‘I was struck with the terror’: The frontline Aussie doctor treating victims of the Hamas attacks

Dr Debra Gershov West was on duty when the first casualties of the 'catastrophic' Hamas terrorist attacks arrived.
Jacquelin Magnay

Australian ED specialist Dr Debra Gershov West was starting her on-call shift at her hospital near Gaza, when the first phone calls began on 7 October.

There were reports of heavy ­artillery fire, and as she drove to Samson Assuta Ashdod University Hospital in Ashdod, Israel, 37km from the Gaza Strip, missiles from the direction of Gaza began flying above.

“I knew straight away we were in for a big event,” said Dr Gershov West, a Melbourne doctor who has spent three decades in Israel, most recently as the director of the hospital’s ED and chair of Israel’s emergency medicine practice.

But immediately the already intense situation deteriorated.