* Thursday, September 12, 2024 at 12pm ET / 7pm Palestine - Zoom *
Join us for the launch of a new platform: Documenting the Targeting and Destruction of the Health Sector in the Gaza Strip. This platform presents detailed documentation of the Israeli assault on healthcare facilities and personnel in Gaza, highlighting the systematic targeting of medical workers as part of a broader campaign to render Gaza uninhabitable.
Featuring analyses from experts, testimonies, and statements from international organizations, the platform provides a comprehensive archive of these assaults, serving as a vital resource for researchers and historians. The project is a work in progress, beginning with secondary sources and expanding through field research.
In this event, Dr. Ghassan Abu-Sittah, the database supervisor, and Dr. Layth Hanbali, the database coordinator, will discuss the development of the database and its resources. The event will be moderated by IPS-USA's Executive Director, Jehad Abusalim. A Q&A segment will follow.
The event will be live-streamed on IPS’ social media channels.
Dr. Ghassan Abu-Sittah is a Palestinian-British physician, associate professor of surgery, and renowned plastic and reconstructive surgeon. He has worked as a war surgeon in Yemen, Iraq, Syria, southern Lebanon, and during the four wars on the Gaza Strip. He received his medical education at the University of Glasgow in Scotland, before completing his postgraduate residency and training specialist registrar training in London . In 2011, he joined the American University of Beirut Medical Center, becoming head of the plastic and reconstructive surgery department in 2012, and clinical director of the paediatric war trauma program and the multidisciplinary war trauma clinic. In 2015 he became a founding director of the Conflict Medicine Program – The Global Health Institute at the American University of Beirut. He is an Honorary Lecturer at Center for Blast Injury Studies, Imperial College London University and a Visiting Senior Lecturer, Conflict & Health Research Group, Faculty of Life Sciences and Medicine, King's College London University Clinical Lead for the Operational Trauma Initiative at the World Health Organization's EMRO Office. He serves on the board of Trustees of Institute for Palestine Studies and on the Board of directors of INARA, a charity dedicated to providing reconstructive surgery to war injured children in the Middle East, and Board of Trustees of the UK based Medical Aid for Palestinians.
Dr. Layth Hanbali is a community health researcher. He is coordinating the Institute for Palestine Studies database: "Documenting the Targeting and Destruction of the Health Sector in the Gaza Strip." He is embarking on a PhD in History at the Free University of Brussels and Birzeit University to research anti-colonial resistance through health. He has a background in medicine and community and public health, with a medical degree from University College London and master's degree in Health Policy, Planning and Financing from the London School of Economics and Political Science and the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.