Via The Globe and Mail: Canadian doctor shot by Israeli sniper near Gaza border. Excerpt:
A Canadian-Palestinian doctor was shot in the legs by an Israeli sniper and one of his paramedics was killed on the Gaza border Monday as clashes between Palestinian protesters and Israeli Defence Forces left dozens dead and more than 1,000 wounded.
Dr. Tarek Loubani, an emergency physician from London, Ont., who is also an associate professor at the University of Western Ontario’s medical school, joined medical teams on the Gaza border Monday to care for Palestinians who might be injured in demonstrations against the inauguration of the U.S. embassy in Jerusalem.
Dr. Loubani, who has served as an emergency field doctor in Tanzania and conflict zones such as Iraq and southern Lebanon, said he was wearing a green surgeon’s outfit and standing with several orange-vested paramedics about 25 metres from the protests at the border when he was hit.
“I am very seasoned about not being shot at. I know where to stand. I know where to be. I know how not to get shot,” he told The Globe and Mail in a telephone interview from Gaza where he recuperating. “Snipers don’t reach me because of mistakes. I did everything right. We were all huddled. We were high visibility. It was quiet at the exact moment I got shot. The bullet went through my left leg, through my right leg out and hit the ground."
Had he been closer to the border area, Dr. Loubani, 37, said he believes it would have “cost me my legs.” The leg wounds will require months of rehabilitation but he said he feels “incredibly lucky.”
Dr. Loubani, who is part of a medical team funded by the South African-based Shuttleworth Foundation that is field testing 3D-printed medical tourniquets, was helped by Palestinian paramedics on the scene, including 36-year old Musa Abuhassanin.
“I remember looking at my shoes and I remember thinking, ‘My god, how did so much blood get there so fast’,” he said. “One of them grabbed one of the last tourniquets. We were down to our last 10 tourniquets. I said ‘No, no leave it for someone else. Try to pressure bandage me.’ ’’
About an hour later, Mr. Abuhassanin was shot by a sniper while providing medical help to protesters north of where Dr. Loubani was shot. “There was relatively heavy fire that was going on. He was wearing a high visibility jacket. It was clearly marked. He was shot in the chest,” Dr. Loubani said.
“They couldn’t remove him. They couldn’t recover him for about 30 minutes until finally they dragged him to a blind spot and then dragged him down a hill and took him to the hospital in a civilian vehicle. He died before he got to the hospital.”
