Doctor who lived in Gaza for 25 years to receive award from Tipperary Peace Convention

The Mary Swords Award is to be presented to Dr Mohammed Abu Mughessib.

A doctor who lived in Gaza for 25 years and recently arrived to take up an MSF advisory job in Ireland, is to receive a special award from Tipperary Peace Convention.

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Dr Mohammed Abu Mughessib, will receive the Mary Swords Award, when he attends the 'Reflection for Peace' event, organised by Tipperary Peace Convention, at the Tipperary Excel, on Friday December 12, at 11am.

This is the second year of the The Mary Swords Award, which is presented in memory of Mary, a long standing member of the committee, who passed away in September 2024.

Dr Mohammed is to travel to Tipperary on December 12 to speak about his experience of working in Gaza.

In September, Dr Mohammed, who is deputy medical co-ordinator for Gaza, discovered that had been accepted for an MSF advisory job based in Ireland.

When he heard that he had been accepted for the job, Dr Mohamed said that he was “Happy and sad. I called my wife, she was in Egypt, and she didn’t believe it.

"She was crying" said the doctor who worked for MSF in Gaza throughout the war. He was born in Kuwait to Palestinian parents and has lived in Gaza for 25 years.

He left on September 17.

Before that, he distributed everything he still owned among his friends.

Prior to coming to Ireland for 80 days he and his extended family lived in part of a compound owned by a colleague in what became the Nusairet Refugee camp.

There was no clean water: 500 litres of water cost $150.

They bought flour because there were no bakeries.

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They grew accustomed to the sound of drones and bombs.

Mughessib helped co-ordinate the medical response and he and his colleague worked on burn injuries.

The doctors in Gaza are part of the general population.

As they work, they are constantly worrying about their own families. Many have seen their own children come in with injuries.

He likens the hospitals of Gaza to public markets.

Patients are on the ground and in corridors.

There are queues for operation rooms and intensive care units.

Mughessib believes the true challenge will be in rebuilding their country.

"There’s no infrastructure, no water supplies, no sewage system, no electricity. Six hundred aid trucks have entered but we’ll need 1,000 trucks every day for at least three months to sustain the market of food ... We need millions of tents. More than one million people have lost their homes in Gaza. It will take decades to rebuild what has been destroyed," said Dr. Mohammed.

The 'Reflections for Peace' event on Friday, December 12, at the Tipperary Excel at 11am, will include reflections, readings, poetry, music and song, especially for the Christmas season, with a special emphasis on Peace.

There is no admittance charge but those wishing to attend should register their attendance by email to tipppeace@gmail.com.