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2 Filipino nurses from Doctors Without Borders share ordeal in Gaza

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Johnson Manabat, ABS-CBN News

MANILA — Filipino nurses Regidor Esguerra and Darwin Diaz on Thursday narrated their harrowing experiences working with Doctors Without Borders or Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) during the attacks in Gaza by Israeli forces.<ul class="op-related-articles">	<li><a href="https://news.abs-cbn.com/video/overseas/11/23/23/10-pinoy-sa-gaza-strip-nais-nang-makalikas">10 Pinoy sa Gaza Strip nais nang makalikas dahil sa lumalalang sitwasyon</a></li></ul>Diaz, a licensed nurse and midwife, said even before the war broke out in Gaza last month, the humanitarian and medical need there was already immense. “Ibig sabihin even before war, nag-struggle na po ang Ministry of Health ng Gaza, how we sustain their medical needs. Most of the time they are relying on international organizations for donations,” Diaz said. He said the bed capacity of hospitals is only 3,450 with only 35 ICU beds for a population of 2.2 million. Diaz recalled the first day of the attacks. “That early of October 7, nagulat na lang kami. At around 6 a.m., yung rocket talagang maririnig mo. So nagising kami because of that sound. And then we&#x27;re asking expats na nandon sa guest house namin na what’s happening, so we went out. You can actually see the trail nung mga rockets going out. At that time na-receive namin yung first casualty of patient around mid-day,” Diaz said. According to Diaz, before October 7, Israeli forces usually informed residents of Gaza before making any attacks. “They are doing roof-knocking method, whereby magda-drop sila ng leaflet sa building. If they wanted to target this building for example, they will drop leaflet and they will inform the occupants that they will need to leave the building... sometimes 10 minutes, 20 minutes, 30 minutes, 1 hour because they will bomb it,” Diaz said. But when the war started, there was no more “roof-knocking” and the Israeli forces just bombed buildings without warning, he said. With teary eyes, Diaz promised to return to Gaza if necessary. “If you ask me babalik ba ako ng Gaza, I would say yes... two years that I was there, I’ve known them, they are family even though my body is here but my spirit and my heart remained in Gaza,” Diaz said. Esguerra, a registered nurse, led the evacuation of all international staff of Doctors Without Borders in Gaza. “I arrived on October 2 so I only have 5 days to be in the position as a project coordinator. Then suddenly I need to takeover big responsibilities as the evacuation team leader for the 22 international staff for Doctors Without Borders,” Esguerra recalled. PALESTINIANS FROM GAZA Four Palestinians were present during the forum including Aiman Abu-Hanieh, whose mother is a Filipina.<ul class="op-related-articles">	<li><a href="https://news.abs-cbn.com/overseas/multimedia/photo/11/23/23/four-day-truce-in-gaza-delayed">Four-day truce in Gaza delayed as Israel waits for hostage release</a></li></ul>“On the morning of October the 7th, during that day was a peaceful morning and that&#x27;s where our life turned into maqlub, its basically upside down in Arabic. It is something that we did not expect that we would be going through,” Abu-Hanieh said. He revealed how hard their life was when they were still in Gaza. “Much of our journey has been on survival mode, I mean extreme survival. We had no gas for cooking, so we have to learn to cook on fire, we had no fresh water, we didn’t have clean water and we only flush our toilet once a day so its really been a tough journey,” Abu-Hanieh said. Abu-Hanieh said they were able to get in touch with the Philippine Embassy in Amman, Jordan who helped them repatriate to the Philippines. “I just want to say thank you to the Philippine Embassy, to the Philippine government. Salamat po,” Abu-Hanieh said. Abu-Hanieh was born in the Philippines and did not even expect to be reunited with his relatives through the recent events in Gaza. Although he is an engineer by profession, he said he plans to establish a restaurant business in the country. After the forum, the League of Filipino Student-UP Manila chapter conducted a lighting protest outside their campus in Manila as a show of support to Palestinians and to call on the Israel government to stop the bombings in Gaza targeting civilians and hospitals.

The Filipino nurse said even before the war broke out in Gaza last month, the humanitarian and medical need there was already immense. 

2 Filipino nurses from Doctors Without Borders share ordeal in Gaza

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2 Filipino nurses from Doctors Without Borders share ordeal in Gaza

Johnson Manabat,

ABS-CBN News

Published Nov 24, 2023 01:22 AM PHT

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Palestine

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Regidor Esguerra

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