Dr. Yiqun Wu, a 41-year-old plastic surgeon at Taiwan’s Shuang Ho Hospital, found himself grappling with a profound sense of guilt during a layover in Dubai after completing a three-week mission with Doctors Without Borders in Gaza. He recalled, “My colleagues and their families were still living in a war zone, while I was about to return to a comfortable place where I wouldn’t have to worry about any danger. It felt surreal.”
Dr. Wu was deployed to Nasser Hospital in southern Gaza in July, focusing on treating trauma and burn patients amidst the ongoing conflict that has persisted for nearly a year since the outbreak of war between Hamas and Israel. The impact of this conflict has been devastating, with the Gaza Health Ministry reporting over 40,000 deaths and millions displaced.
Reflecting on the war’s onset, he remembered seeing Gaza mentioned in international news as a distant name until he was approached by Doctors Without Borders in June to see if he was willing to volunteer. Despite initial nervousness about working in a war-torn area, he felt compelled to answer the call: “I wanted to apply my skills in plastic surgery where they would be most meaningful, in places that desperately needed medical resources.”
In the conflict zone, every aspect of daily life was strictly regulated. Dr. Wu’s typical day started early at 7 AM and ended by 3 PM. He lived with his fellow team members about 30 minutes from the hospital and frequently performed five to six surgeries a day, with an overwhelming peak of eleven in one day. One particular experience on July 13 left a lasting impression on him.
That day, an Israeli airstrike resulted in mass casualties in southern Gaza. Receiving word that a wave of patients would be arriving, Dr. Wu rushed to the emergency room, where he faced a shocking scene. Describing it as “a hell on earth,” he noted the chaos of ambulances and private cars filling the area, with the sound of screams echoing around him. He encountered profound horror, including a situation where he had to perform an amputation on a girl who had become unconscious due to severe blood loss from a leg injury. That day alone, 105 patients were declared dead, and 153 were injured.
Throughout his career, Dr. Wu had never witnessed such a high number of child patients. “On my first day, I saw that nearly half of the 20 patients on the surgery schedule were under eight years old, suffering from extensive trauma and severe burns.” The situation at Nasser Hospital was dire, with an occupancy rate exceeding 100%. Sometimes, beds housed up to three children at once, and patients had developed gaping wounds filled with maggots due to lengthy waiting times.
As the sole international physician in the trauma unit, Dr. Wu worked alongside local colleagues, many of whom faced the devastating effects of war on their families. He recalled an incident where a nurse abruptly left the operating room only to be found sobbing in the hallway, having just received news that her 6-year-old child had been killed in an airstrike. “The hospital allowed her to go home,” he said, “but home was just a return to her tent. She didn’t come back to work for several days.”
With Fridays as his only day off, Dr. Wu admitted he needed that time to process the emotional weight of his work unless urgent needs arose at the hospital. One of his coping mechanisms was sketching, which offered him a momentary escape from the overwhelming challenges surrounding him.
On the last day of his mission, Dr. Wu bid farewell to all his colleagues, shaking hands and absorbing the depth of their bonds. They welcomed him to return one day, but their perspective on “returning” was to wait until the fighting was over to experience the beauty of Gaza without the shadow of war.
From conversations with his colleagues, Dr. Wu gained insight into Gaza’s past as a beautiful coastal city. His team shared images of the vibrant shopping centers, cafés, mosques, beaches, and kites flying in the sky—fragments of a peaceful life that are now lost. Despite the ongoing turmoil, the warmth and smiles of his colleagues masked their deep sorrow from the destruction of their homes and the loss of loved ones. The stark statistics he’d seen in the news transformed into tangible realities as faces.
“Being on the ground made me realize how critical an immediate ceasefire is,” Dr. Wu emphasized. “Gaza is no longer a place where people should live. From medical resources to the trauma inflicted on children, the situation continues to deteriorate. The most important thing right now is an immediate ceasefire.”
Dr. Wu is the third Taiwanese doctor deployed to Gaza by Doctors Without Borders in recent years. Last July, another Taiwanese emergency physician was assigned to northern Gaza but was evacuated early due to the outbreak of war.
