Foreign doctors in Gaza describe worst wounds 'they've ever seen'

GAZA CITY (Palestinian Territories), Sept 26 (Agencies): International doctors and nurses who treated Palestinians in Gazan hospitals described wounds more severe than civilians had suffered in other modern conflicts, according to a peer-reviewed study published Friday.
For the research in the leading medical journal BMJ, 78 humanitarian healthcare workers mostly from Europe and North America answered survey questions describing the severity, location and cause of the wounds they saw during their stints in the Gaza Strip.
The British-led team of researchers said it is the most comprehensive data available about Palestinian injuries during Israel's nearly two-year offensive against militant group Hamas, given that the territory's health facilities have been devastated and international access is heavily restricted.
Two thirds of the healthcare workers had previously deployed to other conflict zones, the vast majority of whom said the injuries in Gaza were "the worst thing that they've ever seen", the study's lead author, British surgeon Omar El-Taji, told AFP.
Up to three months after they returned from Gaza, the doctors and nurses-aided by log books and shift records-filled out a survey about the injuries they saw during deployments lasting from two to 12 weeks between August 2024 and February 2025.
They catalogued more than 23,700 trauma injuries and nearly 7,000 wounds caused by weapons-numbers which broadly echoed data from the World Health Organization, the study said.
Meanwhile, Israeli forces killed more than 29 people across the Palestinian territory on Friday, ahead of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's speech at the United Nations in New York.
It comes as the Israeli military presses its offensive against Hamas in Gaza City, from which hundreds of thousands have been forced to flee.
The civil defence agency -- a rescue force operating under Hamas authority -- reported at least 22 people killed since dawn across the territory, including 11 in Gaza City.
US President Donald Trump says he won’t allow Israel to annex the occupied West Bank, rejecting calls from far-right politicians in Israel to seize the Palestinian territory.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu delivers a much-watched speech as he faces growing international isolation, accusations of war crimes, and rising pressure to end the devastating war on Gaza.
Israel’s war on Gaza has killed at least 65,502 people and wounded 167,376 since October 2023. Thousands more are believed buried under the rubble. A total of 1,139 people were killed in Israel during the October 7, 2023, attacks and about 200 taken captive.
Israel strikes kill eight in Yemen
Israel struck Sanaa on Thursday, killing at least eight people and wounding more than 140, Yemen's Huthis said, a day after the rebels launched a drone attack on southern Israel.
Israeli forces struck several Huthi-linked targets in the rebel-held capital, Israeli officials said, warning of more attacks to come. Huthi media said the targets included a detention facility.
UN adds 68 companies to blacklist for alleged complicity in rights violations in Israeli settlements
The United Nations has added nearly 70 more companies to a blacklist of companies from 11 countries that it says are complicit in violating Palestinian human rights through their business ties to Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank.
The new list spotlights companies that do business that's deemed supportive of the settlements, which are considered by many to be illegal under international law. It includes an array of companies like vendors of construction materials and earth-movers, as well as providers of security, travel and financial services.
The list, formally known as a "database of companies," now contains 158 companies - the vast majority Israeli. The others are from the United States, Canada, China, Britain, France, Germany, Spain, Portugal, the Netherlands and Luxembourg.
Eurovision members to vote in November on Israeli participation: organiser
The organiser of the Eurovision Song Contest said Friday its members would vote in November on Israel's participation next year, after calls to boycott the country over its war in Gaza.
"A letter has been sent ... to Directors General of all our Members informing them that a vote on participation in the Eurovision Song Contest 2026 will take place," the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) told AFP in an email. It said the vote would take place "at an extraordinary meeting of the EBU's General Assembly to be held online in early November".
Indonesia leader offers 20,000
troops for post-war Gaza
Indonesia's leader has offered to send at least 20,000 troops as peacekeepers to Gaza to safeguard any future peace deal.
Addressing the UN General Assembly, President Prabowo Subianto said that the world's most populous Muslim-majority country wanted a peace that shows that "might cannot make right."