Interviewer: When were you in Gaza?
Dr. Mark Perlmutter: End of April for the first couple weeks of May.
Voiceover: Dr. Mark Perlmutter, an orthopaedic surgeon from North Carolina and vice president of the International College of Surgeons volunteered in Gaza.
Interviewer: So of all the disaster zones you’ve seen, how does Gaza compare?
Dr. Mark Perlmutter: All of the disasters I’ve seen combined – combined – 40 mission trips, 30 years, ground zero, earthquakes, all of that combined doesn’t equal the level of carnage that I saw against civilians in just my first week in Gaza.
Interviewer: And when you say civilians, is it mostly children?
Dr. Mark Perlmutter:: Almost exclusively children. I’ve never seen that before. Never seen that. I’ve seen more incinerated children than I’ve ever seen in my entire life combined. I’ve seen more shredded children, in just the first week.
Interviewer: Shredded?
Dr. Mark Perlmutter: Shredded.
Interviewer: What do you mean?
Dr. Mark Perlmutter: Missing body parts, being crushed by buildings, the greatest majority, or bomb explosions, the next greatest majority. I’ve taken shrapnels as big as my thumb out of eight year olds. And then they’re sniper bullets. I had children that were shot twice.
Interviewer: Wait, you’re saying that children in Gaza are being shot by snipers?
Dr. Mark Perlmutter: Definitively. I have two children that I have photographs of [presenting a photo] that were shot so perfectly in the chest that I couldn’t put my stethoscope over their heart more accurately, and directly on the side of the head, in the same child. No toddler gets shot twice by mistake by “the world’s best sniper”. And they’re dead centre shots.
Voiceover: In fact, more than 20 doctors recently in Gaza also told Sunday morning about gunshot wounds to children. One American doctor told us he even reviewed CT scans to confirm what he saw because he, quote, “didn’t believe that this many children could be admitted to a single hospital with gunshot wounds to the head”. Some shootings have been captured on video. The Israel Défense Force declined our requests for an on-camera interview. But in an email, a spokesperson told CBS News, quote, “the IDF has never and will never deliberately target children”, adding, quote, “remaining in an active combat zone has inherent risks”. And the IDF stressed that it calls for the evacuation of civilians from combat zones. The UN reports that to date more than 80% of Gaza’s population has been displaced and the majority of its buildings destroyed. A reality which has taken its own toll on the well-being of children.
Interviewer: What about the emotional wounds?
Dr. Mark Perlmutter: How can you measure that? I can’t measure my own. How do you be an orphan watching your family, you know, melted in front of you and shredded in front of you? How do you fix that? Ever fix that?
Voiceover: In fact, so many Palestinian children have had family members killed that doctors created a shorthand term. WCNSF, wounded child, no surviving family. Last month, speaking in Washington, DC, other American doctors echoed Dr. Perlmutter’s calls for help.
Dr. Feroze Sidhwa: We’ve described it as a catastrophe, a nightmare, a hell on earth. It’s all of these and worse.
Dr. Zena Saleh: We didn’t even have hand sanitizer or alcohol or soap most of the time.
Dr. Adam Hamawy: And while we’re there, we’re listening to, you know, “aid is getting in”. It’s “ we’re taking care of civilians. They’re not being targeted”. And yet we’re witnessing a completely different story.
Dr. Mark Perlmutter: For dozens of miles, we saw 18-wheelers parked bumper to bumper, engines off outside of Gaza. Food or health care could not get in.
Interviewer: How many kids are in danger of starvation in Gaza?
Dr. Mark Perlmutter: All of them. Absolutely all of them. United Nations experts have accused Israel of carrying out a targeted starvation campaign. But Israeli officials say they’ve allowed the delivery of more than 600,000 tons of food and supplies, quote, with the goal of bringing as much aid into the Gaza Strip as possible.