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The National

34 minutes ago

• The National

'I spent 16 months in Gaza amid Israel's genocide. Here's what I saw'

'I was just looking, 'God, that is my family name'. And this, this is how I met my family, in the mortuary.' That happened on the day Dr Mohamed Alsakka arrived in Gaza in February 2024. With the region under constant bombardment by the Israeli military, such tragedies would come throughout his time in the region – but he refused to let them define it. READ MORE: BBC coverage of Israel's war on Gaza shows 'pattern of bias' – report An A&E consultant, Dr Mohamed had intended to volunteer in Gaza for two weeks – but what he saw on the ground compelled him to stay for 16 months and set up a charity focused on rebuilding. 'I know I did upset my NGO at the time, but I had no option,' he told the Sunday National. 'They said you have to leave. The IOF [Israel Occupational Forces], they're asking for your name in particular, why you're still there. 'I said, it's very simple. I'm of Palestinian background, I've got family here, and I can't leave them.' Dr Mohamed said that he saw a way to help the people of Gaza beyond his work as a medic, but it involved crossing lines that the large NGOs would not. So, he co-founded Rebuild Gaza 24 and began digging water wells. 'People want to stay at home, they don't want to leave, but the IOF, the first thing they do after the order of evacuation is cut the sources of water,' he said. 'This is where my duty, my work was concentrated, just digging water wells. 'Actually, it started with a challenge because the first water well I wanted to do, I was told I needed to get approval from the IOF. 'As a stubborn Palestinian, I just said, 'well, guess what, no one is allowed to tell me what to do in my land'.' He added: 'I can challenge all the NGOs: has anyone dug a water well? [No.] That's because the IOF wouldn't allow it. So, that's why I stayed.' READ MORE: Watch as journalist Peter Oborne calls out BBC double standards over Gaza Dr Mohamed, who works and lives in England, had to leave his wife and three children behind for his work in Gaza – but he said their support was 'beyond expectation', as it was from the wider UK public. He said that Rebuild Gaza was not intended to do things for the Palestinians, but to help them do things themselves. Over 16 months, he helped build an extensive network across Gaza that has dug some 18 wells – which the charity says can supply some 200,000 people. As the network developed, they also set up refugee camps, field hospitals, and even food supply chains. 'Gaza is very agricultural – just to give you an insight, most of the farms are in the eastern part of Gaza, obviously with the invasion and the destruction, many of these farms we've lost,' Dr Mohamed explained. 'But the team and myself, we managed to get hold of a couple of farmers who have their farms between the red zone and what they consider a humanitarian zone. These guys, when they knew what we were doing, they allowed us to buy off them directly. From the crops straight into the hands of Gaza's most vulnerable. Inside the most dangerous red zone where few can reach, but the need is greatest. Thank you to Dr Mohamed @rebuildgaza24 and the brave team risking everything to deliver. Please keep supporting every donation keeps… — RebuildGaza24 (@rebuildgaza24) June 17, 2025 'We literally just pick it up and deliver it to people. But the process itself, going and picking up these vegetables, is really very risky – I mean extremely risky – but the job has to be done.' That is no exaggeration. To cross a line laid down by the Israeli military is to risk death. On the day he left Gaza, Dr Mohamed said, three of Rebuild Gaza's team members were shot dead. But the team understands the risks involved in working during what international experts – and witnesses such as Dr Mohamed – do not hesitate to call a genocide. When we first spoke, the Rebuild Gaza co-founder said that he is a 'genocide survivor'. Asked about the term when we spoke for a second time, he said: 'What do you call this? 'They're killing kids, for god's sake, kids. Do you know how many families have been wiped out from the register? 'Do you know how many people, the number of amputations in Gaza? Do you know how many widows in Gaza? Do you know how many orphans in Gaza? It is beyond imagination. READ MORE: MPs call on UK Government to publish Gaza 'genocide' papers 'And this is still continuous. I was asked if I have PTSD, and I said, 'Look, we might need to find a new term'. PTSD is a post-traumatic stress disorder, but it's an ongoing process. It hasn't finished yet.' Listening to Dr Mohamed's experiences in Gaza is harrowing. Death is part of daily life under the Israeli occupation. He recalled one such example: 'I went and saw a friend of mine. Honestly, in the morning, I saw him, I was talking to him, we had a laugh, you know, talking about normal things. 'Then in the evening, his house was hit. My own friend – I know his name, his kids, you know – he was in two halves, his guts were dangling from the first floor to the ground floor, and his kids were burned.' The stories mount up. There are too many to recount. But for Dr Mohamed, one in particular stands out. 'I need to tell you this story about my three aunties,' he said. 'It's one of the most brutal, barbaric, horrible, disgusting ways of killing.' Dr Mohamed Alsakka, speaking to the Sunday National after returning to the UK from Gaza (Image: NQ) The three sisters – Maysoon, Arwa, and Rafida – had refused to leave their home in north Gaza three times, ignoring warnings from the Israeli military to evacuate. A neighbour who did as she was commanded was found just down the street with a bullet in her head, Dr Mohamed said. But then, the soldiers came for the sisters as well. 'We received a phone call at 6.30 in the morning from my auntie. She was crying her guts out and she said, naming her two sisters, she said 'they came and they killed Maysoon and Arwa. They're just lying next to me with bullets in the head, both of them'. 'We said, we're glad you're OK. She said, 'Well, I begged them to kill me, and they said, you're not even worth the bullet'. 'After – this was all live on the phone at 6:30 in the morning – she said, I can smell burning. She said, 'The house is on fire', and then we lost communication.' READ MORE: SNP councillor succeeds in bid to force Labour action on Israeli arms sales The three sisters' deaths were reported by the Swiss-based Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor in July 2024. The charity said it was 'investigating reports that the Israeli army forces committed extrajudicial killings and unlawful executions of numerous residents, the majority of whom were women'. For Dr Mohamed, the deaths serve as a demonstration of 'just how brutal this army is'. 'There's absolutely no heart, there's no differentiation between kids and adults, learning disabilities, anything. They just shoot and kill anyone in cold blood,' he said. 'The IOF. They just want to cut all sources of support, anything that will support people, they just kill it, slaughter it, as they have done for the water.' You can support Rebuild Gaza 24 through the charity website at

The National

35 minutes ago

• The National

Rhoda Meek: Sheep shearing season shows reply guys in full force

I can't stop because a few weeks ago, I set myself the challenge of shearing my own flock, and I am a competitive creature – I do not enjoy losing and ­especially not against myself. Unsurprisingly, the first question most people have asked, upon hearing about this madness, is why? Why am I putting myself through it when there is a perfectly good alternative – bring in the professionals. I'd be lying if I hadn't asked myself the same thing more than once – usually as I lie on my back in the pen, having been bested by a large, heavy wedder for the umpteenth time. There are three answers, all equally weighted. READ MORE: BBC officially axes documentary on Gaza doctors over 'impartiality' concerns First, I've never done it before. I've been taught multiple times, and I've done the odd one slowly and badly, but I've always relied on other people to do the bulk of the job. And while I'll happily call in the professionals when needed, I also believe that if you keep livestock, you should be able to do the work that goes with it. I raise animals for meat. That means ­making hard decisions, and I think the least I can do is to learn the skills needed to care for them properly. Second, I wanted a challenge. I've been trying to get fitter and stronger this year, and there's nothing quite like wrestling a full-grown sheep to show you where you're at physically. And lastly – let's not lie – it makes cracking social media content. I'm 5'3' and a bit, and some of these sheep are not far off my weight. Watching me try to pin one down while wielding clippers and very little experience? That should be internet gold. Before I started, I watched as many ­videos as I could get my hands on – ­refreshing my memory and trying to ­memorise the steps. The ­professionals make it look like a dance – smooth, ­efficient, controlled. The sheep they clip barely know what's happening. One ­minute it's hot and woolly. Sixty ­seconds later, it's been spun in a circle, the ­clippers sliding over it effortlessly and it's back with its mates. Mine have not had that experience. We've all suffered. My fortysomething back has taken to shouting at me. I've flown past the camera on the back of a fed-up sheep. I've cried. I've sworn. I've had to stop and rest more times than I'd like to admit. But I'm still going. Setting a challenge is easy, but ­keeping myself honest and making myself do things I don't want to is a sight harder, which is where the social media angle is surprisingly helpful. I've told a couple of hundred thousand people I'll do it – and so I've been filming the process. It's not just to force me to finish, and it's not just for laughs (although it's creating quite a few), it's also because I like to show things as they are. I hate the polished nonsense of social media perfection. Life is messy. Learning is hard. And failing in public is part of it. I'm showing the good, the bad and the ugly and my honesty has been met with a mix of reactions. Some people are cheering me on. Some think I've lost the plot. And some – ­inevitably – are full of unsolicited ­advice and criticism. The internet, after all, loves an expert. It also loves an ­opinion, ­especially about women. The week a photo of me carrying a North ­Ronaldsay sheep made the front page, someone ­commented: 'Looks like her mother cut her hair.' I don't usually read the ­comments, but that one leapt out. I replied, truthfully: 'Honestly, my mother would have done a lot worse.' ­Incidentally, she agreed. There's something gloriously ironic about being mocked for my own unruly fleece while I'm literally shearing sheep. But it's never really about the hair. The same crowd likes to tell me I ­resemble Nicola Sturgeon – which I take as a ­compliment. I'm fairly sure it's not meant that way, because what ­really seems to ­upset a particular subset of ­people is a woman being both confident and ­competent in public. Last time a troll made the comparison, I tweeted about it, and was thrilled to get a laughing ­comment from the woman herself! Hot on the heels of the trolls come the reply guys – a well-documented ­species. No matter the topic, he knows better. He'll tell you what you should be doing, how to do it, and why you're doing it wrong. It won't occur to him that you might know a lot of it. And he doesn't talk to men like that – just the women. READ MORE: Arab Strap on Kneecap, free speech and gigging in Glasgow Often, his advice is wrapped in mansplaining and delivered with such confidence that it's almost impressive. Almost. You see it online, but you also see it in real life. I've sat in many a meeting as the expert in the room, only to have a man explain my job to me. Or worse – to repeat my exact point 10 minutes later and be congratulated for it. That's a 'he-peat,' by the way. It's the sort of thing that might have crushed me when I was younger. I started working at 19 – as a kids' TV presenter, of all things – where everything was about performance and perfection. You had to be polished. Get it right. Look the part. There wasn't a lot of room for failure. But over time – and especially since ­hitting my forties – I've stopped caring so much about what people think. I've made peace with making a fool of myself. The fear of looking daft has fallen away, and what's left is something far more useful: the freedom to be real. To show up, warts and all. When you choose to learn in public, as I very obviously have, you invite feedback, and not all of it is helpful. I've lost count of how many people have told me to stop, that I'm doing it wrong, that I'm hurting the sheep, that it's not worth it. But you don't get good without being bad first. You don't build skill without struggle. I'd rather fail out loud than quietly ­conform to someone else's expectations. I'd rather be a beginner in public than an expert in private. After all, that's how things change in all aspects of life – ­slowly and awkwardly. Speaking of awkward, I won't shear all my sheep this year. The rams and the biggest pet wedder were done for me – they're just too big for me to handle. But I'm aiming for that next year, in the vain hope that I'll be a vast amount better than I am this year. Pleasingly, I'm already getting better. I'm starting to read the clippers ­properly – I can tell when it's me getting it wrong, and when they need to be oiled or ­adjusted. I've still not cracked the animal control. There are two positions where I lose the sheep every time. But with 40 left, I might just figure it out. And if I don't? That's fine too. I'll ask for help. Not from the reply guys, but from the people who know me – who guide gently, who've done it before, and who show up in real life.

Scotsman

an hour ago

• Scotsman

Edinburgh's Keddie Gardens play park reopens after £188k upgrade

An Edinburgh play park has reopened following extensive refurbishment works - with a new range of equipment including a lighthouse play structure and inclusive roundabout now available. Sign up to our daily newsletter Sign up Thank you for signing up! Did you know with a Digital Subscription to Edinburgh News, you can get unlimited access to the website including our premium content, as well as benefiting from fewer ads, loyalty rewards and much more. Learn More Sorry, there seem to be some issues. Please try again later. Submitting... Families visiting Keddie Gardens, at the Leith end of Ferry Road and near to the Water of Leith, will now benefit from a range of new equipment that is designed to cater for all ages and abilities. The £188,513, refurb that was partially funded by the FCC Communities Fund, includes: new swings, a 'climber for all' play unit, a lighthouse play structure, and a new inclusive roundabout and trampoline. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad The new play park at Keddie Gardens in Edinburgh was funded by the Scottish Government through the City of Edinburgh Council and by FCC Communities Foundation which is a not-for-profit business that awards grants for community projects through the Scottish Landfill Communities Fund. | Edinburgh & Lothians Greenspace Trust Councillor Margaret Graham, who opened the park, said: 'These improvements have opened up Keddie Gardens Play Park to lots of people, providing safe and inclusive play equipment for children and their families.' The culture and communities convener added: 'Play, interaction and spending time outdoors is so important to children's development and quality of life, and this refurbishment will help more local people to spend time in the park.' Charlie Cumming, Edinburgh & Lothians Greenspace Trust, ceo, said: 'I'm delighted that the upgraded play park at Keddie Gardens is now in use. This vital facility is going to make a real difference to those who use it, as well as the wider Leith community. We are extremely grateful to FCC Communities Foundation for providing funding as we would not have been able to go ahead without its support. 'This revitalised space will provide high-quality play opportunities that support children's development, promote health and wellbeing, and encourage more families to enjoy and make use of the park, now and for generations to come.' Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad Cheryl Raynor, FCC community foundations grant managers, said: 'We are delighted to have worked with the City Council and Edinburgh & Lothians Greenspace Trust to make this project a reality for the local community, and it's great to see it now open and available for use. Thank you to everyone who has worked so hard on this project'.