Dr Ghassan Abu-Sittah is the co-director of the Conflict Medicine Program at the American University of Beirut. I arrived in Rafah in the early hours of October 9 and made my way to my family home in Gaza City amid intense Israeli air strikes. The next day, I walked with my cousin to al-Shifa Hospital to begin work, not realising this would be the beginning of a 43-day nightmare. During those 43 d