On Thursday, 31 May at 6:00pm, Dr Ghassan Abu-Sittah, Principal of the University of Glasgow, will deliver a lecture in the Aula Magna of La Nau Cultural Centre. Abu-Sittah has worked as a war surgeon in Yemen, Iraq, Syria, South Lebanon and the Gaza Strip.

The conference will be presented by journalist Dr Lola Bañón and will feature Dr M. Vicenta Mestre, Principal of the Universitat de València, and Dr Nadia Yahlali (CIDEMUV/RUxP).

Summary of the conference:

‘Prolonged and intense conflicts alter the environment in which people live. The environment, its constituent elements and the way people interact with it are subject to permanent change as a result of multiple factors that may affect people’s health. Rather than being temporal “crises”, conflicts create an “ecology of war” that affects the health of those who live in the affected areas.

Ghassan Abu-Sittah will draw on his experience in Gaza’s Al-Shifa and Al-Alhi Baptist hospitals last year to demonstrate that the intensity and destruction of the Israeli war on Gaza has transformed the Strip into an “ecology of war” that will continue to harm Gazans long after the war ends. In order to envisage a post-war health system that can dismantle this ecology we must analyse its constituent elements and the manner in which they impede the well-being of populations – only then will it be possible to construct a holistic health system rather than a solely medical system’.

About Dr Ghassan Abu-Sittah

Dr. Ghassan Abu-Sittah is a multi-award-winning British-Palestinian Associate Professor of Surgery and a Plastic & Reconstructive Surgeon. He was elected Principal of the University of Glasgow in March 2024, a position he will hold until 2027. His unique background combines the skills and expertise of a surgeon with the rigours of academia and the compassion of humanitarianism.  

Abu-Sittah has worked as a war surgeon in Yemen, Iraq, Syria, South Lebanon and for five wars in the Gaza Strip. On 9 October 2023, he managed to enter the Gaza Strip, where he spent 43 days at the Baptist Al-Shifa and Al-Ahli hospitals caring for patients during the Israeli bombardment of Gaza, from where he also contributed to the crucial news coverage during this critical period directly from the hospital wards.

He has published extensively on the health consequences of prolonged conflict and on war injuries, including a medical text book, Reconstructing the War Injured Patient and a forthcoming book, Treating the War Injured Child.

In addition, Abu-Sittah holds honorary positions at Imperial College University of London and King’s College London University and serves as the Clinical Lead for the Operational Trauma initiative at the World Health Organization’s EMRO office. He also serves on the UK’s National Institute of Health Research (NIHR) International Funding Committee.

The Ghassan Abu-Sittah Children’s Fund is dedicated to the children of Gaza, providing medical attention to the children who need it the most and helping to relieve the medical sector in Gaza.