Doctor working in Gaza before evacuation to Ireland says it has been reduced to rubble
Vivienne Clarke
A doctor, who had been working with Médecins Sans Frontières in Gaza until his evacuation to Ireland last week, has said there was nothing left there.
Dr Mohammed Abu Mughaisib, who was the deputy Medical Coordinator for MSF in Gaza, told RTÉ radio’s Morning Ireland that he did not recognise the streets of Rafah while he was being evacuated as they had been reduced to rubble.
“The population now in the north area has an evacuation order to move to the south. One million people are struggling to move. They are asking them to move to the south area, which was called the humanitarian zone, which is between brackets. It's not a humanitarian zone.
"The hospitals are collapsing one by one, which are in the north. Patients are actually in these hospitals, are lying on the floor there. There is no beds at all.
“Doctors now are consulting the patient without giving any treatment because there is no more treatment. The population still are struggling to find shelters, there is no space, there is no tents, and they are struggling to find water.
"There is no term to describe what's going on in Gaza, there is neighbourhoods erased from the planet."
Dr Mughaisib said he had been "lucky" because he managed to evacuate his family to Cairo while he stayed in Gaza.
“I used the electricity unit room to put my mattress. I mean, that was your life - your mattress, your pillow, and your documents. It was a kind of luxury to find bread and to buy it, it's very expensive. The cost of one bread was €5, I can afford it, I'm still working.
"But imagine the population that 80 percent of them are in poverty. They were really children crying in the tent because their families cannot provide for the milk or food, and they were crying because of hunger, and they sleep because they get tired from crying, so they sleep.
“There was acute hunger. Famine - I was not waiting to declare the famine in Gaza because we witnessed it, me and my colleagues who are working with MSF.
Dr Mughaisib explained that he applied through MSF Ireland to come to Dublin. “The Irish Government and embassy really facilitated my work papers"
“When I entered some areas in Gaza during the evacuation, I didn't recognise Rafah, I didn't recognise Khan Yunis. It was just rubbles. And the tanks, of course, are there.
"They were blocking the road but they open it and they allow the convoy, but I didn't recognise none of these streets of Rafah and Khan Yunis that I know it by heart.
"I'm living there for 25 years so I know Gaza by heart. I didn't recognise no street.”
It was “very strange” to be in Ireland, he said. He hoped to be soon be reunited with his family, who he has not seen in over 18 months.
“I have really mixed feelings. It's very difficult to wake up without the sound of the drones, the shelling, the bombing. And I left all my memories there. I have friends, colleagues, families there that I know that are still suffering and they wanted to be evacuated, to be in security.
"But it's difficult. Physically, I'm here, but my heart and soul is there."
