MSF nurse recounts how he found himself trapped in Gaza

This Doctors Without Borders nurse describes to franceinfo the days spent in the middle of the fighting in Gaza, very close to the al-Chifa hospital.

Mohammed is a nurse for Doctors Without Borders. He supported his colleagues in Gaza’s main hospital, al-Chifa, at the start of the war, but found himself trapped on November 11 when the army surrounded the establishment. “All the buildings around al-Chifa hospital were under attack. We are in the middle of the battlefield. If we had tried to move, we would have been shot at. They were shooting at everyone who tried to move. Everyone. There are no exceptions, even for an MSF member.”

With his four children and around twenty people, the nurse is then confined in the MSF clinic. It is close to al-Chifa, in the epicenter of the offensive. So much so that a wall has to be broken down to try to ensure the group’s safety. “We made a hole in the wall of the clinic to get into the neighboring building. On the ground floor, there was no one left in the building. We moved there to protect ourselves. Because In the MSF clinic, all the windows were broken. We had the tanks, the army snipers very close, right in front of us. It was scary to stay there.”

“I saw a soldier, very far away, and the gunshots started”

For days, doctors and families had to survive without a stock of food, without electricity, without water. “You know, the hospital ice packs: we cut the plastic and drank the water inside. We had no water. We did so many things to survive.”

Ten days ago, during the truce hours, the group attempted an outing. But the convoy of five branded cars was pushed back by the Israelis, then targeted by shots which left one dead and one injured. “When we came back, before the shooting, I saw a bulldozer and a tank. I saw a soldier, very far away, and the shooting started.” Today, MSF is carrying out an investigation to try to establish the origin of these shots. Mohammed and the others were finally able to walk down to southern Gaza on Saturday, November 25, thanks to the truce. His story reinforces other testimonies on the violence, including against civilians, of the Israeli offensive around the al-Chifa hospital.