“WHEN I arrived at the European hospital, I was told there's a mass casualty and there's a lot of bodies. So we went to the mortuary, I saw the bodies, and over the bodies, they were writing the names.
“I was just looking, ‘God, that is my family name’. And this, this is how I met my family, in the mortuary.”
That happened on the day Dr Mohamed Alsakka arrived in Gaza in February 2024. With the region under constant bombardment by the Israeli military, such tragedies would come throughout his time in the region – but he refused to let them define it.
An A&E consultant, Dr Mohamed had intended to volunteer in Gaza for two weeks – but what he saw on the ground compelled him to stay for 16 months and set up a charity focused on rebuilding.
“I know I did upset my NGO at the time, but I had no option,” he told the Sunday National. “They said you have to leave. The IOF [Israel Occupational Forces], they're asking for your name in particular, why you're still there.
“I said, it's very simple. I'm of Palestinian background, I've got family here, and I can't leave them.”
Dr Mohamed said that he saw a way to help the people of Gaza beyond his work as a medic, but it involved crossing lines that the large NGOs would not. So, he co-founded Rebuild Gaza 24 and began digging water wells.
“People want to stay at home, they don't want to leave, but the IOF, the first thing they do after the order of evacuation is cut the sources of water,” he said. “This is where my duty, my work was concentrated, just digging water wells.
“Actually, it started with a challenge because the first water well I wanted to do, I was told I needed to get approval from the IOF.
“As a stubborn Palestinian, I just said, ‘well, guess what, no one is allowed to tell me what to do in my land’.”
He added: “I can challenge all the NGOs: has anyone dug a water well? [No.] That's because the IOF wouldn't allow it. So, that's why I stayed.”
Dr Mohamed, who works and lives in England, had to leave his wife and three children behind for his work in Gaza – but he said their support was “beyond expectation”, as it was from the wider UK public.
He said that Rebuild Gaza was not intended to do things for the Palestinians, but to help them do things themselves.
Over 16 months, he helped build an extensive network across Gaza that has dug some 18 wells – which the charity says can supply some 200,000 people. As the network developed, they also set up refugee camps, field hospitals, and even food supply chains.
“Gaza is very agricultural – just to give you an insight, most of the farms are in the eastern part of Gaza, obviously with the invasion and the destruction, many of these farms we’ve lost,” Dr Mohamed explained.
“But the team and myself, we managed to get hold of a couple of farmers who have their farms between the red zone and what they consider a humanitarian zone. These guys, when they knew what we were doing, they allowed us to buy off them directly.
From the crops straight into the hands of Gaza’s most vulnerable. Inside the most dangerous red zone where few can reach, but the need is greatest. Thank you to Dr Mohamed @rebuildgaza24 and the brave team risking everything to deliver. Please keep supporting every donation keeps… pic.twitter.com/WXCAZi0d5S
— RebuildGaza24 (@rebuildgaza24) June 17, 2025
“We literally just pick it up and deliver it to people. But the process itself, going and picking up these vegetables, is really very risky – I mean extremely risky – but the job has to be done.”
That is no exaggeration. To cross a line laid down by the Israeli military is to risk death. On the day he left Gaza, Dr Mohamed said, three of Rebuild Gaza’s team members were shot dead.
But the team understands the risks involved in working during what international experts – and witnesses such as Dr Mohamed – do not hesitate to call a genocide.
When we first spoke, the Rebuild Gaza co-founder said that he is a “genocide survivor”. Asked about the term when we spoke for a second time, he said: “What do you call this?
“They’re killing kids, for god's sake, kids. Do you know how many families have been wiped out from the register?
“Do you know how many people, the number of amputations in Gaza? Do you know how many widows in Gaza? Do you know how many orphans in Gaza? It is beyond imagination.
“And this is still continuous. I was asked if I have PTSD, and I said, ‘Look, we might need to find a new term’. PTSD is a post-traumatic stress disorder, but it's an ongoing process. It hasn't finished yet.”
Listening to Dr Mohamed’s experiences in Gaza is harrowing. Death is part of daily life under the Israeli occupation.
He recalled one such example: “I went and saw a friend of mine. Honestly, in the morning, I saw him, I was talking to him, we had a laugh, you know, talking about normal things.
“Then in the evening, his house was hit. My own friend – I know his name, his kids, you know – he was in two halves, his guts were dangling from the first floor to the ground floor, and his kids were burned.”
The stories mount up. There are too many to recount. But for Dr Mohamed, one in particular stands out.
“I need to tell you this story about my three aunties,” he said. “It’s one of the most brutal, barbaric, horrible, disgusting ways of killing.”
A neighbour who did as she was commanded was found just down the street with a bullet in her head, Dr Mohamed said. But then, the soldiers came for the sisters as well.
“We received a phone call at 6.30 in the morning from my auntie. She was crying her guts out and she said, naming her two sisters, she said ‘they came and they killed Maysoon and Arwa. They're just lying next to me with bullets in the head, both of them’.
“We said, we're glad you're OK. She said, ‘Well, I begged them to kill me, and they said, you're not even worth the bullet’.
“After – this was all live on the phone at 6:30 in the morning – she said, I can smell burning. She said, ‘The house is on fire’, and then we lost communication.”
The three sisters’ deaths were reported by the Swiss-based Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor in July 2024. The charity said it was “investigating reports that the Israeli army forces committed extrajudicial killings and unlawful executions of numerous residents, the majority of whom were women”.
For Dr Mohamed, the deaths serve as a demonstration of “just how brutal this army is”. “There's absolutely no heart, there's no differentiation between kids and adults, learning disabilities, anything. They just shoot and kill anyone in cold blood,” he said.
“The IOF. They just want to cut all sources of support, anything that will support people, they just kill it, slaughter it, as they have done for the water.”
You can support Rebuild Gaza 24 through the charity website at rebuildgaza24.com/donate.
