An American nurse who recently escaped Gaza has told CNN her colleagues who stayed “know they’re going to die” in the war zone.
Emily Callahan was evacuated from the warzone after 26 days of conflict, but said she would return to Gaza “in an absolute heartbeat”.
As a nurse activity manager for Doctors Without Borders (MSF), she had been in Gaza since August but left last week.
The medic claimed the Palestinian people and the US nationals she worked with there “were some of the most incredible people I’ve ever met in my life”.
She recalled how one nurse was killed the very first weekend the Israel-Hamas war broke out, when an ambulance outside of her hospital was hit by a missile.
Callahan was based at Indonesian Hospital, north Gaza, so when Israeli forces called for everyone to evacuate south in the Palestinian territory ahead of its ground invasion, she texted around to check if her colleagues were leaving.
Tel Aviv claimed this method meant it could separate the “Hamas strongholds in the north from the south” – but it posed a logistical challenge to many Palestinians, who did not have the means to make such a trip.
The medic said her colleagues told her they were staying, because “this is our community, this is our family, these are our friends”.
They reportedly added: “If they are going to kill us, we’re going to die saving as much people as we can.”
Callahan said she texted back: “If I can ever have an ounce of the heart you have, I will die a happy person. They were incredible.”
The nurse explained she wanted people to know medics refused to leave “out of loyalty to their community”, especially as there is a perception those who stayed behind “are some kind of threat”.
She told host Anderson Cooper: “I want to remind people that the people who stayed behind are heroes. The people who stayed behind... know they’re going to die, and they’re choosing to stay behind anyway.”
She said she sends a text message every morning and every evening to those who stayed in the war zone asking them if they’re alive.
The clip has gone viral, with one version of it ramping up more than seven million views on X, formerly Twitter.
Elsewhere in the interview, Callahan also described how thousands of Palestinians live in dangerous conditions.
“There were children with just massive burns down their faces, down their necks, all over their limbs, and because the hospitals are so overwhelmed, they are being discharged immediately after,” the nurse said.
“And they’re being discharged to these camps with no access to running water. There’s 50,000 people at that camp now and four toilets, and they’re given two hours of water every 12 hours.”
The war zone in Gaza has been described as “more than a humanitarian crisis” by the United Nations’ chief, secretary-general António Guterres.
Palestinian militants known as Hamas attacked Israel on October 7, killing 1,400 people and taking more than 200 hostage, according to the Israel Defence Forces.
Israel then declared war on Hamas, put Gaza under siege, launched air strikes and a ground invasion, saying it was trying to flush out the militants.
Gaza’s Hamas-run health ministry claims more than 10,000 Palestinians have died so far.
Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu has implied he intends to continue with the offensive, saying at the weekend: “We will simply continue until we defeat them. We have no alternative.”
Around 70% of Gaza’s 2.3 million residents have been displaced since the war began, while food, medicine, fuel and water are dangerously low.
The Rafah crossing between Egypt and Gaza was opened for the first time since the war began last week, meaning a few seriously injured Palestinians, dual nationals and people from abroad were allowed to leave the besieged area.
According to Reuters, at least 500 people have left the war zone through the only exit point in Gaza.