A beacon of courage and humanitarianism, Ghassan Abu-Sittah is a prominent war surgeon who has selflessly put himself in harm's way volunteering to treat patients in the most treacherous conflict zones throughout his career. A multi-award-winning plastic and reconstructive surgeon, notable academic, and leader in the field of conflict medicine, he has championed the cause of war-injured patients, particularly children, with an indomitable spirit and a firm stance for human rights and the freedom of Palestine.
He was born in 1969 in Kuwait to a Palestinian father and a Lebanese mother. His father's family were expelled from their ancestral land in the 1948 Arab-Israeli war to become refugees in the Gaza Strip and later move to Kuwait.
He earned his bachelor of medicine and surgery in 1993 from the University of Glasgow, followed by a residency and fellowships in pediatric craniofacial surgery, cleft surgery, and trauma reconstruction in London. He then worked at the UK National Health Service and helped treat victims of the 2005 London bombings.
Abu-Sittah moved to Beirut in 2011 as associate professor at AUB and head of the division of plastic and reconstructive aesthetic surgery at AUBMC. In 2015, he became founding director of the Conflict Medicine Program of AUB's Global Health Institute. He is known for medical textbooks like
Reconstructing the War Injured Patient and
The War Injured Child: From Point of Injury Treatment through Management and Continuum of Care.
Ghassan first treated patients in Gaza as a medical student during the first Palestinian uprising (Intifada) in 1989. He then provided medical assistance as a member of the British Medical Aid for Palestinians during the second
Intifada in 2000, 2008-2009 Gaza war, 2012 Israeli operation in the Gaza Strip, 2014 Gaza war, 2018 Great March of Return in Gaza, and Gaza war in 2021. He also worked in war zones in Iraq, Lebanon, Syria, and Yemen and is the clinical lead for the Operational Trauma Initiative at the World Health Organization. He serves on the Board of Directors of INARA for reconstructive surgery to war-injured children in the Middle East and the Board of Trustees of UK-based Medical Aid for Palestinians and the Institute for Palestine Studies.
He is an authority regularly featured in the media, most notably the BBC, CNN, Wall Street Journal, Independent, Telegraph, and Le Monde.
Recipient of several recognitions including the Royal College of Surgeons fellowship in 2010 and the AUB Humanism and Professionalism award in 2015, Abu-Sittah has more recently been granted the TRT World Citizen of the Year award and the TAKREEM Lifetime Achievement award. In 2018, AUB's Bioethics and Professionalism program inaugurated The Ghassan Abu-Sittah Library in his honor.
In 2020, he returned to live in London with his wife and three sons, providing reconstructive and aesthetic consultations at his clinic. In 2021, he worked as a lecturer at the Centre for Blast Injury Studies at Imperial College London and is a visiting senior lecturer at the Conflict and Health Research Group of King's College London. In 2024, he was elected by students as rector of the University of Glasgow.
On October 9, 2023, Ghassan Abu-Sittah went to aid the injured in the attacks on Gaza and was besieged for 43 days in the now destroyed Al-Ahli and Al-Shifa hospitals. His name stands today as a renowned symbol advocating human rights, justice, and freedom.