US Doctors Stunned By Number Of Gaza Children With Headshot Wounds

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has called Israel the "most moral army in the world," but a high volume of deeply troubling wounds seen by American surgeons volunteering in Gaza is casting doubt on that claim. 

Dr. Mark Perlmutter, an American surgeon with heavy catastrophe-zone experience, is among those stunned by the civilian devastation they've recently witnessed in Gaza, and especially by a high volume of what appear to be precision rifle-fire wounds on children -- including toddlers. 

"All of the disasters I've seen, combined – 40 mission trips, 30 years, Ground Zero, earthquakes, all of that combined – doesn't equal the level of carnage that I saw against civilians in just my first week in Gaza," Dr. Mark Perlmutter, an orthopedic surgeon and vice president of the International College of Surgeons, told CBS's Sunday Morning. 

What most struck him was his observation that the overwhelming majority of the patients he and his team treated were children:

"I've never seen that before. I've seen more incinerated children than I've ever seen in my entire life, combined. I've seen more shredded children in just the first week … missing body parts, being crushed by buildings, the greatest majority, or bomb explosions, the next greatest majority." 

Perlumutter, a Jew who grew up in New Jersey and who now lives in North Carolina, was also disturbed what what he attributed to precise rifle fire directed at children, some of whom were "shot twice." 

"I have two children that I have photographs of that were shot so perfectly in the chest, I couldn't put my stethoscope over their heart more accurately, and directly on the side of the head, in the same child. No toddler gets shot twice by mistake by the 'world's best sniper.' And they're dead-center shots."

His description of the phenomenon was confirmed to CBS News by more than 20 other doctors who'd recently visited Gaza. An American doctor had such a problem grasping what he was seeing that he double-checked using CT scans, saying he "didn't believe that this many children could be admitted to a single hospital with gunshot wounds to the head." 

A Virginia anesthesiologist said he saw an estimated 30 single gunshot wounds to children in just two weeks. A doctor based in gunfire-heavy Chicago described the horrific conclusion he reached as the pattern emerged on the treatment tables in front of him: 

"I thought these kids were in the wrong place at the wrong time, like sadly, some of the kids we treat in Chicago. But after the third or fourth time, I realized it was intentional; bullets were being put in these kids on purpose."

An Israeli Defense Forces spokesperson assured CBS News that "the IDF has never, and will never, deliberately target children," while cautioning that "remaining in an active combat zone has inherent risks." When he addressed the US Congress on Wednesday, Netanyahu said: 

"For Israel, every civilian death is a tragedy. For Hamas, it's a strategy. They actually want Palestinian civilians to die, so that Israel will be smeared in the international media and be pressured to end the war before it’s won." 

That claim isn't consistent with what the American volunteer doctors observed. Writing at Politico, Perlmutter and Dr. Feroze Sidhwa said the stream of child-headshot patients almost invariably arrived with one of two explanations from their families: "[They said] the children were playing inside when they were shot by Israeli forces, or they were playing in the street when they were shot by Israeli forces." 

So whose claims should Congress trust more? Dozens of volunteer American humanitarian doctors, or a prime minister who's already told them some of the most impactful lies they've ever bought?