Gaza Conflict: Dr. Izeldeen Abuelaish

On the 9th January 2009 Outlook spoke to a Palestinian doctor in Gaza: a single father - describing the fear he was living in during the conflict there. Dr. Izeldeen Abuelaish's wife died of leukaemia in September leaving him to care for his two sons and six daughters.

Listen Hear Lucy Ash's interview (Dur 5'30)

(first broadcast 09/01/2009)

Tragically, on 16th January, three of Dr. Abuelaish's daughters and his niece were killed when an Israeli tank shell hit his home.

Dr. Izeldeen Abuelaish- A grieving father

A spokesman for the Israeli army said that soldiers were returning fire toward the direction of areas from which they had been fired upon. The girls were aged twenty, seventeen, fifteen and thirteen.

On Monday 19th January Doctor Abuelaish told Matthew Bannister about the attack on his home

Listen Listen to the Outlook interview (Dur:5'05)

First broadcast on 19/01/2009

Dr. Abuelaish is a leading IVF specialist who once worked in Israel delivering Jewish babies on the country's busiest maternity ward. In the week before the attack, he had given a number of interviews to Israel's Channel Ten television, speaking in Hebrew about the situation in Gaza.

Viewers heard the aftermath of the tragedy and his distress live on air as he pleaded for help - pleaded for an ambulance to be allowed to gain access to the dead and wounded in his home. It is a highly distressing moment of broadcasting.

Find out more about Dr. Izeldeen Abuelaish and his work