Swiss Doctor Rescues Injured Children, Reports Reuters

By Gabrielle Tétrault-Farber

GENEVA (Reuters) – When Swiss doctor Raouf Salti realized he could not travel to Gaza to assist injured children, he committed himself to bringing them to Geneva for medical care instead.

After navigating extensive bureaucratic hurdles, Salti secured permission for four children from Gaza, including a 16-year-old who had lost a kidney and already undergone a leg amputation, to cross into Egypt and then fly to Switzerland on Monday.

Salti, who went to Egypt to meet them, was welcomed at Geneva airport by his team, carrying Zeina, a wide-eyed 17-month-old rescued from beneath the rubble in Gaza.

“As the situation continued to deteriorate, I knew my mission had to be to go there and bring them here,” said Salti, who has participated in numerous international humanitarian missions to Gaza and other regions of the Middle East and Africa over the past 14 years.

A urological surgeon and a descendant of Palestinian refugees, Salti had planned to visit Gaza on October 19 for operations, including one on a toddler’s kidney. However, his humanitarian efforts were halted due to the Israeli military campaign initiated following the October 7 attacks by Hamas.

The four children who arrived in Geneva on Monday are the second group Salti has successfully evacuated to Switzerland, increasing the total to eight. They have been granted 90-day visas for medical treatment.

“It’s vital to provide them with a normal life filled with peace, calm, and love—a child’s life,” Salti said as he arrived at his office with the children and their mothers.

These four children were selected through Salti’s contacts in Gaza based on their medical condition and the potential for receiving adequate care in Switzerland.

Sixteen-year-old Yussef, who lost his left leg and suffered kidney damage in an Israeli strike, is severely malnourished, weighing less than 30 kg (66 pounds). Doctors in Gaza amputated the remainder of his injured leg, but he requires further recovery and will eventually need a prosthetic.

Seventeen-month-old Zeina was initially treated at Al-Shifa Hospital, the largest medical facility in the Gaza Strip, which faced a raid by Israeli forces in November.

Her tiny left arm, which was in a sling, had multiple fractures that doctors attempted to fix using an external device. Unfortunately, that had to be removed due to an infection.

“You can’t talk about sterile conditions there anymore; it simply doesn’t exist,” Salti remarked.