An orthopedic surgeon from Saskatchewan, Dr. Deirdre Nunan, who just lately returned from an task in Gaza, is urging Canada to take stronger motion.
“We’ve seen the Canadian authorities suggest to acknowledge the state of Palestine, however this isn’t a sensible transfer,” Nunan stated.
Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney affirms Canada’s intent to acknowledge the State of Palestine on the UN Normal Meeting later this month and Nunan stated her message to Ottawa is evident: recognition alone received’t save lives.
She’s urging a significant resumption of support circulation into Gaza and for Canada to implement a two-way arms embargo.
Canada did announce an arms embargo, however a parliamentary report flagged loopholes; Nunan is now calling for these gaps to be closed.
“It’s utterly appalling and each time I’ve gone, I’ve thought that now we have reached all-time low… I didn’t suppose issues would worsen. They have been, they acquired worse… for thus many lives which were misplaced, for thus many individuals who’ve been injured in that point of inaction,” Nunan stated.
Docs With out Borders Canada govt director, Sana Bég, labels the state of affairs “unequivocally a genocide,” asserting Israel’s destruction of water infrastructure and blockade has pushed civilian struggling.
Nunan captured a photograph of a desalination facility in southern Gaza, the functioning of which has been affected by gas shortages. She stated she witnessed kids begging for water in hospital hallways.
Deirdre Nunan says she captured this picture of the southern Gaza desalination plant on July 3, 2025.
Courtesy: Deirdre Nunan
“At a time when kids are begging for water, I believe it needs to be clear that there’s a water scarcity of the very best magnitude,” Nunan stated.
Bég warns that not a single hospital in Gaza is now absolutely practical; she stated solely 18 of 36 nonetheless present partial operations. She stated Canada must act below its worldwide humanitarian legislation obligations.
“Cease the genocide in Gaza, cease ethnic cleaning and compelled displacement. We’re calling for an instantaneous and sustained ceasefire. Elevate the siege. Canada must play its function and present actual management in abiding by worldwide humanitarian legislation and making the identical calls for,” Bég advised World Information in an interview.
Israel strongly opposes the Palestinian state recognition from nations like Canada, saying it may undermine peace efforts and escalate tensions. Israeli officers are reportedly contemplating the annexation of elements of the West Financial institution in response to burgeoning worldwide recognition strikes.
The Israeli Protection Forces (IDF) says its navy operations goal Hamas militants, not civilians and search to guard Israelis from ongoing rocket assaults. The IDF stresses that warnings are issued earlier than strikes and efforts are made to reduce civilian hurt.
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Nunan has labored in Gaza since 2019, with three assignments for the reason that Oct. 7 Hamas assault and Israel’s response.
Throughout her most up-to-date task in Gaza in July of 2025, Nunan describes treating a lot of her sufferers at Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis with minimal provides, little or no anesthetic, restricted clear water and frequent energy outages.
“There have been days once we didn’t have sufficient gas to run the turbines within the hospital to energy the air con. So the surgeons have been dripping sweat into the injuries of the sufferers as they have been working on them,” Nunan stated.
Nunan stated she noticed sufferers handled in tents and on mats exterior hospital buildings, working rooms operating on bottled water and surgical groups working amid warmth, energy outages and fixed airstrikes.
Docs treating an injured man admitted to a mat on the ground beside a tent on July 25, 2025.
Courtesy: Deirdre Nunan
“Sufferers have been being admitted into tents exterior the hospital… we have been utilizing bottled water to pour over our arms as we washed them earlier than surgical procedures,” Nunan stated.
Traumatic accidents from missile impacts and shrapnel, to burns and crush wounds, have been widespread, typically requiring amputations, Nunan recounted.
“A majority of the accidents that we’re seeing have been from explosive accidents. So that is missiles shelling largely on people who find themselves at residence with their households of their tents,” she stated.
Nunan stated gunshot wounds have been one other frequent damage, together with amongst civilians reporting they have been attacked whereas ready for support. She stated kids accounted for at the least one-third of her sufferers, with some as younger as six weeks previous.
“They’re probably the most extreme accidents I’ve seen in my profession… it was 5 worst instances I’ve seen in a yr in in the future after which the following day could be the identical,” Nunan stated.
Nunan is bringing her testimony to a public occasion in Vancouver on Monday, Sept. 8, alongside creator Naomi Klein, making clear the eyes of each the disaster zone and Canada are watching what policymakers do subsequent.
Calls to motion ‘ignored’
Nunan stated on July twentieth, 2025, she witnessed medical workers protesting famine circumstances, calling on the world to behave. Now, weeks later, with formal studies of famine, she stresses worldwide motion is required now.
“Once I was strolling between hospital buildings in Nasser Hospital, the hospital workers staged a protest. It was coordinated with different well being services in Gaza… with small indicators saying, Finish the famine and cease hunger and feed the kids of Gaza. And so they hoped that that will be a name to the world,” she stated.
She snapped a picture of that protest and later acknowledged one of many journalists in her picture as Mohammed Salama, who was later killed within the Israeli navy’s double-tap strike on Nasser Hospital on Aug. 25. Nunan stated her colleague later confirmed it was Salama in her picture.
“Sound the alarm on hunger in Gaza” protest by healthcare staff at Nasser Hospital July 20, 2025. Courtesy: Deirdre Nunan.
Courtesy: Deirdre Nunan
The Aug. 25 airstrike first hit the hospital’s high ground, then there was a second strike about quarter-hour later as medics, journalists and rescuers fled to help the preliminary victims. The assault, killing at the least 20 individuals, together with 5 journalists, has been condemned internationally as a grave violation of worldwide humanitarian legislation.
Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu described the incident as a “tragic mishap.” He emphasised Israel values the work of journalists, medical workers and civilians and talked about navy authorities have been conducting a radical investigation.
Nunan expressed grave concern for her colleague, Dr. Ahmad Mhanna, director of Al Awda Hospital in northern Gaza, who was detained by Israeli forces, reportedly with out formal costs, in December of 2023, when Israeli troops stormed the hospital and eliminated a number of workers. Most have been launched however Dr. Mhanna was not.
“One in all my colleagues… Dr. Ahmad Mhanna, anesthetist and the medical director of the Al-Awda facility in northern Gaza, which is a accomplice facility the place I labored for years, he has been in jail for a lot of, many months now,” Nunan stated.
The Guardian studies troubling allegations that Dr. Mhanna endured harsh remedy, together with dehumanizing interrogations and bodily and psychological abuse in detention.
Based on human rights organizations Human Rights Watch and Amnesty Worldwide, these studies echo broader accounts from different detained Gaza healthcare professionals who describe comparable mistreatment—together with beatings, humiliations, and hunger—typically below Israel’s Illegal Combatants Legislation, which allows indefinite detention with out cost or trial.
Israeli authorities keep that their detention coverage includes reviewing detainees and releasing “those that should not concerned in terrorist exercise” as soon as cleared.
