The first female surgeon in Gaza – Sarah Al-Saqqa: Life has stopped, but the commitment to saving lives continues

I ran d. Sarah went to the operating room and spent the entire next day performing one operation after another, only to quickly realize that this was a horrific reality “It’s not like anything we’ve seen before.” As she said. She found herself in the middle of an “unprecedented war” in the sector It erupted following the October 7 terrorist attacks launched by Hamas and other armed groups on Israel.

Sarah Al-Sakka’s story was part of a documentary film prepared in cooperation between the United Nations Department of Global Communications and the Shanghai Media Group on the occasion of the eightieth anniversary of the founding of the United Nations. This part of the film highlights the humanitarian efforts and crisis in Gaza from the perspective of Dr. Sarah Al-Sakka, who works with the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.

Al-Shifa Hospital: from safe haven to mass grave

Sarah and her colleagues worked non-stop for 36 days until Al-Shifa Hospital, the largest hospital in the Gaza Strip, was besieged for the first time. She tells us this by saying:

“At the beginning of this war, people were displaced to Al-Shifa Hospital and other hospitals as well. They thought they would be safe if they came to the place that treats patients. A place protected under international humanitarian law, but they were wrong.”

During that time, Sarah became a de facto correspondent for the medical efforts in Gaza, sharing videos on social media that made a huge impact: “I wanted people to feel for themselves what was happening and do something to stop it. But over time, it became psychologically exhausting. I started to feel like nothing was really changing no matter how much I posted. Worse still, I noticed that people were interacting less. They became indifferent. And I couldn’t keep it up.”

In March 2024, Al-Shifa Hospital was subjected to a second siege. At least 400 people were killed and the hospital was left completely inoperable. Sarah said: “Look around us. We are sitting in a place where Palestinians, Civil Defense, paramedics and Health Ministry employees dug a mass grave outside this square after the Israeli incursion. The courtyard where we used to take breaks, now we cannot even look at it because we think about the graves that are here, and about the number of people who were killed and buried.”

Moving from the operating room to international coordination

After being forcibly displaced, Sarah Al-Sakka continued her humanitarian work by joining Médecins Sans Frontières as Director of Medical Activity. During this period, a shift in her vision occurred: “As a surgeon, I can save a few lives every day. Maybe three, maybe four, or a number of surgeries a day. But when I helped open a primary health care center and when I helped expand hospital bed capacity, I realized I could help hundreds of lives every day.”

This realization led Sarah to accept a job with the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), which acts as a command center to guide UN agencies’ relief response. But Sarah and her team face bitter challenges, as they are increasingly prevented from carrying out their tasks, to the point that coordinating to rescue a family under the rubble took an entire day instead of a few minutes.

She explained this while trying to coordinate this through two phones in her hands, speaking to relief teams in different locations. She tells her colleagues who arrived at the location to stay in the car until she receives confirmation that they will be allowed to get out of it. She speaks to another colleague, asking him to assure her that the team can head to the building to begin their mission: “Since yesterday, we have been trying to coordinate to reach family members still alive under the rubble. Yesterday we submitted tactical coordination and it was rejected. We submitted another coordination request today and it was just approved.”

One approval after another, a trip that was supposed to take 5 minutes took more than a day to complete. When the rescue team finally managed to arrive, they found no signs of life. Sarah says: “I don’t understand why we have to ask permission to save lives. I can’t understand it and I can’t accept it.”

Gaza is not just a humanitarian crisis, it is a test

Sarah Al-Sakka says humanitarian agencies on the ground are doing everything they can, often under impossible circumstances, but “the political side of the UN is failing.” She adds: “The Security Council has failed Gaza. Gaza is not just a humanitarian crisis. It is a test. It is a test for the United Nations itself. If it cannot respond to the most egregious violations of international law here, its global relevance is at risk.”

Then she continues, saying: “We grew up listening to our grandmothers and grandfathers tell stories of the Nakba. When they were forced to flee their homes in 1948, UNRWA was created in response to their displacement. The agency built schools and clinics, issued ration cards, and brought order to life in exile. Deep down, we clung to the idea that this day of return might come, and that the United Nations would help not be late. Justice forever. But over the years this belief has been tested, especially now in Gaza.”

Losing the future of an entire generation

Sarah remains committed to the principles and mission of the United Nations, and she is not alone. When the war began, OCHA had a team of only four people on the ground. Despite all the challenges, this team has now grown to 20 people. All UN agencies on the ground in Gaza, despite all the challenges, are working with determination to continue providing the life-saving assistance and support needed to build the lives of Gazans again.

The war in Gaza shattered the dreams of many people in the Strip and changed their lives forever. Sarah Al-Saqqa warns of losing an entire generation: “I know people who were days away from traveling to their new job or continuing their education, or getting married. Everything we had built, everything we had hoped for, everything we had dreamed of, had been taken away from us. So yes, my life was disrupted. But what happened, what is happening here, is the future of an entire generation collapsed. So we are still working, and we are still pushing ourselves to keep trying every day until this madness stops.”