In 2014, after the night-time attack by Israel, Norwegian Doctor Mads Gilbert, who wanted to stir the world's conscience, described the horrors of the war suffered by the civilian population in Palestine in his letter:
"Dearest friends,
The last night was extreme. The "ground invasion" of Gaza resulted in scores and carloads with maimed, torn apart, bleeding, shivering, dying - all sorts of injured Palestinians, all ages, all civilians, all innocent.
The heroes in the ambulances and in all of Gaza's hospitals are working 12-24 hour shifts, grey from fatigue and inhuman workloads (without payment all in Shifa for the last 4 months), they care, triage, try to understand the incomprehensible chaos of bodies, sizes, limbs, walking, not walking, breathing, not breathing, bleeding, not bleeding humans. HUMANS!
Now, once more treated like animals by "the most moral army in the world" (sic!).
My respect for the wounded is endless, in their contained determination in the midst of pain, agony and shock; my admiration for the staff and volunteers is endless, my closeness to the Palestinian "sumud" gives me strength, although in glimpses I just want to scream, hold someone tight, cry, smell the skin and hair of the warm child, covered in blood, protect ourselves in an endless embrace - but we cannot afford that, nor can they.
Ashy grey faces - Oh NO! Not one more load of tens of maimed and bleeding, we still have lakes of blood on the floor in the ER, piles of dripping, blood-soaked bandages to clear out - oh - the cleaners, everywhere, swiftly shoveling the blood and discarded tissues, hair, clothes, cannulas - the leftovers from death - all taken away ... to be prepared again, to be repeated all over. More then 100 cases came to Shifa in the last 24 hrs. Enough for a large well trained hospital with everything, but here - almost nothing: no electricity, water, disposables, drugs, OR-tables, instruments, monitors - all rusted and as if taken from museums of yesterday's hospitals. But they do not complain, these heroes. They get on with it, like warriors, head on, enormously resolute.
And as I write these words to you, alone, on a bed, my tears flow, the warm but useless tears of pain and grief, of anger and fear. This is not happening!
An then, just now, the orchestra of the Israeli war-machine starts its gruesome symphony again, just now: salvos of artillery from the navy boats just down on the shores, the roaring F16, the sickening drones (Arabic 'Zennanis', the hummers), and the cluttering Apaches. So much made in and paid by the US.
Mr. Obama - do you have a heart?
I invite you - spend one night - just one night - with us in Shifa. Disguised as a cleaner, maybe.
I am convinced, 100%, it would change history.
Nobody with a heart AND power could ever walk away from a night in Shifa without being determined to end the slaughter of the Palestinian people.
But the heartless and merciless have done their calculations and planned another "dahyia" onslaught on Gaza.
The rivers of blood will keep running the coming night. I can hear they have tuned their instruments of death.
Please. Do what you can. This, THIS cannot continue."
**
Dr. Gilbert's efforts through his letter gained international attention. In 2014, protests were organized in Oslo and Paris, led by the Norway-Palestine Joint Committee and joined by about forty organizations, to protest Israel's attacks on Gaza. Here, a text written by Mads Gilbert was read. Mads expressed that solidarity empowered the people of Gaza and made a call to the compassionate people of the world: "I shout to you from Gaza: We have no time to lose! You must stop the madness! You must scream louder than the sound of bombs! Palestinians should have the same legal protection as Israelis, Americans, and Norwegians. Palestinians have the same human values as all of us living in the world. When we create human value, we create peace!"
**
Thanks to the efforts of the Norwegian doctor, protests were held in Oslo and Paris, and messages of support were sent to Palestine. After the 2014 attack, he returned to Norway but soon decided to go back to Palestine, believing that Gazans needed him more. However, when he arrived at the border, he was not allowed in. Being a witness to the events and stating that Israel deliberately carried out this bombing and mobilizing public opinion around the world infuriated the Israeli government. Israeli soldiers at the border did not let the Norwegian doctor in, stating that he was on the blacklist and banned from entering Palestine for life.
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During the twenty-two-day attack at the end of 2008 and the beginning of 2009, thousands of Palestinians lost their lives. Dr. Mads Gilbert and his colleague Dr. Erik Fosse, who witnessed the events, combined their day-to-day notes to create a book. Translated into Turkish as "Gazze'nin Gözyaşları," the book depicts Israel's attacks on Palestinian civilians and the events at Shifa Hospital in all their reality. After the 2014 attacks, the Norwegian doctor continued to be the voice of Palestine with his book titled "Gazze'de Gece."
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In the year 2024, at the age of 76, the doctor who witnessed the genocide in Palestine since the age of 20 is now 76 years old. Working at Shifa Hospital in Gaza for 16 years, the doctor knows both Palestinians and Israelis very well. He is confident that Palestinians will never give up and will resist under any circumstances. He also knows Israel to be a chronic liar.
At the age of 76, he continues to work in Cairo, the capital of Egypt, with an emergency health team supported by the Norwegian government and waiting to enter Gaza.
**
It has always been like this in history. How did our national poet Mehmet Akif Ersoy begin our national anthem, the Independence March?
Do not fear.
In the end, those who are patient will win, while those who remain silent, turn a blind eye, stand by the powerful, are afraid, and lie will lose.
