By Michael Welch and Louay Alghoul
Global Research, May 15, 2025
"It is the worst concentration of injuries I have ever seen in my life! I've been working as a surgeon for ten years. A lot of that's been overseas. I've worked in Afghanistan. I've worked in Syria. I've worked in Iraq." - Dr. Deirdre Nunan, reporting to CFCR on her visit to Gaza, from this week's interview.
"They are conducting a genocide now with glee. They're setting their atrocities to music and putting them on catchy reels on TikTok. Ordinary Israelis see what their military is doing and celebrate it." - Susan Abulhawa, from the movie Al Jazeera Investigations
LISTEN TO THE SHOW
w.soundcloud.com
Click to download the audio (MP3 format)
The so-called leaders of the "free" world - those that preside over the "progressive, democratic, human rights championing" Western world - those that represent the international rules-based order - are not shy of applauding themselves as beacons for a better world.
High-minded individuals, like the former Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau certainly don't hold back in their denunciations of what they call "authoritarian powers to undermine democracy and the rules-based international order," and Russia, China, North Korea and Iran are frequently cited on this particular top 10 list. (1)
Today's be-knighted ones make certain to mark occasions of tragic loss of human life, like International Holocaust Remembrance Day, as episodes that will never happen again. (2)
And yet, when an economic and military ally, the State of Israel, has over the last 19 months makes the open-air prison that is Gaza into a blood-drenched chamber of horrors, far in excess of anything done by the above-mentioned authoritarian governments. The bombing of hospitals and mosques, the killing of over 15,000 children, and the calculated starvation of hundreds of thousands and other tales of absolute devastation surely cause Israel to rank among the most despotic nations in modern history.(3)(4)
Today's role-models in power, such as the former President Joe Biden have certainly verbally attacked the Russian President following the war in Ukraine, calling him a "dictator," and a "butcher" who "cannot remain in power." But with regard to actions described as a case plausibly described as a "genocide" by the International Court of Justice, not to mention by numerous figures around the world, only the crickets seem to speak out in the corridors of power. (5)
Even while citizens in Western countries protest in the streets with their cries of "Boycott Israel" and "Ceasefire now," their democratic rulers broadcast supreme levels of hypocrisy while continuing to condone Israeli violence and even help financing the Israeli military. (6)(7)
But thankfully, there are still a few figures who do not stay silent in the face of this modern horror. They make their views known, and have even gone out to the region to see what they can do to help. A very faint light, but still a sign that all is not completely lost.
On this week's chapter of the Global Research News Hour, we listen to audio from two Canadians who have ventured closer to the turmoil to get a clearer sense of what is being called a modern day NAKBA in Gaza.
In our first half hour, we speak to Louay Alghoul, a Winnipeg lawyer with family living and dying in Gaza about what he observed across the border in Egypt during a recent trip there. We also here from an or thopedic surgeon from Saskatchewan, Dr. Deirdre Nunan, about the level of suffering in the regions rivalling other regions of the world she has worked, including Iraq and Afghanistan. Deidre was interviewed by Don Kossick for the radio program Making the Links Radio on Community radio station CFCR in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan.
Louay Alghoul is the principal and owner of Alghoul & Associates Law Firm and has over a decade of legal experience in several areas of law. His preferred area of practice is immigration law. Over the years, he has helped hundreds of individuals to successfully immigrate to Canada. In addition to practicing law, Louay was previously the President of both the Business Law Group and the Canadian Islamic Chamber of Commerce. He is called to the bar and licensed to practice in Manitoba, British Columbia, and Ontario.
Dr. Deirdre Nunan is an orthopedic surgeon from Lanigan, Saskatchewan, Canada. She does most of her work as a humanitarian surgeon working internationally. She was recently working in Gaza in the region of Khan Yunis. She is currently back in Canada and giving public speeches about her first hand experience in Gaza. ( Facebook)
(Global Research News Hour Episode 472)
LISTEN TO THE SHOW
w.soundcloud.com
Click to download the audio (MP3 format)
Transcript of Deirdre Nunan, April 2025
Deirdre Nunan: So my name is Deirdre Nunan. I'm an orthopedic surgeon and I'm from Lanigan, Saskatchewan, born and raised in Saskatchewan. That's where I did my orthopedic training.
But the dream was always to work a little bit farther afield. And so even though I do come back home and work in Moosejaw from time to time, and Lanigan is still my home base, I do most of my work as a humanitarian surgeon working internationally. And so right now I'm in Gaza.
I'm in Khan Younis, which is the south of Gaza, working here as an orthopedic surgeon together with the Palestinian surgical team in the European Gaza Hospital.
Don Kossick: So what was it that brought you to be there? Why did you go there to be doing what you're doing?
DN: If you look at the world right now, there are several ongoing places that are, I think, defining moments of our time in terms of what's happening and in terms of how the world is responding. We have a crisis situation in Haiti.
We have an incursion and rebel groups in Congo with massive numbers of people being killed, horrific violations against human rights. We have a civil war in Sudan that is not getting nearly enough attention with food insecurity and famine. And then we have a genocide in Gaza.
And so for me, it's extremely compelling to do what I can in a very physical and direct way, since I do have some of the skills that can be useful in these contexts. And so in the context of a genocide, I cannot sit at home. I cannot do nothing.
I must do everything I can to take a personal stand against this and to try to provide a link from what's happening in Gaza to people that are not seeing it directly, that might not have as much background information on the situation as I do, to try to have them see what Palestinians are suffering right now and to have them understand how important it is to act in solidarity with Palestinians.
DK: Do you want to just talk a little bit more about what you've seen on the ground there? I think our listeners would like to hear direct analysis and news with you being there, because what you said earlier, I think is correct. We aren't getting enough information about what's really happening in Gaza.
That's why we appreciate you being on the show.
DN: So in Gaza, even though I'm here physically, I have quite a narrow field of view because I live and work in a hospital. I live in a library.
Essentially, I sleep on a mat on the floor, just a few meters away from the operating room. And I do occasionally go outside, but not much these days because I don't feel safe going outside the hospital, even into the parking lot. So I limit my time going outside.
So I have this view where in front of my eyes, it's a pretty normal looking hospital. This hospital has been attacked by the Israeli military on one occasion, but it is in much better condition than the vast majority of hospitals in Gaza. So with my eyes, I see what looks like a relatively normal workplace, but I hear constant drones flying overhead, frequent warplanes.
The last few nights, it has just been airstrike after airstrike, tank shelling after tank shelling. We're waking up to the sound of machine guns firing in the neighborhood. The team this morning told me that the Israeli Armed Forces are on the ground in Gaza, 500 meters from where we are in the hospital.
And so the things I'm hearing are completely abnormal, completely atrocious to hear this amount of destruction going on, to know that these loud sounds that keep everybody in the hospital awake at night are also destroying and killing and maiming people who, in many cases, are relatives and family of the people working in the hospital on my team, and they will become our patients. We hope they will become our patients because the alternative means that they have been killed. And then these people, as they come in, it is the worst concentration of injuries I have ever seen in my life.
I've been working as a surgeon for 10 years. A lot of that's been overseas. I've worked in Afghanistan.
I've worked in Syria. I've worked in Iraq. And there have been cases where there's a one-off particularly bad case that sticks in your mind.
But the cases that have been coming in over the last two weeks, the people that I'm seeing, the vast majority of them would normally stick in my mind as the worst case of a certain period of time. But yet I see four worst of patients in a single morning, just limbs literally torn off of bodies, people who have been thrown through the air by the force of an explosion, people where a concrete wall has collapsed on their body. So it's absolutely gruesome to see the injuries.
And no matter how hard we try, it's almost worse sometimes to see how they are in follow-up because you can't treat some of these injuries. And some of them, we don't have the resources to do it properly. So our complications are just horrendous.
DK: What you're talking about just feels like a huge weight of destruction on people in Gaza. But how do people make through it? How can they keep walking through all that?
DN: It boggles my mind, honestly, that anybody is still showing up for work after a year and a half of almost continuous assault. And I'm feeling the stress now.
I mean, I've been here for a month and a half. The last two weeks have been under active attack. But I feel the effects of lack of sleep, of feeling the enormity of the work that we're trying to do, but the inability to do that work that we want to do.
I feel this strain from this stress in my interactions with other people. And this is me after two weeks. And I don't have a lot of skin in this game.
I have people who are very, very dear to me in Gaza from years past when I was working here and from last October when I was here as well. But it's not my family that's under threat. It's not my entire society.
It's not everything I know in this world, everything that I've built. But it is for my colleagues. And yet they show up to work.
They put in full work days, working very hard, doing the best they can do. Some of my colleagues are working as volunteers. They don't even get paid for what they do.
And even in the midst of this total destruction, I see that they still have hope and they still have dreams that we've got one of our staff is searching for a power bank that she wants to give to her 18-year-old son because he's studying for his final high school exams. And they're very, very important to determine what university programs you can apply to in Gaza. And so here's a woman that's looking out for her oldest son and thinking about his future.
She's got bullets flying through her house when the family's home. They've been told to evacuate so many times. But yet she's got an eye for the future of her son and for her other six children.
I see another staff member. She's a mom to three young kids. Her home has been destroyed.
She lives in a tent with them. But she still dreams of the garden that she'll plant when she goes back home. And so you have people that are planning for life.
They're anticipating a future. They're looking ahead. And they are continuing to live with as much dignity as they can muster, keeping themselves as clean and as well-dressed as you can when you're living in a tent, doing little things to try to make what little food they have more appetizing, more beautiful.
And it's a strength that I don't know where it comes from. And I honestly don't think that I would have this under the same personal circumstances. I mean, I barely have it now.
And I know how much my experience of this is different from their experience because my home is outside.
DK: When are you returning to Canada?
DN: I'll be coming home in another two weeks. So in mid-April, I'll be back in Canada.
DK: Now, as you know, there's people organized right across Canada in terms of opposing the genocide. Will you be able to be in touch with a lot of them when you get back to explain what you just spoke about?
DN: I will and I have. So after I came home from Gaza in November last year, I was able to take a bit of time off of work and organize some lectures, some community discussions in various places, some religious institutions, some churches, some universities, some community centers in Western Canada, not just in Saskatchewan.
I want to do that again when I come back. So that's a bit of the plan is to try to connect with people in Canada because as much as I think it's important that I do what I do here as an act of solidarity and to be a face in Gaza and to personify all of the people around the world that support the Palestinian right to life, that are against genocide, that don't support violations of humanitarian law, I can be here as a little bit of a symbol of that. But me being here, it really doesn't make any material change.
And in some ways, it whitewashes the issue. And when people can say that we're sending aid and we're sending doctors, it draws the attention away from the fact that we shouldn't need doctors to treat civilians that are killed by airstrikes on tent camps in incredibly crowded areas. We should not have those attacks at all.
And so the work, I'm always very acutely aware that as much attention as I get, the really important work is being done by people that are organizing in Canada, that are active in Canada. And so I hope to be able to provide a bit of motivation to them, a bit of insight on what I experienced in Gaza, what my colleagues here would like people in Canada to hear from them, and to try to keep the energy and build this movement in Canada.
DK:You know, when I hear you speak, and I can understand what you're saying, but I also want to really underline one thing about you being there that's so important is that a lot of news isn't coming through across Canada in the mainstream media.
And for example, if you were to contrast Al Jazeera to what we've got here in Canada, it doesn't even come close to what should be recorded about what's going on. So I, you know, I just actually on behalf of a lot of listeners, I want to thank you for being there, for being that solidarity person and coming back with what is going on and telling people that.
DN: And this is why I think CFCR and other independent media voices are so important, because we shouldn't be hearing a single biased story from our Canadian media.
But I'm afraid that in the case of Palestine, that is exactly what we get. And so I'm very grateful to those voices that show a more nuanced picture of what is happening on the ground in Gaza now. And what is the true context of this? What is the history here? What was really happening?
DK: You know, when you think about this too, it's partly, you know, it's a lack of information, but also, where do you see the Canadian government standing right now in terms of responding to this genocide that's going on? What is your perspective?
DN: I'm always hopeful whenever we have a new government, and we've got a new Prime Minister at the moment, we've got an election coming up.
I'm always hopeful that each time this will be the moment that we have somebody who can take a step back, who can distance themselves a bit from the stance that prior governments have taken in calling Israel a friend as a state, and in saying that we have shared values as a country with the State of Israel, and to take a less biased and one sided stance. Time will tell what happens with the current Carney government and the government that we will elect. But it worries me deeply that we are still seeing our government vote against resolutions at the UN, which have to do with Palestine.
We see this very, very non emotional distance language that is used when talking about war crimes that are happening in Palestine, when we're talking about healthcare workers being killed, hospitals being attacked, children being killed. The level of emotion that our government seems to be able to muster over this doesn't compare to the level of emotion that they express when looking at other conflicts such as in Ukraine. And then we have the government, they'll take a stand on something.
We're supposed to have a partial embargo on weapons trade with Israel in that no new weapons sale contracts were supposed to be made. But now we see that even after that small concession was made by the government, they still make new contracts. They're selling accelerant for missiles at the moment, which will come to Israel, which I will hear at night, which will wound patients and kill their relatives that I will then try so hard with my colleagues to treat.
And so I'm very deeply disappointed in this Canadian administration, not only because of the stance that they've taken, but also because of the blatant lies that they have told their population about what they are doing.
DK: You know, what you've just talked about is so important that Canada has been involved in sending weaponry and doing what you're talking about right now. But on the other hand, sort of acting like it isn't part of it.
And that is absolutely wrong. And it just hurts me, I think, with many other Canadians to know that there still is that dialogue going on that is not in support of what's happening in terms of stopping the genocide, but certainly is doing a lot of covering up for the Israeli army. And I think that's, in a lot of ways, why we as citizens have to be organizing and doing what we do.
You know, of course, know that in Saskatoon, every Sunday afternoon, there's a gathering and a walk down 8th Street, which is one of the busiest places, you know, busiest streets in Saskatoon. And I just wanted to pass on to you that when we are out there, people are honking their horns coming by, they're waving, and very rarely do we get somebody being more antagonistic. So that's, at least at that citizen level, their embrace of seeing, and usually it's around 50 to 60 people walking in a parade, going down there and going around on 8th Street.
So I wanted to pass that on to you anyways, that it's holding and it's very, very strong.
DN: I know Saskatoon's community has been very, very consistent and very regular in their visibility. And it's a sort of constancy that shows an impressive dedication.
And I think it's a very admirable that people continue to be visible and to draw people's attention in various ways, one of which is demonstrating in person to these issues.
DK: Yeah, and I just hope that as listeners are listening that we want more people out there as well. We really want to show that the citizens of Canada are standing up for fighting the genocide that's going on.
So we will pass that message on.
DN: I think it's a great thing to make people aware of. And I often used to think myself that if I was just a good person on the inside, and if I just did good things, that it was enough.
But in the current world that we're living in, in the current environment, I think it's becoming much more important, not just to work through your individual actions and thoughts, but to show these visibly. Because we seem to be rolling backwards in terms of a lot of things that I thought were established norms when it comes to gender equality, women's rights, minority rights, LGBTQ2 spirit representation and rights. And if we are not visibly for these things, we might as well be against them.
So I think this is a moment where people really need to put aside a little bit of that Canadian politeness and comfort and just doing things in your own sphere, and be a lot louder, a lot more visible, a lot more voluble.
DK: And you know, with that, then if you're thinking of you're talking to the Canadian government directly, what would you tell them right now to do?
DN: I would tell them that as a doctor, I cannot treat patients that are wounded by military grade weaponry that's being used on a civilian population. And that if they truly want to support the two solutions that the government is in support of, they need to make sure that one of the two future states is not being completely destroyed and rendered inhabitable and having a genocide committed against its people.
DK: I think those are very strong words. And I think that's what you're saying is what all Canadians should be saying right now as we see what's happening. The news just came through this morning, for example, that the bakeries are shutting down in Gaza.
Now, I found that story, and it's also because of the increased attacks that are going on right now. And, you know, if you were, you know, if there's a strong message that you had for right now, what would you say, given what they're doing?
DN: I would say that a Palestinian individual's life matters just as much as any other individual life on this earth. And if we allow a people to be besieged, to be starved, to be deprived of food, water, health care, a home to live in, any sort of guarantee of safety, the ability to send their children to school, we cannot act as though we can deprive a population of those things without it being a deeply racist judgement.
And so I want to say that all human lives have worth, and that one life is worth as much as another. We need to start acting like it, and we need to protect Palestinian lives.
DK: You know, as we're walking forward now, and seeing what's happened with the increased sort of attacks by the Israeli armies and so on, what's your perspective? What's going on there? Are they wanting to just take all of Gaza and just keep doing this? Like, what's the long-term aim of the Israeli state and the government and army as well? What do you think is going on there?
DN: I mean, I can't pretend to understand it.
But what we see is we see Gaza being divided up, that there's been a line dividing north from south for a long time now. There's now a new line dividing the south into two pieces. People are being told to move from one place to another, to another, shifted with hours of this, expected to take what little they have, and go to another place, which is still not safe.
And the level of destruction here, it's unimaginable. When you drive a kilometre of destroyed buildings, destroyed farmland, destroyed things that you don't even know what they were because they're so badly destroyed. And it's a frightening amount of violence that you see being done against people, but also against communities and against land.
And I don't know what the end game is, but whatever it is, it looks horrific and it is not something that I can support.
DK: You know, when it looked like there was some possibility, when the people were able to move back into north Gaza, and there were a lot of important interviews that were done through Al Jazeera, one of the strongest ones were that when people said that they're not going anywhere, they're staying in Gaza. That people, even given the turmoil they've gone through and the genocide, they're not going to be giving it up so Trump can do whatever his plans are for people to have vacations, etc.
So does that really show the heart of the people of Gaza, that they really are going to stay one way or another?
DN: People in Gaza are as diverse as anybody anywhere, and so there are a lot of different individual opinions. And so there are certainly some people that would like to escape what they have been put through, and they would like to take their families somewhere that they feel would be safe, and they know that they would sacrifice their community and the way that they've always lived to do this. But there certainly are people that would like to go out.
But there are also so many people that, as you say, that this is their home. And even if it has been destroyed, people take a great deal of comfort in having been able to set up their tent beside the ruins of their house and in the skeleton of what was their community versus being crowded into a tent camp for displaced people. And so, while there will certainly be people who will flee Gaza, just as you would have people who would flee any kind of onslaught like this, you will also have people who would rather stay here than anything else, no matter the situation, that it is not worth anything to be torn from their homes and their communities and their families and the lives that they built for themselves.
DK: One of the strongest images was, in fact, that when people returned to their homes and put the tent up and said that they're going to rebuild, that imagery did come through that really showed something about roots and desire to keep their community together. You know, we're sort of at the end of the show, but is there some last things you'd like to be able to pass on to through our radio, through community radio?
DN: Sometimes my colleagues ask me to transmit messages from them to Canada, to the rest of the world, and invariably what they say is, we want peace. We want to live in peace.
They tell me that they love life, but when people have been tried to, someone has tried to wipe out a people intentionally, they feel that they need to reiterate this, that they love life, they love their families, they love their children, and all they want is for what we would consider to be normal.
The Global Research News Hour airs every Friday at 1pm CT on CKUW 95.9FM out of the University of Winnipeg.
The programme is also broadcast weekly (Monday, 1-2pm ET) by the Progressive Radio Network in the US.
The programme is also podcast at globalresearch.ca
Notes:
The original source of this article is Global Research
Copyright © Michael Welch and Louay Alghoul, Global Research, 2025
Comment on Global Research Articles on our Facebook page
Become a Member of Global Research
Comment on Global Research Articles on our Facebook page