From Gaza to Malaysia: a Taiwanese surgeon recounts the horrors of Israel’s war

Wu Yi-chun wasn’t prepared for the profound suffering he witnessed while working in Gaza. But he’s still preparing to return

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Taiwanese surgeon Wu Yi-chun performs surgery at Nasser Hospital in the Gaza Strip. Photo: Medecins Sans Frontieres

Published: 12:35pm, 11 Nov 2024Updated: 5:20pm, 11 Nov 2024

In the heart of a beleaguered Gazan hospital, Taiwanese surgeon Wu Yi-chun was deep in the delicate art of saving lives when a nurse’s frantic departure for a phone call shattered the sterile calm. Perplexed, Wu tried to clear his mind and carry on with his vital work.

It wasn’t until he emerged from the operating room afterwards that he encountered the raw pain of loss: a father crumpled in the hallway, his body wracked with grief – devastated by the news that his five-year-old son had been killed in a bombing. “The call had just informed him,” the 42-year-old reconstructive surgeon said, his voice heavy with the memory.

That phone call, during the first week of a harrowing month spent working in the war-torn enclave, served as a stark introduction to the realities of life in Gaza, Wu told This Week in Asia from the safety of a Medecins Sans Frontieres fundraising event at a Kuala Lumpur hotel on Thursday.

He’d arrived at Nasser Hospital in June, just months after an Israeli raid had left what was once Gaza’s largest medical facility nearly inoperative. A collaboration between local health authorities and Medecins Sans Frontieres allowed it to partially reopen, focusing on urgent orthopaedic and burn surgeries amid a backdrop of chaos and despair.

Wu Yi-chun describes the harrowing injuries he encountered while working at a hospital in Gaza. Photo: Hadi Azmi

Driving into Gaza from Israel, the landscape had transformed abruptly. “It was a snap of change … like you turn on the TV,” Wu said, describing the transition from open fields to a hellscape of rubble and death.