American doctor serving in Rafah unable to evacuate, describes worsening humanitarian crisis

An American doctor volunteering in Gaza says the humanitarian crisis is becoming increasingly dire as the Israeli army begins to invade the southern town of Rafah, where more than a million Palestinians are trying to shelter.

“Our patients are dying because of the lack of supplies, resources and shortage of staff,” the doctor says in a video dispatch shared with the Sun-Times from Gaza.

The situation in Rafah has become so dangerous that global medical relief organization Syrian American Medical Society wants to evacuate the American doctor serving there — but can’t.

“We’re very concerned with their safety,” said Dr. Mufaddal Hamadeh, Chicago-based president of the organization that includes the American doctor stranded there.

Hamadeh asked that the America doctor’s name be withheld, for fear of his safety. He said the physician recently began a nearly two-week mission earlier this month at a hospital in Rafah, and continues to work until it’s possible for him to evacuate.

The workload has increased even more as local Gazan doctors leave hospitals to take care of their own families, Hamadeh said.

“The burden is then placed on the doctors who are still there,” he said. “It’s becoming increasingly very difficult for them, in addition to hearing bombs 24 hours a day close by.”

In the video, the American doctor described how patients and staff are struggling with the worsening conditions.

Hospital beds are in short supply in Rafah, the doctor said, so when some of his patients recover and are well enough to be discharged, they tell him they have no home to return to. “They say, ‘Please keep me here,’” the doctor said.

Rafah has become the most recent focus of Israel’s military, which describes it as Hamas’ last holdout. President Joe Biden recently withheld an arms shipment to Israel, fearing the bombs may be used in an invasion there. Meanwhile, Israeli tanks were recently seen rolling into outer parts of the town.

Medical services in the city under siege are also being stressed. The World Health Organization reported this week that Gazans in Rafah are “afraid” to seek medical services, where hospitals are overloaded with patients, fuel and food are dwindling and many people lack shelter.

Chicago-based Dr. John Kahler last visited Rafah in March, when he saw conditions deteriorate over the last seven months as Gazan refugees fled south into the city.

Provided photo

The health system in Rafah is now “in virtual collapse,” the congestion has dramatically worsened, and he saw the emerging onset of long-term effects of malnutrition, said Kahler, cofounder of the volunteer group MedGlobal.

“It wasn’t good before all of this. And you put 1.2 million people on top of this, it completely compromises [medical] care,” said Kahler. “On top of that there’s no clean water, no hygiene, no safe spaces to sleep.”

Kahler has a team of health care workers and support staff working in Rafah, all of them locals who his group helps pay. He and his international team remain on the Egyptian border, unable to cross into Gaza, both because it is closed, and military action to surround Rafah is so intense that it makes safe travel impossible.

“It’s a board game [the Israeli military is] playing, except they’re playing it with people. It’s apocalyptic,” Kahler said.

“I’ve been to a lot of bad places in my life: Haiti, Yemen, Syria. I thought I was ready,” he said. “The second I came out of immigration control [at the border with Egypt], there’s no lights. All you see are fires. It’s the smell. You can feel it in your skin. … It grabbed me like nothing has ever grabbed me in my life.”