Hear from the student doctors on the frontlines in Gaza

The MoJo Daily newsletter, Monday through Friday. [View in browser]( [Support our nonprofit journalism]( [Mother Jones Daily Newsletter](     August 29, 2024 Hi, I’m Sophie Hurwitz, an editorial fellow here at Mother Jones. A little over a month ago, I started [talking]( to two medical students in Gaza on WhatsApp. Their names are Nermeen, 21, and Hasan, 22. Last week, as I was texting them about their daily lives, you may have [read our coverage]( of Gaza as a political issue at the Democratic National Convention. There were continued protests, as my colleague Noah Lanard and I [reported](, pushing for an arms embargo, and—more immediately—for a Palestinian American speaker on the DNC stage. As I saw the political battle over even listening to an American talk about Palestine play out, Nermeen and Hasan [texted me]( about their inability to sleep through the sounds and smoke of nearby bombs. The dissonance struck me. Perhaps it will you, too. Today, at Mother Jones, you can [read]( about these Gazan young people’s lives, pieced together from [hours of WhatsApp conversations, voice memos, and photos]( from inside Gaza European Hospital. There are incredible pieces of audio in the [piece](, both mundane and piercing, of Nermeen talking about her life. The article is, in particular, about these students' heroic medical work. After Nermeen’s and Hasan’s schools were bombed, they began volunteering as frontline doctors at Gaza European Hospital. There they essentially functioned as attending physicians in an environment that would strain even the most weathered of surgeons. This is now a common practice in Gaza. “The health care system’s on the verge of collapsing,” Salman Dasti, an American anesthesiologist who volunteered at Gaza European Hospital, told me. “It’s being propped up because of students.” At one point, a doctor estimated that half the staff of an emergency room in Gaza was composed of student volunteers. Doing this work, Nermeen [explained](, was the “one positive amid all of this”—she was living her dream of working as a doctor, even though shifts often lasted late into the night, and bombs shook the walls of the hospital. (Nermeen used to watch videos on YouTube of medical school graduations; she was so excited about one day being a physician.) I hope you’ll take a few moments to [read their words and hear their voices](. —Sophie Hurwitz Advertisement [Inequality.org]( [Top Story] [Top Story]( [Inside One of the Last Hospitals in Gaza]( When their universities were destroyed, these medical students became volunteer "frontline doctors" at Gaza European Hospital. BY SOPHIE HURWITZ SPONSORED CONTENT FROM INEQUALITY.ORG   Sign the petition: VP Harris Should Endorse Biden’s “Billionaires Tax” The world’s richest people aren’t paying their fair share in taxes -- just 0.3% of their wealth annually. Biden’s 2025 budget would apply a 25% minimum income tax for the richest Americans. [Add your name to the Inequality.org petition: ask VP Harris to endorse the billionaires tax.]( [Trending] [JD Vance responds to Trump team's Arlington altercation with lies and telling Harris to "go to hell"]( BY JULIANNE MCSHANE   [Trump's baseless claims about the assassination attempt are dangerous]( BY MARK FOLLMAN   [Theo Von asked all the right questions. Trump gave the wrong answers.]( BY RUSS CHOMA   [Brutal: Extreme heat has wiped out some 21,500 Americans in 24 years]( BY ANNA BETTS Advertisement [Inequality.org]( [Special Feature] [Special Feature]( [How we’ve failed the promise of making “genocide” a crime]( The lawyer Raphael Lemkin hoped to use international law to curb abuses of power. But his efforts were curtailed from the start. BY NOAH LANARD MOTHER JONES MEMBERSHIP UPDATE   THROW US A BONE? It’s the dog days of summer—that time of year when fundraising slows way down but expenses keep piling up as fast as ever. Our newsroom has a lot of hard, consequential work to do in the next few months, and that’s why we need your support right now. It’s simple: without it, we can’t do our job. [Every dollar you chip]( in will help us produce the journalism that is needed at this crucial moment. [Donate Now]( Did you enjoy this newsletter? Share it on [Facebook]( and [Twitter](. [Mother Jones]( [Donate]( [Donate Monthly]( [Subscribe]( This message was sent to {EMAIL}. To change the messages you receive from us, you can [edit your email preferences]( or [unsubscribe from all mailings.]( For advertising opportunities see our online [media kit.]( Were you forwarded this email? [Sign up for Mother Jones' newsletters today.]( [www.MotherJones.com]( PO Box 8539, Big Sandy, TX 75755