It’s like nothing I have ever seen in my life,” said American ICU nurse Wally Massay of his time in Gaza. Massay recently returned from a spell in the densely populated strip, where he was on the front lines of Israel’s campaign against a civilian population. He worked at numerous health centers, including the Al-Aqsa, Nasser, and Indonesia hospitals.
Massay sat down with MintPress News Director, Mnar Adley, to describe life in a Gaza hospital. “You really do not have shifts,” he said, explaining that:
You are working 24/7. You are sleeping in the hospital, your room is just next to the emergency room, so 24/7 you hear children crying, mothers crying. So, literally, you don’t start working. You’re 24/7 in the emergency room or in the ICU [intensive care unit]. Every time there is an Israeli airstrike, you’re in the emergency room. When there was a little calm in the emergency room, I would go to the ICU and work there. Your day never stops.”
Massay and other health professionals risked their lives every day to help the victims of the ongoing assault on an area that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has stated Israel intends to occupy and annex. According to the World Health Organization, IDF attacks have destroyed or damaged 33 of Gaza’s 36 hospitals.
United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker Türk, denounced the Israeli targeting of health centers, releasing a statement that read:
As if the relentless bombing and the dire humanitarian situation in Gaza were not enough, the one sanctuary where Palestinians should have felt safe in fact became a death trap. The protection of hospitals during warfare is paramount and must be respected by all sides, at all times.”
Israel has made a point of targeting doctors in Gaza, imprisoning and brutalizing them. Dr. Adnan al-Bursh, head of orthopedics at al-Shifa Hospital, was likely raped to death in an Israeli prison, according to numerous credible reports. At least 1150 health workers in Gaza have been killed since October 7, 2023, including 165 doctors, 260 nurses, 300 support personnel, and 76 pharmacists.
During this exclusive interview, Massay told MintPress that Israel was carrying out a deliberate policy of ethnic cleansing. The sorts of injuries he mainly dealt with were, in his own words, “A lot of gunshot wounds, a lot of straight shots to the head, to the chest, or to the groin, especially for boys.” “Their reproductive organs were completely dismantled and destroyed. So these boys, in 20 years, may never have children. It’s ethnic cleansing at its worst,” he added.
The gunshot wounds were surprisingly uniform and extremely accurate, leaving no doubt in his mind that they were deliberate. “You can tell that this person meant exactly what they have done,” he told Adley.
Israel’s onslaught has left at least 17,400 Gazan children dead – around 4% of the prewar child population. Another 3% are wounded, 5% require treatment for acute malnutrition, and one in twenty kids have been orphaned or separated from their parents.
“Most of the time, I feel I am dead inside. My heart is shredded. My heart is in pieces for the children of Gaza,” Massay said.
Throughout the attack, both parties – Democrat and Republican – have offered their full support to the Israeli government. The U.S. has provided billions in military and economic aid to Israel, defended it at international institutions such as the United Nations, and passed laws cracking down on domestic opposition to the genocide.
It has even gone so far as to launch a war against Ansar Allah forces in Yemen, who have blocked the Red Sea to Israeli shipping, in an attempt to force Tel Aviv to halt its operations in Gaza.
These facts weigh heavily on Massay’s heart. “Looking into the eyes of a Palestinian child,” he said, “it is a terrible feeling to know that my money and my taxes just killed you.”
Don’t miss this poignant and exclusive interview.
Mnar Adley is an award-winning journalist and editor and is the founder and director of MintPress News. She is also president and director of the non-profit media organization Behind the Headlines. Adley also co-hosts the MintCast podcast and is a producer and host of the video series Behind The Headlines. Contact Mnar at mnar@mintpressnews.com or follow her on Twitter at @mnarmuh.
The post “They Were Shot in the Groin”: American ICU Nurse Exposes Gaza War Crimes appeared first on MintPress News.