Over the past week, I had the privilege and opportunity to visit Rafah, Gaza to bear witness to an ongoing genocide, bring in essential medications and supplies, and provide humanitarian medical relief work in primary healthcare. What I found during my time in Gaza was communities and people that were finding ways to live and support one another despite all of the hardships they were facing. I have learned so much about unparalleled resiliency, kindness, and humanity from the Palestinians in Gaza who welcomed us in. I will be sharing more in the coming days and weeks.
This week, I was in Syria visiting medical clinics & hospitals, primarily operating on donation and mutual aid efforts. Patients and community members spoke about the lifesaving care they receive without worrying about paying for their healthcare. I can’t wait to share more soon.
🚨🚨🚨URGENT MEDICAL EVACUATION
Yusuf, a 3 year old boy, suffers from a congenital heart defect: bicuspid aortic valve (BAV) with mild aortic regurgitation, requiring surgical valve replacement to prevent life-threatening complications.
Yusuf’s diagnosis was delayed due to repeated displacement, genocide and the destruction of local healthcare infrastructure. Early signs - fast breathing, fatigue and low oxygen levels - went unnoticed because hospitals were destroyed and specialists were killed or displaced, leaving his family unable to access care. At one point, the cardiac specialist he was supposed to visit was k1lled during an Isr æli attack, further delaying care. Yusuf was ultimately diagnosed by a visiting pediatric cardiologist from North Gaza after being hospitalized for 3 months, highlighting how gen0-cide and medicide in particular directly endangered his life.
Current Clinical Status:
• Chronic fatigue and weakness
• Rapid breathing and cyanosis
• Failure to thrive since birth
• Episodes of palpitations and low oxygen saturation
Gaza’s remaining medical facilities cannot perform the necessary pediatric heart surgery. Without urgent aortic valve replacement, Yusuf faces progressive heart failure and life-threatening complications.
Immediate needs:
• Pre-operative cardiac evaluation
• Aortic valve repair or replacement
• Specialized post-operative pediatric cardiac care
Yusuf is listed on the @who.opt medical evacuation registry but has not yet received the life-saving surgery he urgently requires. Every day of delay increases the risk of irreversible complications or death.
Yusuf’s situation highlights the critical gap in pediatric cardiac care in Gaza, a result of destroyed healthcare infrastructure and k1lled/displaced medical specialists.
He cannot survive without urgent international intervention.
The #freedomflotilla is now on high alert! israel has stated their intentions to violate international law and attack the flotilla in international waters if we continue our mission to break the illegal and brutal siege on Gaza. We won’t back down, we will keep coming until Palestine is free!
#freepalesti̇ne #solidaritywithpalestine #breakthesiege
Today is International Day Against Homophobia, Biphobia, and Transphobia. I am so grateful for the organizers, activists, and community members who understand that liberation from all forms of hate and discrimination is intertwined. And that our solidarity work is intersectional.
The flotilla sets sails again! 🛳️🇵🇸
Five FFC @gazafreedomflotilla Boats launched from Greece, they joined 50+ GSF @globalsumudflotilla & @mavimarmaratr vessels that departed from Marmaris #türkiye 🇹🇷
Despite attacks, abductions, threats, and smear campaigns, the mission to break israel’s illegal and deadly siege of Gaza continues.
They are unarmed, civilian-led, lawful, and grounded in international law.
Governments have failed to stop the siege, starvation, and wholesale destruction of Gaza. They have been continuously enabling this genocide.
But it is our duty to refuse to normalize the horror. To rise against murder, apartheid, and ethnic cleansing.
All eyes on Gaza — and the flotilla trying to reach it (link to tracker in our bio).
Every day, Israel is killing healthcare workers.
Today, three more Lebanese paramedics were killed.
These are the people who run toward danger to save lives when most would run away.
They are being deliberately targeted and killed for doing their jobs.
The silence from Western medical institutions in the face of these atrocities is deafening.
No one can say they didn’t know. 📹 @sahouraxo
Whether it be a keffiyeh tie or a watermelon pin, the Ontario Medical Association ought to have better things to be doing with their time than to waste my time talking about my attire. Like working to improve healthcare for people living in Ontario, or speaking up about our healthcare worker colleagues in Palestine and Lebanon who continue to be killed by the Israeli military attacks on healthcare. Shame on the Ontario Medical Association and their leadership.
A few days after I attended a day at Queen’s Park in Toronto in October 2024 to speak to the provincial government about healthcare issues in Ontario, a lobby day that the Ontario Medical Association themselves invited me to, they wanted to follow up and discuss my social media/clothing choices.
When I pressed this paid staff member of the Ontario Medical Association about the reason and purpose behind such a meeting, he stopped responding. And they stopped inviting me to their lobby days in Toronto which they have invited me to since my days in medical school.
And then just last week, I was removed from the organization’s annual general meeting for wearing a watermelon pin, and they had three Ontario Medical Association staff members speak to me about this including two executive vice-presidents. Do they not have anything better to do with their time?
Yesterday, May 15th marked 78 years of the ongoing Nakba, or the catastrophe, which marked the ethnic cleansing of the Palestinian population between 1947-1949. In this time, 750,000 Palestinians (70% of the population) were forcibly displaced in a mass exodus. The Global Sanctions Coalition asks how much longer will the Palestinian people be forced to endure atrocities? It is time for the West to take their economic power — and moral responsibility — seriously.
The Nakba lives on, not as a memory, but as an enduring reality. We remember, grieve, and resist.
Sources: Al-Jazeera, Middle East Eye
#nakba #Gaza #nakbaday #israel #ongoingnakba
End of day clinic thoughts on Nakba Day. The Nakba is ongoing. The genocide in Gaza is ongoing.
Visible signs and symbols of solidarity with Palestine is important. The actions of the Ontario Medical Association is anti-Palestinian racism.
We have so many better things to be doing than debating the clothing or pins I wear, but this is where paid staff of the Ontario Medical Association repeatedly put their time and energy. Not putting said energy into improving healthcare for people living in Ontario.
We all deserve so much better. Free Palestine.
