Press Details

• 16 May, 2024
• Gaza Health Initiative

INTERNATIONAL MEDICAL VOLUNTEERS TRAPPED IN GAZA

A Demand for the Delivery of Essential Aid and Safe Passage of International Humanitarians Operating in Gaza  

Numerous humanitarian workers from the United States, United Kingdom, Egypt, Jordan and so on, have courageously risked their lives and well-being in order to provide life-saving medical services in Gaza amidst the chaos, devastation, and complete collapse of the healthcare system.

The healthcare workers who selflessly offered their services to treat critically ill and injured patients in Gaza, are now stranded with limited resources with no way out following the closure of the Rafah crossing on May 7th after being seized by Israeli Forces. 

Reports from medical colleagues on the ground and various news outlets including CNN, CBS, Al-Jazeera, and NBC many organizations that remain in Gaza at this time including Fajr Scientific, PAMA, CADUS Disaster Relief, Med-UK, MER-C, the Jordanian Private Hospitals.

Approximately 180 international workers, from 39 countries; Among these medical volunteers are American physicians Dr. Mahmoud Sabha, Dr. Mohammed Abdelfattah, Dr. Laura Swoboda, and Dr. Adam Hamawy, Jordanian Delegates Dr. Mu'taz Jadaan, Dr. Firas Al-Buti, Dr. Anas Said, Dr. Susan Kullab, Dr. Raid Otoum, Dr. Jomana Al-Hinti ,  Ayman Qethama RN, Mohammad Ghaz, and UK surgeon Dr. Mohammed Tahir; all of whom were scheduled to end their medical mission and return home days ago.

Their personal testimonies reveal just how dire the situation is; volunteers have required medical attention themselves due to sickness, fatigue, dehydration and mental-duress.

Each day they must ration the dwindling supply of food and water they have left, as well as the medical supplies needed to operate.

These circumstances compound the larger concerns regarding the safety of these humanitarian workers. Fajr Scientific’s CEO Dr. Mosab Nassir, described in a recent interview, how he and his team evacuated their “safe house” due to increasing bombardment in the area, outlining the inability to distinguish safe from unsafe based on information they receive from the IDF. This underscores the unreliability of IDF sources as well as highlights the historical undermining and blatant disregard of the safety, wellbeing, and lives of humanitarian and medical personnel in IDF controlled areas—e.g., deaths of WCK volunteers, Human Appeal volunteer Omar Barzak, UN staffer Waibhav Anil Kale.

This statement is being given with an explicit request that the government of Israel allow the provisions of essential humanitarian aid, safe passage to Rafah border, and the immediate evacuation of international humanitarian volunteer-workers. We deliver this statement in conjunction with an explicit request of G7 leaders to take all necessary measures in order to bring their citizens home.

Finally, we specifically adjoin to these request and particular request to United States of America, President Joe Biden, his Cabinet, and the Congress of the United States of America to halt continued tax-payer financed armaments to the government of Israel, most recent being the approval of $1 Billion worth of new arms as of Tuesday May 14th, as these weapons could very well contribute to the deaths or injury of it’s own American citizens.