An emergency doctor who recently returned from a mission in Gaza describes the experience as similar to responding to the Christchurch massacre — but seven days a week. 

Dr Ayman Elattar’s four-week rotation in Gaza with the Palestinian Australian New Zealand Medical Association (PANZMA) in April has inspired a letter to the Australian Government, signed by thousands of health workers, calling for more aid support.

The NSW doctor was based in the bombed-out Al-Shifa Hospital, working in conditions now familiar to any medico in Gaza — equipment shortages, minimal anaesthesia and too few staff dealing with dozens of horrific injuries every day.

“Every day, we were treating the equivalent of one or two Christchurch massacres, seven days a week,” Dr Elattar tells 6minutes.