Waiting for a voice note from a doctor in Gaza

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On Tuesday, a Norwegian doctor sitting in Cairo sent me a WhatsApp message. One of his brightest medical students, Maisara Alrayyes, was killed after his home in Gaza was bombed by Israeli forces.

Alrayyes’s parents, his two sisters, one of whom had three children, were also killed in the attack.

“Eight humans, guilty of nothing but being warm, caring and resolute Palestinians. Murdered in cold blood,” Dr Mads Gilbert wrote to me.

A spectator to an ethnic cleansing, Gilbert – with whom I have been in touch since last month – feels as helpless as I do.

Gilbert isn’t the only doctor from Gaza in my network. Every day, a doctor in Gaza shares data from the Palestinian health ministry with me. According to those figures, between October 7 and November 7, 10,328 people have died in the Gaza strip. That is 14 deaths per hour. Another 2,800 are missing, most probably trapped under the rubble of blown-up buildings.

Gaza has been under attack from Israel ever since the militant...

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