The scenes Willy Massay witnessed in Gaza were harrowing: children shot multiple times in the head, chest and groin; hospitals reduced to rubble; the smell of burning flesh and gunpowder lingering in the air. For the American ICU nurse, recently returned from the besieged enclave, Israel’s assault on Gaza was not just war; it was deliberate, systematic extermination.
Massay had been on the front lines of the Israeli attack on the densely populated strip, working in some of the most overwhelmed health centers, including Al-Aqsa, Nasser and Indonesia hospitals.
He sat down with MintPress News founder and director, Mnar Adley, to discuss his time in Palestine and the brutal realities of the Israeli assault. This is part two of that interview. To watch or listen to part one, click here.
Although back in the United States, the experience of working in Gaza has profoundly affected Massay, who told Adley that:
It is the screams of parents, the cries of mothers, and the smell of gunpowder, blood, and burning flesh that will never ever leave my sense of smell. The cries of mothers and fathers over their children. That plays in my head and my heart every night. I cannot sleep. I cannot get away from that. I can see and hear Israeli bombs in my sleep.”
He and other health professionals from all over the world risk their lives to save as many people as possible. These actions have made them a target. Israel has killed more than 1400 healthcare workers since October 7, 2023. IDF attacks have destroyed or damaged 33 of Gaza’s 36 hospitals. “It is an atrocity that humanity should not forget,” Massay said.
Worse still, he noted, is that Israel blocks medical supplies from reaching the area, meaning he and his colleagues must work without even basic instruments and drugs.
We don’t have gauze. We don’t have anesthesia, we don’t have antibiotics. And no water. No electricity. Israel, before every strike, cuts off electricity. They are going to bomb you while you are in the dark.”
Massay explained how this lack of electricity means lifesaving machines are shut off, causing mass deaths. Ventilators, for example, stop working. And so he and his colleagues must “bag” patients, a process of connecting their respiratory systems to plastic bags which have to be pumped by hand, day and night, to keep oxygen flowing into their bodies. As they pump, Israeli bombs fall on the hospital, and bullets penetrate its walls.
Those bombs are supplied by the United States, often at U.S. taxpayer expense, who have footed the bill for more than $22 billion of aid to Tel Aviv since October 7, 2023, making Washington an active participant in the destruction. Despite its rhetoric about slashing budgets, the Trump administration has shown few signs of limiting the aid flowing to Israel, even as international organizations label the campaign a “genocide” and call for boycotts and sanctions against Israel.
Massay also chronicles a war against the children of Palestine, noting how girls are dying of urinary tract infections because of the shortage of sanitary products. Israeli soldiers, meanwhile, deliberately shoot boys in the penis, in order to prevent them from ever having children of their own.
These are the stories you’re not supposed to hear.
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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.
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