Gaza killings continue reports Australian doctor. Photos: ABC

In a ABC NewsRadio interview on 18th November 2025. an Australian emergency doctor working with Doctors Without Borders (MSF) in Gaza, reported that the “Israeli Defence Forces and the Israeli authorities continue restricting aid, continue killing Palestinians and continue removing the conditions that are needed for life.”

She warned “this is still a genocide that’s been disguised as a ceasefire”.

A transcript of Dr Thienminh Dinh’s interview with ABC presenter Samantha Donovan is reproduced below.

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Samantha Donovan – From the actions of the Security Council in New York to the view on the ground in Gaza, an Australian emergency doctor working there is warning that the conditions for Palestinians are still dire despite the fragile cease fire being in place.

Brisbane’s Dr Thienminh Dinh is working with MSF (Doctors Without Borders) at a field hospital in central Gaza …

Speaking from the hospital, she told me that the Gaza ceasefire is doing little if anything to protect Palestinians.

Dr Thienminh Dinh – It’s meant to be a ceasefire but it’s not in my opinion. This is still a genocide that’s been disguised as a ceasefire. There have been hundreds of civilians who have been killed since the ceasefire started and many, many hundreds more who have been Injured.

Samantha Donovan – Dr Dinh, why do you think that’s happening?

Dr Thienminh Dinh – I think what’s happened with the ceasefire is that the Israeli Defence Forces (IDF) and the Israeli authorities have called it a ceasefire to placate their political allies so they can continue restricting aid, continue killing Palestinians and they can continue removing the conditions that are needed for life.

For example,  five minutes ago I was seeing a patient in ICU. He was collecting firewood for his family and the IDF shot him many times. He has come in with a liver laceration, a collapsed lung and blood in his chest. He’s come in with his large intestine and small intestine just riddled with holes.

Samantha Donovan – What are the chances that he’ll survive?

Dr Thienminh Dinh – Despite how and well he was and despite our lack of resources we’re fortunate in that our surgeons are incredibly skilled. They’ve stabilised him. He’s still in a critical condition in ICU but I think this particular patient will make it. Unfortunately, I can’t say the same for the rest of hundreds of Palestinians who have been killed since the ceasefire started.

Samantha Donovan – Tell us more about what an average working day is like for you at the moment? What sort of cases are you seeing?

Dr Thienminh Dinh – So we’re still seeing an overwhelming amount of cases of people who have been and are currently being injured. But what we are also seeing hundreds of patients with complications from previous injuries.

One of our patients at the moment is a 10 year old girl who is a triple amputate. A few months ago she was walking down the street with her cousin when an Israeli drone spotted them and it dropped a bomb on them.

When she woke up in ICU, she was missing one arm, she was missing both legs and her cousin was dead. Her story is not unique. We hear it every day and despite all of this the Israelis are still placing restrictions on things that we can bring in. There are restrictions on crutches and there are restrictions on wheelchairs.

Samantha Donovan – What explanation are you being given for that restriction of supply?

Dr Thienminh Dinh – Israeli authorities really aren’t offering any valid explanation as to why they’re restricting our supplies. MSF has actually not seen an increase in the amount of aid that we’re bringing in after the ceasefire. In fact, in the last week they have turned away three of our trucks that were carrying just aid, medical equipment. water and sanitation items. They tore apart one of those trucks and destroyed 11 of the pallets within those trucks that were carrying baby formula.

There is no valid explanation that they’re giving us. There’s no valid explanation anyone can give for destroying baby formula.

Samantha Donovan – Did you witness that yourself?

Dr Thienminh Dinh – I did not. That came through from the reports of our supply offices and our pharmacy team.

Samantha Donovan – Dr Dinh, you mentioned that little girl who’s tragically lost three limbs.  We of course hear back in Australia that people who’ve returned home in Gaza or perhaps just moved around a lot are living in very difficult conditions. Tell us about those conditions and how it affects people who’ve been badly injured?

Dr Thienminh Dinh – So they are living in tents and I use the word tense very loosely. They are shelters made from pipes that have been found and from plastics. These people don’t have any electricity. They don’t have access to reliable water and they don’t have reliable access to food.

They do seek treatment in hospital but they have to walk kilometres to seek that treatment. Often we don’t have the medications, the first line antibiotics, that are needed to treat their injuries and their complications.

They just can’t heal because when patients are malnourished, beyond seeing them look like skeletons, they don’t have the proteins that they need, they don’t have the sugars, the micronutrients, the selenium and zinc, needed for their body to actually lay down tissue.

So one of our chronic patients has had about 10 surgeries. He again was injured in the airstrike while he was trying to save someone else’s life. Every time we go in to sew him up, we sew him up and then a week later, a couple of weeks later, his intestine just doesn’t heal and it just leaks everywhere.

Samantha Donovan – We’re hearing about this yellow line under the ceasefire which Gazans must stay within. Are you finding that is a particularly dangerous place for Gazans to be?

Dr Thienminh Dinh – Yes. It’s dangerous one because it’s not clearly demarcated. So these Palestinians who don’t have access to the news or the Internet, will hear that there’s a ceasefire and they will go back to these lines or close to it to see what they can collect from their homes.

Like the patient I mentioned before, he’s gone to see what he could collect for his family and they’re being killed at these lines. There was a family of 12 in a van in the north who were killed only a couple of weeks ago.

Samantha Donovan – So what is MSF urging the Israeli government and perhaps the world community to do to improve the conditions for people in Gaza and improve the conditions under which you’re working?

Dr Thienminh Dinh – I would like Australians to know that this isn’t a ceasefire. I would like Australians to know that this is still a genocide that’s been disguised as a ceasefire.

I would urge politicians and policy makers to demand that the Israeli government allow access, allow aid in with unimpeded restrictions to that aid, and I would demand that the Israeli authorities stop killing Palestinians.

Samantha Donovan – That’s Brisbane Dr Thienminh Dinh. She was speaking to me from an MSF field hospital in central Gaza. She’s leading the medical team there and is on her second 3 month stint in the enclave this year.

A recording of the above interview can be accessed here.