A SENIOR doctor who grew up on the Gaza strip said he has now ‘lost count’ of how many of his relatives have been killed there.

Mohammed Matar, a consultant in obstetrics and gynaecology, has spoken of feeling helpless by the ‘terrible’ situation in his birthplace.   

Mr Matar, who worked at The West Cumberland Hospital and The Cumberland Infirmary for over 20 years, has lost relatives as young as two in the atrocities.

More than 25,000 Palestinians in Gaza have now been reported killed, including thousands of children, since Israel began bombing the territory in the wake of Hamas' October 7 attacks.

Mr Matar said he is not able to speak to family members there directly but receives updates from relatives in Turkey who let him know that they are still alive.

He said: “We have lost a number of extended family members. I have a big family in Gaza. Every now and then they tell us who died and who is still alive.

“I have lost count now. A few weeks ago I was told 18 people from the Matar name died in one house – the children, women and men - wiped off completely.

“The closest family member I have lost is one of my nephews. He was trying to evacuate the house but it was too late for him. The walls collapsed and he died.

“It is terrible what is happening there. We don’t know what’s the end of it.”

Mr Matar said most of his family members had been moved to the south of Gaza, near the borders of Egypt. But others have stayed in the north and are struggling with basics like food, water and electricity.

He said an attack in the south is expected to happen soon and his relatives don’t know what to do because there is nowhere for them to move to.

Mr Matar said he ‘absolutely’ supported calls for a ceasefire.

He said: “There is nothing I can do myself – I’m at the other part of the world. You just feel sad for the people there. It’s awful.”

Mr Matar was born in 1955 and grew up in Al-Shati – a Palestinian refugee camp in the northern Gaza strip. His family had been displaced from what is now known under Israel as the city of Ashkelon in 1948.

He has fond memories of growing up in Gaza.

“It was lovely,” he said. “All my childhood was there. I enjoyed the sea. I was a good swimmer so I used to go to the sea there every day. The sea in Gaza is amazing.”

Mr Matar left Gaza in the 1967 war and went to Egypt. He studied medicine there and qualified as a doctor before moving to Saudi Arabia for five years.

From there, he moved to Belfast and then relocated to Cumbria in 1995 and began working as a consultant gynaecologist at The West Cumberland Hospital in Whitehaven. He then worked at the Cumberland Infirmary in Carlisle from 2008 until 2018.

Mr Matar now works at a hospital in Gibraltar but regularly comes back to Cumbria, where he still has the family home in Cockermouth.