'I wanted to be here': British medics risking their lives to support Gaza's injured civilians

British medics are running one of the few operating theatres still functioning in Gaza, ITV News Senior International Correspondent John Irvine reports, with filming from a local journalist working for ITV News

British medics working in Gaza have described their "humbling" experiences of working to save the lives of innocent civilians in an active warzone.

ITV News filmed with some of those offering their services in a field hospital to the south of the Gaza Strip, which is being run by the British-based charity UK-Med.

The hospital is home to one of the few functioning operating theatres in the territory and includes Jay Matthews, a theatre nurse from Surrey, as one of its volunteers.

"There are explosions, gunfire, smoke," he told ITV News. "It's pretty constant. I think last night we had a drone over our heads for maybe four or five hours. It's very obvious."

Mr Matthews said both his fiancé and his parents had asked him not to travel to Gaza over safety concerns, but he felt compelled to offer his support regardless.

He said: "Nobody wanted me to be here, but I wanted to be here and so I am. Healthcare should be available to everyone."

The need for the field hospital is underlined only a few miles away where the city of Khan Younis now lies in ruin, after months of fighting between Israeli forces and the proscribed terror group Hamas.

'I don’t know if you can hear it but there's a jet going over us right now'

Nasser Hospital, which used to be the largest such facility in southern Gaza, now lies derelict, like many of the buildings surrounding it.

Alan Curtis is an American surgeon who has worked in some of the deadliest wars in recent memory, including the conflicts in Afghanistan and Iraq.

But he told ITV News that the war currently raging in Gaza is the "worst" he has ever seen.

"Here most of the civilians are the ones that are injured, especially children," he said.

"I see a lot of children that have died here and women as well and old people."

'This war is the worst I’ve ever seen,' says US surgeon Alan Curtis

The field hospital is located in what has become one of the world's biggest camps for war refugees.

Mandy Blackman, who works as a team leader at the field hospital, told ITV News that despite the dire humanitarian situation facing Palestinians in Gaza, the people she has met are "friendly" and "welcoming".

She added: "It's an absolute explosion of the senses really in terms of what I'm seeing here and what I'm witnessing."

More than 33,000 Palestinians have now died since Israel launched it's multi-pronged military operation into Gaza, according to the territory's Hamas-run Health Ministry.

The Israeli action was itself triggered by an unprecedented assault into southern Israel on October 7 by Hamas and other Palestinian militants, which killed 1,200 people and led to hundreds more being abducted.

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