From the Moroccan city of Fez, Dr. Youssef Bou Abdullah was following, crying his heart out over the children of Gaza who had their limbs amputated and were severely injured, as most of Gaza's hospitals were out of service after the brutal occupation bombed 80% of the hospitals and burned some others. His inner voice says: "If only I could treat the wounds of the children of the north, write it for me, O Lord."
Pediatrician
Dr. Youssef (Bou Abdullah), a professor of pediatric surgery, of Moroccan nationality, saw that he should be among the convoys of doctors who flock to Gaza, as he saw the ferocity of the occupation tearing apart the bodies of children there and using all kinds of internationally prohibited missiles to kill them.
Bou Abdullah's efforts to enter Gaza were crowned with success in the eighth month of the aggression launched on Gaza, as part of a medical delegation of doctors from various Arab nationalities.
With great difficulty, he was able to enter Gaza. So, he immediately decided to move to the north of Gaza, became the only pediatrician there, and performed more than 120 plastic surgeries for children there. Those who were deformed or had severe burns.
The time of the delegation that entered Gaza ended and all the doctors who performed the necessary operations for the injured there were surprised as Dr. Youssef refused to leave the north and return to his country. He preferred to stay with the wounded children, leaving his wife, family and work there in Morocco, despite the threat of bombing his remaining hospitals.
Bou Abdullah was the humane doctor that children ran to as soon as they saw him in the hospital corridor, making the wounded children laugh and comforting them to make them forget the pain and illness, and opening discussions in his free time with the displaced in the corridors of Kamal Adwan Hospital where he remained.
Cleverly, Bouabdallah relieved the displaced people whose stomachs were gnawing with hunger and who were sickened by eating canned food daily by saying: “One of the benefits of eating canned food is that worms will not eat you.”
The displaced people laugh, stealing a smile from the mouths of the harsh days they are living, and ask him: “What are the benefits of canned food, Doctor?” He answers them: “Either we die as martyrs... and God has forbidden worms from eating our flesh... or we die with our flesh filled with preservatives, and in both cases, the worms will not eat our flesh, God willing.”
Quran Circles
Bouabdallah decided to use his free time and the warrior’s rest that he gets after undergoing several operations to memorize the Holy Quran for the children in the hospital. They gather in a circle around him in the hospital corridor, and he teaches them to recite the Holy Quran, and they listen to what they have memorized.
Ahmed Al-Siqali, an 8-year-old child who was injured as a result of the bombing of his house in the northern Gaza Strip, is one of the children treated by Dr. Youssef, who was cured by his hands, and is also one of those who gather in Quran circles with him, expresses his happiness with the humane doctor, saying: We love Dr. Youssef, he treats us, makes us laugh, and plays with us in the hospital, we want him to stay with us until we finish the Holy Quran.
Insisting on Staying in North Gaza
Bouabdallah insisted on staying in the northern Gaza Strip only based on his slogan that he always says: "From Morocco to Palestine, one people, not two peoples," after he left his clinic in the city of Fez.
Many pictures spread on social media of him memorizing the Holy Quran with children and playing with them despite the bullets in their bodies and the severity of their injuries, which gained great popularity and praised his heroic and humanitarian role as well, and he kept repeating: "We are the ones who are honored to serve the people of Gaza, not the other way around."
Fatima Al-Idrisi, a Moroccan activist, praised the role of Dr. Bouabdallah in the aggression on Gaza, saying: The people of the city of Fez need him very much in their difficult and delicate operations, but the people of Gaza are our people too and they are more deserving of his capabilities under the slogan “The people of Morocco and Gaza are one people,” expressing the pride of the Moroccan people in him.
