Anchor:
A passionate plea for a ceasefire from two health care workers who’ve been on the front lines treating Palestinians in Gaza. Our investigator Megan Hickey sat down with a doctor from Chicago and a nurse who witnessed the horrors more than 6,000 miles away and we do want to warn you some of the stories you’re about to hear are graphic.
Nurse Musleh:
I’ve been trapped for more than one month inside Al-Shifa hospital, and maybe it was the most difficult period in my life.
Anchor:
The hospital that nurse and Gaza native Rajaa Musleh sheltered in and the hospital that Chicago based ER physician Dr. Thaer Ahmad volunteered in were both destroyed, obliterated by Israeli airstrikes and raids.
Dr. Ahmad:
What we noticed was a 360-degree assault on life in Gaza.
Nurse Musleh:
You smell the death every moment inside.
Anchor:
But the horrific flashbacks at the time they worked there will forever live in their memories. Nurse Musleh went from sheltering to helping whoever she could while inside Al-Shifa hospital. For her it’s the sight of bodies piling up outside while the hospital was under siege.
Nurse Musleh:
One day we are looking at the persons we saw the dogs eat them and we cannot do anything because they trapped us, and they prevent us to move.
Anchor:
Or the dying moments she spent with a 10-year-old girl with burns to 87% of her body that fueled her nightmares.
Nurse Musleh:
She was crying from pain but at the same time I cannot do anything for her because there is no sedation to give her and calm her down.
Anchor:
More than 42,000 Palestinians have been killed by the Israeli military since the war began according to the Gaza health ministry.
Dr. Ahmad:
I saw that love for life came under attack, specifically trying to break the will of the people in Gaza. I saw it in Nasser hospital.
Anchor:
And even after 16 days at Nasser Hospital in January, Dr. Ahmad felt he could do even more. Now he is volunteering in Lebanon, based in the south between two hospitals training staff. This as Israeli airstrikes continue to flatten Beirut suburbs this week.
Dr. Ahmad:
And I think some of its survivors’ guilt, some of it is we know we have some privileges and opportunities that people in Gaza don’t. How could you not use that to try to support them? Anchor: One thing both feel deeply is a sense of outrage at the level of devastation more than a year later.
Dr. Ahmad:
I think it’s time for all of us to hold up a mirror to ourselves and figure out where we failed the people of Gaza.
Nurse Musleh:
They are human beings and have the right to receive medical services, education and to raise up their children in peace. So, we need ceasefire, and this is simply our message for the world.
Anchor:
And Dr. Ahmad and Nurse Musleh were both there on behalf of Med Global which is a humanitarian organization that provides emergency response and health programs for victims of war. Nurse Musleh eventually evacuated to Egypt. Dr. Ahmad is still volunteering and plans to speak with us tomorrow morning from Lebanon.