Last week, in a wide-ranging interview with Tucker Calson, Maynard described scenes of unimaginable horror: children dying on operating tables for lack of nutrition, colleagues executed with their hands bound behind their backs, and teenage boys shot in the genitals by Israeli soldiers at food distribution sites.
His testimony, grounded in decades of medical experience and deep personal relationships with Gazans, paints a picture of a society being methodically dismantled while the world looked on.
The Destruction of Healthcare
Maynard's account begins with the healthcare system itself. Of the 36 hospitals that once served Gaza's population of more than two million people, he says, nearly all have been attacked or rendered inoperable. "They've been destroyed," he said flatly. The only remaining major facility, Nasser Hospital in Khan Yunis, where Maynard was most recently based, is "very significantly part disabled."
The Israeli targeting of medical personnel has been staggering in its scale. "Nearly 2,000 healthcare workers have been killed during this conflict, a far greater proportion than any other conflict in living memory," Maynard said. He provided a stark statistical comparison to underscore the point: "75 Gaza healthcare workers have been killed per 100,000 capita of population. The equivalent number in Ukraine is 0.8. In all the other conflicts, it's single figures of healthcare workers per 100,000 population. In Gaza, it's 75. So there's been a grossly disproportionate killing of healthcare workers."
Maynard dismissed the Israeli government's repeated claim that hospitals are being used as Hamas command centers, saying he has never seen any evidence to support it. "I've been to every square inch of these hospitals," he said. "I've never seen any evidence of Hamas military activity."
He recalled a specific incident on 5 January 2024, when he was operating at Al-Aqsa Hospital in Deir al-Balah. "An Israeli missile attack hit the intensive care unit right next to where I was working," he said. "We finished the operation, we had to evacuate the hospital."
Maynard said the attacks on hospitals are not collateral damage. "The propaganda we hear from the Israeli spokespeople is always, well, these are either collateral damage or they are being used as Hamas command centers and we're just targeting Hamas. And they've never provided any remotely credible or verifiable evidence to support those contentions."
Executed Colleagues and Tortured Friends
Perhaps the most chilling passages of Maynard's account concern the fate of his colleagues and friends. He described a young plastic surgeon he had worked with in May 2023 at Shifa Hospital, who was later found dead under horrifying circumstances. "He was discovered about a mile from Shifa Hospital with his mother. They both had their hands handcuffed behind their backs, and they both had bullet wounds in the brains."
Another colleague, an iconic orthopedic surgeon whom Maynard had met for coffee just months before the war, was tortured to death in an Israeli prison. "His mode of torture was being raped to death," Maynard said. "He'd been serially raped on a daily basis for two weeks prior to his dying. His body's never been returned."
Maynard said he has taken detailed video and audio testimonies from healthcare workers who survived Israeli detention. "They described to me their modes of torture. How their genitals were repeatedly attacked. Specifically, they were electrocuted through their genitals. They underwent severe psychological torture. They were blindfolded for 60 days in a row. They were handcuffed. They were not allowed to lie down. They were on their knees or sitting for 60 days nonstop, beaten regularly, electrocuted. I mean, awful things."
None of those detained, Maynard emphasized, has been charged with any crime. "These are all people who are detained without charge," he said. "Completely lawless."
He noted that the pattern of detentions appears to target senior healthcare workers disproportionately. "My presumption is that this has been a deliberate policy to destroy the healthcare system," he said.
Starvation as a Weapon
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File Photo: Israeli forces shelled hundreds of Palestinians awaiting humanitarian aid. Photo courtesy of QNN.
Maynard was emphatic in rejecting claims that there is no starvation in Gaza—a narrative promoted by some aid organizations and commentators. "Most certainly not true," he said. "Whether that's a deliberate lie or misinformation, I can categorically say there is no truth in that statement whatsoever."
He described operating on an 11-year-old girl named Habiba, whose lower esophagus had been shattered by an explosion. Maynard, who specializes in esophageal surgery at Oxford, spent an entire night reconstructing her esophagus successfully. "Because her esophagus was so damaged, she couldn't eat or drink. She was on a ventilator. We had to tube feed her. We had no nutrition to give her. She died after four weeks, her repairs intact. She died because she had no nutrition, because the hospital had nothing to give her."
Maynard said he personally lost eight kilograms during one month-long trip because there was so little food available for anyone. "The malnutrition, the starvation was appalling," he said. "Those commentators who claim there was enough food going in are being profoundly dishonest in saying that."
He described how the blockade tightened over time. "From March 18th, 2025, when the Israelis broke that ceasefire, I was there in June, July. There was a complete blockade, no food going in. I saw members, friends of mine, surgeons I'd been known for years. One guy, I didn't recognize him because he lost 40 kilograms in weight."
'A Game of Target Practice'
Perhaps the most disturbing pattern Maynard described involved the systematic shooting of civilians at food distribution sites run by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF). He said he operated on many victims who had been shot while trying to get food for their starving families.
Maynard said his colleagues in the emergency room at Nasser Hospital noticed a striking and horrifying pattern. "One day, 19 young teenage boys had all come in, all of whom had been shot in the head and neck. Nowhere else, just the head and neck. Another day, they came in predominantly with chest injuries. Another day, they came in predominantly with abdominal gunshot wounds."
Then came the day that Maynard said he would never forget. "The Saturday before I left Nasser Hospital to come home to England, four young teenage boys were brought in, all of whom had been shot in the testicles. Nowhere else."
"The pattern of injuries that we all witnessed was so striking that it was clearly beyond coincidental," Maynard said. "It seemed to us like there was a game of target practice."
He described how the GHF sites operated: food would be laid out in a compound with a locked gate. "They would wait until there were 400, 500, 600 people queuing up outside, i.e., far more people than there was food allocated for. And then they'd open this narrow gate to get in, and there'd be utter chaos and fighting to try and get that food. And that was when they were being picked out."
Maynard said the young teenage boys were sent to get food because they were the strongest in families weakened by starvation. "These are all starving. They're all very weak. So the young teenage boys are the ones who are sent out because they're the strongest to get the food."
Drones, Quadcopters, and Indiscriminate Fire
Maynard also described the Israeli widespread use of weaponized drones in Gaza. "These remotely controlled fixed-wing drones which hover. They have guns on them, they have cameras on them, and they're flown all over the place in Gaza."
He said one of his friends was shot in the chest by a quadcopter while inside an operating theater at Nasser Hospital. "He's in the operating room early in the morning preparing the operating theater for an imminent operation when this quadcopter shoots him in the chest. He survived."
Maynard also treated victims of drones that sprayed bullets indiscriminately onto tents in Al-Mawasi, an area the Israeli military had designated as a "safe zone" for displaced civilians. He described operating on a woman who was three months pregnant and had been shot while inside her tent. "The bullet had missed her pregnant uterus by about two or three centimeters."
Maynard admitted that he was initially skeptical when told about the quadcopters. "I didn't believe a lot of it early on, to be honest with you. I just, I was naive. I assumed this was just, I wondered if it was propaganda, but I saw so much. On all these trips, I saw so much clear evidence of children and women being targeted that I would— that I believe all of it."
A man inspects the damage in a room following Israeli bombardment at Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis, southern Gaza Strip. AFP
Media and Government Complicity
Maynard expressed profound anger at what he sees as the complicity of Western governments and media in enabling the Israeli violence. He said he and other doctors have presented detailed evidence—including photographs of babies shot in the head and children who had starved to death—to both the British and American governments, with no effect.
"We went and gave this evidence. We took enlarged laminated color photographs... We've described this to the Biden administration. I've been to several meetings in our government, including one with the prime minister, where we've described what's been going on, and it's had no impact at all."
He accused the BBC of suppressing the truth, despite the efforts of individual journalists. "I spoke to BBC journalists about my experience with those young teenage boys. I gave them all the evidence I've just shared with you. And the individual journalists were desperate to get it out there, desperate, but they were not allowed to."
Maynard said the accusation of antisemitism has been weaponized to silence critics. "People are petrified that if they do come out and say these things, they will be accused publicly of being antisemitic. And of course, that label lasts, doesn't it? You can't have a job."
He pointed to the treatment of former Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn as a cautionary tale. "I don't believe there's an antisemitic cell in his body. I think he is passionately supportive of the Palestinians, and that is what his motivation has been."
A Doctor's Obligation
File Photo: Dr. Maynard volunteering with Medical Aid for Palestinians (MAP)’s Emergency Medical Team (EMT) at Nasser Hospital in southern Gaza. Photo courtesy of Medical Aid for Palestinians.
Despite the immense danger, Maynard said he plans to return to Gaza in August. "I know that because I've spoken out so much, the chance of Israel refusing me entry is very high, but I will keep going. I will keep trying."
He acknowledged the fear but said it is outweighed by a sense of moral obligation. "What is being done to the Gazans is so fundamentally wrong, not just in the last two years, but for decades... that those of us who've had the great privilege of knowing and loving the Gazan people for so many years have this absolute obligation. I couldn't imagine doing it any other way."
Maynard estimated that the true death toll in Gaza, including those who have died from starvation, lack of medical care, and other indirect causes, could be well over a quarter of a million people—more than 10% of the pre-war population. "It is unfathomable how the world has allowed this to happen," he said. "But the evidence is there."
He concluded with a reflection on the emotional toll of his work. "All of us who've been out there have been affected deeply emotionally. But I want everyone to realize, you know, we're there for two, three, four weeks at a time. Our Gazan colleagues, they're there, they've been seeing this day in, day out for two and a half years. So, whatever we have witnessed and seen, they've seen far worse. And the psychological trauma, the mental health damage is incalculable amongst all the Gazan people."
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