Three U.S. Doctors Refuse to Leave Gaza Hospital While Israel Blocks New Aid Workers

Three U.S. doctors remain in Gaza’s European Hospital in Khan Younis, after refusing to leave with a group of American and British humanitarian aid volunteers who were evacuated on Friday. The Americans insisted on staying until they could be replaced, but since Israel seized the Rafah border crossing last week, no humanitarian aid or workers have been able to enter Gaza. Aid workers from Egypt, Jordan, Australia and other countries with less political power, were reportedly not offered the option to evacuate, and still remain in the hospital. “A decision for some of us to stay was consistent with our American values. We came in as a team and we do not leave anyone behind,” said Dr. Adam Hawamy from New Jersey, who is credited with saving the life of Sen. Tammy Duckworth during the Iraq War. “If all and only the Americans left at once, what would that say about us as a nation?” According to The Intercept , patients and staff at the hospital fear that if all Americans leave the hospital, it will be readily destroyed by the Israeli Defense Forces, as they have done to nearly every hospital in the region.

Read it at The Intercept

Read more at The Daily Beast.