twenty five and it's still am.
This is an emergency doctor living and working in central Gaza. We can't tell you his name or where he works because he's worried for his safety. But since last week we've been gathering voice notes from people working in hospitals there.
Now approaching its second year, this war has drained us physically, emotionally and systemically.
Last week, he was on night shift at the hospital when he heard screams.
It was just past midnight when the screens began and dozens of wounded flooded buddies everywhere, cries blood on the floor.
He rushed the emergency room, where he saw ten patients in a critical condition. There were four beds. The rest of the people were lying bleeding on the floor. Amid the chaos, someone shouted that one of the men on the floor had a head injury. When the doctor came closer, he recognized as the man in front of him. It was a fellow doctor who he'd worked alongside.
I tricked his pulse.
He was gone.
A tank fired a pullet and shattered his skull. He died immediately.
When he died, this doctor had been trying to get food for his family at an AID point.
Even doctors here are starving. Most of us haven't been paid in months. We work twenty for our shifts with a single mir Doctor Rames died seeking food for himself for his children. May Allah rist his sole and bees. He honored his duty and died with dignity.
The doctor who sent this note described a horrifying new pattern of casualties in Gaza's hospitals. Civilians seeking food for their families are being targeted by Israeli forces. According to authorities in Gaza, at least five hundred eighty three people have been killed in the past month at aid distribution centers.
The situation here is catastrophic. Our hospitals are collapsing, our lives are shattered, and the world must look away.
Thank you.
I'm Ruby Jones. This is seven am today, the risk of seeking aid in Gaza and the reality of providing medical care as the bombardment continues. It's Tuesday, July one. Doctor Ezizrahaman is an American doctor who's just completed a two week rotation in Gaza. Like the doctor you've just heard from, he spent the last few weeks treating patients whose families say they were shot out while waiting.
For eight we were stationed at Naser Hospital, so we stayed at the hospital for the full two weeks. You know, the hospital itself is a green zone, but immediately around it is a red zone. So red zone basically means it's fair game for Israel to drop a bomb. So we were told to stay at the hospital at all times, not even going outside into the safe grounds, just because shrapnel can be at risk at any point. Because there's
bombing happening two hundred meters away. Pretty much every thirty minutes, we're hearing some sort of a bomb and machine gun fire in the background.
And you're working in a trauma base, so working with the people who are directly impacted by those blasts that you're hearing. So how many people are you seeing come through at any given time.
I think one of the days was sixty dead and three hundred injured. We're talking about thirty are pretty much dead on arrival, thirty are pretty much headshots, so very poor prognoses, you know that. Thirty or pretty much neck or spine shots where they're going to be paralyzed neck down. Sometimes just the legs, but and then everything in between, whether it be the shots and the lungs, the heart
requiring chest tubes, pericardial drains. And when you ask these patients' families like where were these patients coming from, you almost always hear the same story that they were trying to get food for the family at these Gods of Humanitarian fun ghf AID sites. And when we're extracting the bullets from these patients, we're seeing you know, rifle caliber rounds, right.
So we're talking about people being shot in the head or the neck. So that's a very targeted shooting, right.
Right exactly, It's a very accurate shot. And the thing is we're not just seeing it in men. We're seeing it in children. We're seeing it in women. And then you'll have you know, shrapnel injuries coming from different bombing sites. We actually saw a pregnant woman with a fetus that we had to abort and the bullet went right through the fetus intrauterine. And she's thirty years old and we had to do a hysterectomy, so she's never gonna have
a a child ever again. So you know, you hear it on the news but seeing with your own eyes, it doesn't make much rational sense, it doesn't make any moral sense, and you see the pain that it caused to the family.
And as a doctor in this hospital, tell me more about the challenges in terms of having to make decisions about how you treat people, how serious someone's injuries might be, and who gets trianged first.
Yeah, that's a great question. So it was very disheartening to see how they have to do it. But if a patient has a bulletshot to the head, even if it's potentially survivable, they may forego that patient for someone who has less injury, and they basically just put that patient from what they call the red zone in the trauma bay to the black zone in the trauma bay where that patient kind of just dies off and there's just no time or resources to let the physicians and
nurses and texts take care of that patient. The National House for those twelve ICU beds, at one point there had eighty ICU patients eight and zero to the point that we're putting ICO patients on wards. And the words obviously just don't have the supplies and the specialized nurses and specialized care that it takes for an ICU, so you can imagine not enough ventilators, is not enough oxygen tanks, and every single medical supply in between was a problem.
And so what is it like for you treating these injuries?
You know, as physicians, we like to compartmentalize our emotions. You know, the first time we saw it, it was quite overwhelming to see brain matter on the floor literally, you know, intestines what we call extravagating outside of the abdomen and just trying to tape it back in, and the extent of human beings injured into a small trauma bay. Noster Hospital was not made for this, so this trauma
bay is not massive by any means. And to the point, there's not enough beds, so families are just putting the patient on the floor, which is extremely dirty. It's blood everywhere. You're trying to step between patients and you know, the bottom of your shoe has blood all over it. We actually had to move a patient and you know that we didn't evaluate the back of the head yet and there was brain just being you know, slid all over the ground. So, I mean it was terrible, but we
didn't have time to process it. I found myself not crying in Gaza. But when I got back to the States, I found myself, you know, randomly just crying and randomly staring into space. Just I think this is how I'm processing it. But when I was there, there was just no time to process it. It was just constant every day.
Well, doctor Brahman, thank you so much for your time. I really appreciate you talking with me today.
Thank you.
Ruby off to the brain A deadly game of red light green light for Gazans seeking food. Earlier this year, on March TI, the Israeli government imposed a total blockade on aid like food and medicine entering Gaza. When the blockade was finally lifted, Israel didn't let the UN and regular aid agencies go back to work. Instead, Israel took control, creating aid distribution sites run by a private American company. Now Gazans must go to highly militarized zones to collect food.
In reporting this story, our team reached out to around a dozen people living in Gaza. Many of them are too physically and emotionally exhausted to speak publicly about their experiences, but they told us some version of the same thing. The aid system in Gaza is deliberately broken. Another doctor who sent us voice notes described his relative good fortune.
His stockpiled enough food to avoid the aid points where billions are being attacked, and he won't let any of his family go near them either.
We have this concert here in Guz that if you have enough money, you can buy your safety by not going there to the getge of center and instend spend your money on those overly briced goods.
As he tells us about the inflated prices of basic goods, you can hear explosions in the background.
A kilogram of sugar used to cost one dollar before the war and even during the seas fire, but it's now almost one hundred dollars.
He says. For those who can't pay and have no choice but to go to these aid points, it's chaotic. Drones fill the air and soldiers surround the eight points. People are only allowed to go there when the IDF says so, but there is no set schedule and little warning about when they'll get the green light.
There is a few drones that when the center or door it turns on a green light indicating that it's urban and start broadcasting. A voice by Eida christa rooms, telling them that it is urban and you can claim your head within, for example, twenty minutes and leave as soon as boshof.
In the Israeli newspaper Herets late last week, Israeli soldiers admitted to deliberately firing at unarmed people waiting for aid as a form of crowd control. The soldier told haretes that once the center opens, the shooting stops, and they know they can approach. Our only form of communication is gunfire, the soldier said. The Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Etnahu and Defense Minister Israel Katz rejected the testimony as malicious falsehoods.
One of our neighbors who was killed there was shot in his abdomen. He's a guy in his thirties. He's a father for three kids. Last rewards that those who brought him to the hospital have mentioned, and I quote here a man at susa Ula the car home sectem Johnny in which translated for I beg you must to let go of my kids, Please careful them. I left them Hungary.
On Friday, the United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterrez called these aid centers inherently unsafe, saying the search for food must never be a death sentence. Olga trev Co works for the UN in humanitarian affairs. She's currently in Gaza City. So Olga, welcome to seven AM. Thank you for coming on the show. Thanks for having me, Olga. The Haretz report quoted an Israeli soldier describing what is happening at eight Points as a version of the children's game red
Light Green Light. When you read that report, what did you think.
Well, we're clearly seeing that they are extremely dangerous. These I wouldn't call them aid sites. I would say these are militarized areas that put people at risk and force people to choose between an impossible choice.
And it's being distributed by a new organization, a group back by the US and Israeli governments. What do you know about the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation.
So we're not part of this scheme in any way, and we've made our position quite clear that we cannot participate in a scheme that is not in line with
humanitarian principles that have been globally established. And we have also repeatedly emphasized that we had a system in place and we continue to have a system in place that has been tested over many years, and we have decades of experience in delivering aid and making sure that it actually reaches the people in need and does not force them to walk long distances or in anyway puts them that additional risk that they may face at these locations, and our position hasn't changed on that.
And so you mentioned this a little bit. Tell me more about what impact all of this is having on the people who do still need aid in Gaza. Now, how are they now approaching this?
I mean, you know, it's really difficult to go out anywhere in Gaza and see the faces of the people and the kind of the carrying the weight of the world's in difference on their shoulders. Some of them, I feel, are really losing hope at this stage. Others are just basically living from hour to hour, from day to day, and they really don't know where their next meal is going to come from. Of course, they cut corners everywhere,
and they prioritize their children over themselves. I mean, I don't recognize some of my friends when I don't see them for a few days, and then they come and see me and they will have gotten so much dinner and really unrecognizable at this point, So I think the situation that we have now is the worst that we've ever seen. I mean, all indicators are pointing to the negative direction, including malnutrition of course continues to increase, and the types of aight they're allowed to enter are not
everything that is needed. So shelter, for example, hasn't entered for over four months. Same with fuel. It's been about four months since any fuel has entered Gaza at all, and the severity of it now really cannot be overstated. I mean, if no fuel enters within immediate really within the immediate term, we will face immediate loss of life because more vital life saving equipment will have to shut down.
And so, what in your view needs to happen to ensure the safe district aid now in Gaza, Well, it's very simple.
What needs to happen is a consistent and unrestricted flow of aid into Gaza through the various corridors that we have, through the multiple crossings that are available. So they need to open more crossings. They need to allow us to bring aid and supplies into Gaza through these multiple corridors,
and our work needs to be enabled. I mean some of our missions take days to complete and even then, some of them, you know, may have waited for forty plus hours and didn't actually come out with anything because it was too dangerous, or you know, there was fighting taking place and we have to maneuver our movements in between the offensive that is ongoing. But beyond that, I want to note that it's not just about aid. You know,
you can't put a number on the dignity. They need much more than food, and they need much more than just humanitarian assistance. They need life to have some sort of semblance here, because I don't think that people have felt like they've had any sort of life. And you know, these conditions that were called living, they're not living conditions in any way.
And why do you think it is that Israel is not allowing that unrestricted aid?
Well, I think that would be a question for them. I don't have an answer for that. We obviously have done everything that we possibly could, and we continue to do everything in our power to appeal to anyone who is listening to highlight the extent of the needs and that the only way to address them is by allowing everything that is needed here to enter.
Olga, thank you so much for your time today. I really appreciate it.
That's Mac Sacsua.
This episode of seven Am was produced by Haidi pet and the seven Am team. It's our first episode under new ownership. Our show was recently bought by an independent media company called Solstice Media. Also in the news today, after a nine week trial, the jury in the triple murder trial of Mushroom cook Erin Patterson are finally deliberating their verdict. Patterson has fleeted not guilty to all charges and even took the stand to argue the deaths were
a tragic accident. Meanwhile, the prosecution called more than fifty witnesses to give evidence over the course of the trial. The verdict will be delivered once the twelve members of the jury unanimously agree and from today. Minimum wages across the country are increasing three point five percent. It's expected that two point six million Australians will get a pay rise, bringing the minimum wage to twenty four four dollars and ninety five cents an hour, or nine hundred and forty
eight dollars per week. The new financial year also brings an increase in employer contributions to superannuation, up from eleven point five percent to twelve percent. I'm Ruby Jones. Thanks for listening.