Before October 7, 2023, Dr David Hasan, a Palestinian-American professor of neurosurgery in North Carolina, never imagined he would perform trauma operations in a warzone, or oversee humanitarian work.
Born in Kuwait to Palestinian parents, the Duke University professor is a world authority on aneurysms. He performed thousands of brain surgeries, pioneered new techniques and published hundreds of papers on the topic. He often travelled around the world to give talks.
But the Hamas attack on Israel nearly two years ago, and the war on Gaza that followed, became a turning point in Dr Hasan’s life, and his career. “The war cracked something inside me,” he tells The National. “Civilians were killed, the images pulled me in and created a huge frustration. For the first time, I decided I was going to be involved.”
He is now one of the most visible Palestinian-American physicians engaged in humanitarian relief for Gaza. He's also hoping to build bridges between Palestinians and Israelis in the process.
Just weeks into the war, in December 2023, he entered Gaza for the first time through the Rafah crossing, with a small medical team. It was one of the first international medical missions to reach the strip, and some of the first American doctors. Even then, he says, the health systems were already close to collapse.
Dr Hasan worked mainly at Nasser Hospital and the European Hospital in Khan Younis, performing trauma surgeries under bombardment and surrounded by tens of thousands of people who were sheltering in the hospitals.
“No one knew the logistics – it was like walking into a black box,” he says. He describes the hospitals as “half-functioning” – places where raw sewage sometimes ran into operating rooms and critical equipment was in short supply. He says he often operated without anaesthetics and without water. He sometimes operated on two patients in one room. “Sometimes the building shook so hard from bombardment that I almost fell while operating.”
But one of the most striking things he saw was how many children were orphaned. Many were severely injured, having lost limbs, other children had to become responsible for multiple younger siblings. He recalls a 12-year-old girl with no surviving parents having to care for her four younger siblings. Another child, 10, had to care for two siblings, including a toddler.
In March 2024, he went for a second mission. By then the humanitarian conditions had drastically worsened, he says. Viral and communicable diseases were running rampant.
Amid the sheer number of trauma victims and shortages in doctors and supplies, hundreds of thousands of people with chronic illnesses like cancer, dialysis patients and heart disease were not receiving any treatment, compounding people's suffering. “When I went the second time, it was really heartbreaking,” he says.
People were markedly hungrier and more desperate, he says. He tried helping people to leave Gaza, which involved paying huge sums of money to Egyptian authorities. He even spent his own funds to try to locate the Israeli hostages, landing him in trouble with Hamas leaders.
He also distributed packages to children with energy bars, toys and treats that his daughter and wife had packed. He recalls children lining up to come and see him in the evenings. He describes these as rare “happy moments”.
That’s when he got the idea to build an orphanage. “I came up with the idea – a huge village: a shelter, a field hospital for children, and a school. I just wanted them safe.” He decided to call it the Children’s Village.
At the time, there were about 17,000 orphans and unaccompanied children in Gaza, according to the United Nations. That figure has probably grown considerably.
So he got to work, knocking on every possible door: the US State Department, neighbouring governments, European countries and international charity groups and aid organisations. He had many rejections, but many also said yes.
In Gaza, he enlisted the help of a 24-year-old nursing student who has done much of the work on the ground. The Dutch and French governments as well as the European Commission are helping, and he has partnered with the World Central Kitchen.
He also managed to get Israelis on board, who raised $200,000 for the project. Dr Dan Turner is an Israeli paediatric gastroenterologist and the vice dean of the Hebrew University in Jerusalem. He has been fundraising and co-ordinating efforts to help bring baby formula, medicine and other supplies into Gaza.
Before the war, he was already involved, co-ordinating with hospitals in the West Bank and Gaza, working on improving access to medical care. Dr Turner says treating malnourished children in Gaza is likely to remain a challenge, as they are at risk of developing refeeding syndrome – which can be fatal – if food is reintroduced too quickly or inadequately.
In recent weeks, Dr Turner and others have managed to get refeeding formulas, medicines as well as other critical supplies through Israel’s Kerem Shalom crossing. He describes some willingness in recent weeks on the part of the Israeli authorities to allow shipments of medicine and formulas, though the process remains lengthy and bureaucratic.
“I don't know if we're making any dramatic changes there. It's probably a drop in the sea,” he says. “But to do nothing is not something that we can allow ourselves, given what we are seeing and the evidence and the pictures coming from Gaza.”
Experts have said children who survive Gaza's starvation crisis are likely to suffer permanent damage, as a lack of food affects their growth and brain development. The UN says 13.5 per cent of children screened across Gaza were identified as acutely malnourished in August, up from 8.3 per cent in July.
Dr Turner says the standard of care in Gaza was limited even before the war erupted, and is completely broken now. He says donations in Israel are coming from people who are horrified by the news and pictures coming out of Gaza. While many Israelis saw justification for their government’s actions early in the war, fewer people now support the continued suffering, starving and killing of Palestinians, particularly children, he notes.
“I'm trying to leave politics out of it,” he says. “I see people, I see suffering people, I see actions that should not be values that are part of any action by a government or a country that I am part of,” he says. “We are focusing on trying to correct a very broken situation, which is heartbreaking.”
In July, the Children's Village officially opened in Deir El Balah in southern Gaza. “We expected 200 kids. Five hundred arrived – some in wheelchairs, some with amputations, some with bones held together by metal rods. Many had not eaten for three or four days,” Dr Hasan says. The site has become a sanctuary for 600 children to play, sing, draw and feel safe, he says.
Children begin trickling in in the morning – most live in the tent shelters nearby. They have classes, then they have a meal, and spend the afternoon playing or making art. They also have psychologists on hand. They do group sessions as well as one-on-ones. The children take any leftover food to have for dinner or share with their families.
He says another school with the capacity for 1,500 children will open up in October in Khan Younis, and another further north in Nusseirat for 1,000 children in November. He says those plans give him a measure of much-needed hope for the future of the children, and the wider region. “For the first time, I see that even in the middle of war, bridges can be built when the focus is children,” Dr Hasan says.
He reflects on the last nearly two years, saying that before October 7, he was “self-indulged” and more concerned about advancing his career. The war has forever changed those priorities.
“I was just heartbroken,” he says. “These kids are innocent victims, they deserve education, they deserve dignity, and they deserve a chance at life.”
