Extract from ABC News
An Australian volunteer doctor in Gaza has become trapped in the war zone after Israel's seizure and closure of the Rafah border crossing.
Modher Albeiruti, who works as an emergency physician in Wollongong and Fairfield in New South Wales, travelled to Gaza as a volunteer with the Palestinian American Medical Association.
He arrived in the enclave at the start of May for a two-week mission and was supposed to leave Gaza after May 13.
But he has been unable to leave due to Israel's invasion of the Palestinian side of the Rafah border crossing into Egypt.
The route out of Gaza was closed indefinitely on May 6 despite being the only option for civilians — including volunteers — to enter and exit the enclave during the ongoing war.
"So far, there's no clear exit plan for us," Dr Albeiruti said.
"We're exhausted. We've been working for 19, 20 days non-stop.
"We've been left stranded here. And every day [the Australian government] says, 'We're trying.'"
The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) says it is providing consular assistance to an Australian in Gaza.
The ABC has been told DFAT is in ongoing conversations with Israeli officials to have Dr Albeiruti evacuated.
US and UK find solution to get doctors out
Dr Albeiruti was working with a team of other volunteer doctors — including from the US, the United Kingdom, and Jordan — at the European Hospital in Gaza's biggest southern city, Khan Younis.
The US and UK managed to evacuate nearly all its volunteer doctors after the crossing closure earlier this month following intervention from the White House.
But Dr Albeiruti says Australia has left him "stranded" and he now fears for his life as daily aerial attacks from Israel continue in the Gaza strip.
"Obviously, my family is extremely worried," he said.
"They knew that I … [was] going to a war zone, but it was supposed to be a two-week trip."
He says the war has felt very close while he has been staying in the area.
"The drones are on top of you, bombing. You can hear bombing and it's getting closer day by day, especially since the invasion of Rafah," he said.
"Two days ago, there was a rocket two blocks away. And sometimes you can hear the artillery sounds, especially at night.
"And so we feel that. The war is coming very, very close to us now."
Dr Albeiruti has been living at the European Hospital while he has been volunteering.
He says he is emotionally shaken by the level of injuries he has encountered in the job, and by the collapse of the medical system.
"Most of the staff here are volunteers. We're talking medical students — they're not even doctors, not even nurses," he said.
"In intensive care, you're talking one nurse to 12 patients, fully ventilated patients.
"Now, that obviously will lead to almost 100 per cent death, right?"
He says most of the injuries he has seen come through have been related to the ongoing war, including "massive burns" and wounds caused by shrapnel.
"Up to 90, 100 per cent of the surface burns," he said.
"We're getting shrapnel injuries. People are getting blind from foreign bodies getting into their eyes. And amputations."
Doctor says crossing closure cut off medical supplies
He says the hospital is also running critically low on supplies, which are usually brought in with each new cohort of volunteers every two weeks.
But after the Rafah closure, that pipeline of life-saving equipment has been stopped.
Dr Albeiruti says the hospital is running drastically low on basic supplies — including soap, bedsheets and gloves — as well as medications such as anaesthesia and antibiotics.
"We brought about 240 bags full of supplies when we came in so that we can become useful," he said.
"Now we're almost running out of all those supplies, so within the coming maybe 48 hours we'll be useless here.
"As doctors, especially in the emergency [ward], in wound care and in surgeries, unless you have those critical supplies, then you as a person on your own, you can only watch people die.
"And that's what's happening."
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