A London-based surgeon who travelled to Gaza to help treat patients has claimed Met counter-terror police harassed his family.
Reconstructive surgeon Professor Ghassan Abu-Sittah has appeared regularly in the media this week from Gaza to describe the scenes of suffering.
Speaking on social media, Professor Abu-Sittah said that officers showed up at his London home and harassed his family for attempting to go to Gaza.
“British counter terrorism police has showed up at my house in the UK and harassed my family,” he said on Monday.
Speaking live from Gaza on BBC’s Newsnight, the surgeon said officers grilled his wife on why he had travelled to the Gaza Strip, who paid for his ticket and which charity he was helping.
The Met said officers gave advice on the FCDO’s guidance, which recommends against visiting Gaza.
Professor Abu-Sittah said: “I think it’s a brutal attempt at harassment and silencing us.
“I remain committed to speaking out for my patients and on behalf of the wounded here, on behalf of these families that are being destroyed.
“There are 50 families that are wiped out of the civil register, that means the grandparents, the parents and the grandchildren are all killed.”
He added: “I need to find out why someone thought it would be a good idea for them to show up at my house and ask my wife which part of the hospital I’m in, why did I go, and who paid for my ticket and which charity do I work for.
“At these times, these difficult times, my family is seeing this bombing unfold knowing I’m in the midst of it. To have them harassed in this way has been just bizarre.”
However, the Met Police said in a statement: “On 16 October, police officers responding to a report that a man was planning to travel to a war zone attended an address in north London where they spoke with one of the occupants.
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“Having identified that the man had left the UK for humanitarian purposes, the officers signposted the occupant to current FCDO advice.”
The Foreign Office has advised against all but essential travel to Israel, and the Occupied Palestinian Territories, and against all travel to the following locations to Gaza or the border with Lebanon.
A humanitarian crisis is unfolding in Gaza as Israel prepares for a likely ground invasion after Hamas’s terror attack and its aftermath has killed at least 1,400 Israelis. The Palestinian Ministry of Health said around 2,800 people have been killed in Gaza.
