2023-11-07 06:52:47
(CNN) – Emily “Callie” Callahan, director of nursing activity at Doctors Without Borders, an American nurse who left Gaza last week, told CNN correspondent Anderson Cooper that there are children suffering from “severe burns” and partial amputations among them. Internally displaced people in Gaza.
“We were moved regarding five times over the course of 26 days due to security concerns,” Callahan added.
She explained: “One of the places we ended up at is the Khan Yunis Training Center,” which hosts more than 22,000 internally displaced people, and the area per person is less than 2 square meters (regarding 21 square feet), according to what Doctors Without Borders reported and according to what CNN reported. .
She said: “There were children suffering from severe burns on their faces, down their necks, and all their limbs, and because the hospitals were very crowded, they were being taken out immediately.”
She added: “They are being deported to these camps without access to running water, and they receive two hours of water every 12 hours,” and “there were only four latrines” in the camp.
“There are children with burns, recent open wounds, partial amputations walking around in these conditions, and parents are bringing their children to us, saying, ‘Please can you help? Please can you help?’ And we don’t have supplies,” Callahan continued.
A spokesman for a United Nations relief agency said that at least 70% of the Gaza Strip’s population of two million people are currently displaced, and most of them live in horrific conditions in United Nations shelters.
In a statement issued on Monday, the agency described the conditions in the overcrowded UNRWA facilities, which currently shelter 717,000 displaced people from Gaza. She said the situation in the shelters was “inhumane” and deteriorating, and warned of the risk of a public health crisis, due to damage to water and sanitation infrastructure.
Callahan said she believes they are at risk of starvation or running out of water, and that local staff are “calling for help and calling their friends” to get food and water.
“When I say we would have starved to death without them, I’m not exaggerating,” Callahan added. She added: “In the moments of absolute despair among the civilians, they were steadfast and calm and they just spoke to them, and they said that these people are also in the same boat as you, and they do not have supplies, and they also do not have food and water, and they are also sleeping outside.”
When thinking regarding when notice would be received to move to the South Gaza Valley, Callahan explained that she would send a text message to staff at a hospital, asking them if they would vacate and move south.
She added: “The only answer I got was: ‘This is our community, this is our family, these are our friends. If they are going to kill us, we will die to save as many people as possible.'”
Although Callahan has left Gaza and is now in the United States, she says she sends a text message every morning when she wakes up, and every night before bed, asking the staff she left in Gaza: “Are you alive?”
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