Surgeons working in the occupied West Bank have been compelled to learn new skills to cope with the realities of providing emergency care in an worsening conflict zone.
To save more lives, surgeons of all specialities are being taught the fundamentals of trauma operations, because the injuries suffered by Palestinians become more severe and the practicalities of treating them are more difficult.
The David Nott Foundation (DNF), a charity training frontline doctors in conflict zones, organised a course to train 60 Palestinian surgeons across a variety of medical disciplines. If an orthopaedic specialist has to deal with a severe head injury, they will now have an understanding of the steps required to keep the patient alive.
The course, with the help of the World Health Organisation, trained the surgeons trained over five days last month. The main goal of the training was to ensure doctors can keep patients alive so they can be moved to specialist medical centres.
“In the hospitals, you could have just one surgeon on duty and when a case comes in, regardless of whether they're a vascular or an orthopaedic surgeon, they may have to deal with that specific trauma,” said Hetty Cane, who organised the programme for the DNF. “This is a real problem in West Bank because the checkpoints often mean that you can't transport ambulances through them.”
The doctors, some with 20 years of surgery experience, were taught skills from ballistics, damage control, vascular surgery, head and maxillofacial trauma, plastic surgery and paediatrics. “It’s essentially an all-round course, supporting skilled surgeons to deal with every field of trauma surgery,” Ms Cane added.
The latest UN figures show 10,712 Palestinians in the West Bank have been injured, including almost 3,000 wounded by live ammunition, since September 2023. The violence committed by ultranationalist Israeli settlers has also reached an average of four attacks every day.
One doctor told The National they once treated light injuries, but people are now being severely injured or killed in clashes with the Israeli security forces or illegal settlers.
“They're aiming to cause more casualties, not just to scare people away like before,” the surgeon said. “We're not seeing more numbers, but we are witnessing a lot more advanced and more difficult cases.”
The doctor said general surgeons are doing much more than they used to as a result of the increasingly deadly operations. “Brain surgery is not something I would like to do, but if I am alone in a hospital and the city is closed and I can’t get the patient into another hospital safely, I would have to operate," the surgeon explained.
“We are preparing for the worst, and that's why most of the training that we're having is just to build more expertise to deal with mass casualties and very bad advanced injuries.”
With major chest injuries, general surgeons at times have had to “just open up the chest and operate in the ER”, but they had “very good success stories based on the training with the David Nott Foundation", she added.
The training course was developed as medical staff witnessed a sharp increase in major trauma injuries in the wake of the atrocities of October 7, 2023, as Israeli security forces launched a series of operations across Palestinian residential areas.
Air strikes on towns have caused life-threatening blast injuries, as well as deaths. The effort to save lives is also threatened by the huge increase in Israeli checkpoints, with vast queues meaning a 35km journey from Jericho Hospital to Ramallah can now take up to four hours.
The National has not named the surgeon interviewed for this article due to security concerns.
Tamkeen's offering
- Option 1: 70% in year 1, 50% in year 2, 30% in year 3
- Option 2: 50% across three years
- Option 3: 30% across five years
If you go
The flights
There are direct flights from Dubai to Sofia with FlyDubai (www.flydubai.com) and Wizz Air (www.wizzair.com), from Dh1,164 and Dh822 return including taxes, respectively.
The trip
Plovdiv is 150km from Sofia, with an hourly bus service taking around 2 hours and costing $16 (Dh58). The Rhodopes can be reached from Sofia in between 2-4hours.
The trip was organised by Bulguides (www.bulguides.com), which organises guided trips throughout Bulgaria. Guiding, accommodation, food and transfers from Plovdiv to the mountains and back costs around 170 USD for a four-day, three-night trip.
Nayanthara: Beyond The Fairy Tale
Starring: Nayanthara, Vignesh Shivan, Radhika Sarathkumar, Nagarjuna Akkineni
Director: Amith Krishnan
Rating: 3.5/5
Killing of Qassem Suleimani
Know your Camel lingo
The bairaq is a competition for the best herd of 50 camels, named for the banner its winner takes home
Namoos - a word of congratulations reserved for falconry competitions, camel races and camel pageants. It best translates as 'the pride of victory' - and for competitors, it is priceless
Asayel camels - sleek, short-haired hound-like racers
Majahim - chocolate-brown camels that can grow to weigh two tonnes. They were only valued for milk until camel pageantry took off in the 1990s
Millions Street - the thoroughfare where camels are led and where white 4x4s throng throughout the festival
Who's who in Yemen conflict
Houthis: Iran-backed rebels who occupy Sanaa and run unrecognised government
Yemeni government: Exiled government in Aden led by eight-member Presidential Leadership Council
Southern Transitional Council: Faction in Yemeni government that seeks autonomy for the south
Habrish 'rebels': Tribal-backed forces feuding with STC over control of oil in government territory
TO A LAND UNKNOWN
Director: Mahdi Fleifel
Starring: Mahmoud Bakri, Aram Sabbah, Mohammad Alsurafa
Rating: 4.5/5
Fixtures
%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3EWednesday%2C%20April%203%3C%2Fstrong%3E%3C%2Fp%3E%0A%3Cp%3EArsenal%20v%20Luton%20Town%2C%2010.30pm%20(UAE)%3C%2Fp%3E%0A%3Cp%3EManchester%20City%20v%20Aston%20Villa%2C%2011.15pm%20(UAE)%3C%2Fp%3E%0A%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3EThursday%2C%20April%204%3C%2Fstrong%3E%3C%2Fp%3E%0A%3Cp%3ELiverpool%20v%20Sheffield%20United%2C%2010.30pm%20(UAE)%3C%2Fp%3E%0A
Trump v Khan
2016: Feud begins after Khan criticised Trump’s proposed Muslim travel ban to US
2017: Trump criticises Khan’s ‘no reason to be alarmed’ response to London Bridge terror attacks
2019: Trump calls Khan a “stone cold loser” before first state visit
2019: Trump tweets about “Khan’s Londonistan”, calling him “a national disgrace”
2022: Khan’s office attributes rise in Islamophobic abuse against the major to hostility stoked during Trump’s presidency
July 2025 During a golfing trip to Scotland, Trump calls Khan “a nasty person”
Sept 2025 Trump blames Khan for London’s “stabbings and the dirt and the filth”.
Dec 2025 Trump suggests migrants got Khan elected, calls him a “horrible, vicious, disgusting mayor”
What is graphene?
Graphene is extracted from graphite and is made up of pure carbon.
It is 200 times more resistant than steel and five times lighter than aluminum.
It conducts electricity better than any other material at room temperature.
It is thought that graphene could boost the useful life of batteries by 10 per cent.
Graphene can also detect cancer cells in the early stages of the disease.
The material was first discovered when Andre Geim and Konstantin Novoselov were 'playing' with graphite at the University of Manchester in 2004.
Classification of skills
A worker is categorised as skilled by the MOHRE based on nine levels given in the International Standard Classification of Occupations (ISCO) issued by the International Labour Organisation.
A skilled worker would be someone at a professional level (levels 1 – 5) which includes managers, professionals, technicians and associate professionals, clerical support workers, and service and sales workers.
The worker must also have an attested educational certificate higher than secondary or an equivalent certification, and earn a monthly salary of at least Dh4,000.
