Image source: SOCIALMEDIA
Since the announcement of the victory of Egyptian-American surgeon Adam Hamwi in the midterm elections for the US Congress, photos of him with children from the Gaza Strip have been widely circulated on social media platforms, taken while he was volunteering as part of a medical delegation that came to the Strip to treat war victims. But what don't these pictures tell us? What stories remained outside its context?
These pictures were taken by the young Gazan photographer Bilal Al-Hams, who was working during the war in photographing the visits of medical delegations that came from outside Gaza to the European Hospital to support the health sector. The young photojournalist Bilal Al-Hams recalls his memories of these pictures, speaking about the scenes of the arrival of Doctor Adam Hamwi as part of a relief medical delegation, in very exceptional circumstances.
Al-Hams says: “Dr. Adam was a very affectionate person with children, and when he encountered a wounded child, he would do his best to restore his features to what they were before the injury, to the closest possible natural image. He was also spontaneous with everyone in the hospital, talking to young and old, as if he were among his family and people.
Regarding the famous photo that captured his interaction with two girls in Khan Yunis, Al-Hams recounts the details of that field tour, saying: We went out on a tour so that the doctors coming from abroad could see the extent of the massive destruction that the sector suffered as a result of the war. The delegation that Dr. Adam followed was not officially authorized to go out on that tour, but when he learned of it, he strongly insisted on accompanying us and personally communicated with the relevant authorities until he obtained permission to join us.
The tour took place in the city of Khan Yunis. I remember very well that he was astonished and shocked by the painful scenes. And the extent of the destruction he saw, we would explain to him the story of every place we passed, what it looked like before the bombing, and how it was teeming with life, making him even more affected.
The young photographer continues: During the tour, we stopped at the rubble of a demolished house, where two girls were searching among the rubble for their toys and simple belongings. Dr. Adam approached them, gently asked them what they were doing, and insisted on taking a souvenir photo with them. When I took that picture of him, he was very happy because he had documented an honest moment of the “children of Gaza” clinging to any hope in the midst of their painful reality. Although I took these pictures with my lens, I did not expect at the time that they would gain such global resonance, nor that the doctor would become a senator.
Al-Hams concluded his statements by sending a message to Hamwi in which he told him: You are now in a position of responsibility. We hope that it will be the voice of Gaza’s children, its people, and its journalists, and that it will be the eyes of the world on the Strip after foreign journalists were prevented from entering to document what is happening.
Humanity is traumatized
Image source: Anadolu via Getty Images
For his part, Dr. Muhammad Muslim, director of the Eye Hospital in Gaza, depicts the harsh scene inside the “European Hospital” at the time of Hamwi’s arrival there on April 29, 2024, as part of a delegation from the World Health Organization and the Palestinian American Physicians Association (PAMA).
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Dr. Muslim describes that stage, saying: The European Hospital at that time was not a hospital in the understandable sense, but rather it turned into a sprawling displacement camp in which thousands of citizens were crowded. The doctor was crossing alleys, stairs, and corridors crowded with displaced people to his right and left, to reach the operating rooms in a scene whose cruelty exceeds the most severe dramatic films.
He added: Dr. Adam was shocked that human reality had reached this cruel, human-made level. Despite all the paralysis and complete collapse in the health system, and its arrival coincided with threats to invade Rafah and separate the north from the south, the arrival of this specialized delegation was a glimmer of hope and real support for the completely exhausted health personnel.
Muslim mentions part of a friendly conversation he had with Dr. Adam Hamwi during this period, saying:
“We talked a lot, and he was disturbed and astonished by the size and quality of the children’s injuries. He told me, based on his experience, that he had served in conflict zones and many wars around the world, but he had never seen such density and diversity of severe injuries and long-term deformities as he saw among the children of Gaza. He was not satisfied with the field aspect, but after his departure he contributed to publishing specialized research on the complex wounds he treated in the Gaza Strip in peer-reviewed international scientific journals.”
Regarding his victory in the American elections, Dr. Muslim comments: The news was surprising to me, but it confirms that the man continued to carry the concerns of the people of Gaza. His campaign was based on demanding an end to the war, stopping the supply of bombs, and supporting humanity. This is a step in the right direction to see a shift in American societal and political consciousness toward supporting humanity and reconstruction rather than destruction.
Muslim concludes his speech by congratulating Hamwi, inviting him to visit Gaza again for the third time, and this time his visit will be to the European Hospital, which has gone out of service, so that he can see with his own eyes the medical reality that the Strip has reached and contribute to restarting the hospital so that it continues to perform its humanitarian duty and save people’s lives.
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