DFW doctor returns from Gaza, describes devastating hunger crisis and urgent need for humanitarian aid
The Castle Hills Emergency Room in Carrollton is a stark contrast to what Dr. Bilal Piracha experienced over the last few weeks in Palestine.
"This is sort of the impending doom; it is really the happening doom at this minute," Piracha said. "People are literally dying with the hunger; the hunger is killing them. Starvation is being used as a weapon."
He just returned from Gaza and had already been to the Gaza Strip three times this year, doing humanitarian work at a local hospital.
Piracha is an emergency medicine doctor in DFW. He also teaches at the University of Texas at Dallas and is a representative with the Islamic Circle of North America (ICNA) Council of Social Justice.
"Whenever I came back last time, I was always talking about hope, I was always talking about how people were resilient there, and they are still resilient, but they are at the breaking point," he said.
Piracha said in his career, he's never experienced anything like what he's seen on the ground in Gaza.
"I have seen a man who was there to get food for his family, being shot in the skull, and his whole skull was shattered, and the brain was coming out," Piracha told CBS News Texas. "I've seen dangling feet and dangling hands… A kid in front of our eyes, he was just skeletal."
On Monday, President Donald Trump acknowledged the humanitarian crisis, saying that there was "real starvation" happening in Gaza, changing tune, breaking sides with U.S. ally Israel.
"We're going to set up food centers, and we're going to do it in conjunction with some very good people, and we're going to supply funds, and we just took in trillions of dollars, and we're going to spend a little money on some food," Trump said during a meeting with the U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer.
Piracha said he's thankful Trump is finally addressing the crisis, but said more needs to be done to help the families suffering.
"We the people, we the public, have to make sure to ask our representatives, and make them responsible of what are they doing for the humans of Gaza, who have the right to live, who have the right to survive," he said.
Piracha hopes to return to Gaza in the future. He's calling for a ceasefire immediately.
