The doctors were part of a group of international doctors trapped at the European Hospital near KHan Younis in the Gaza Strip after Israel's closing of Rafah crossing.
Speaking at a briefing, National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said those "who wanted to leave" came out on Friday. He did not provide further details.
"I won't speak for the other three, but just I can assure you that any of them that wanted to leave are out now," he told reporters.
Dr. Ammar Ghanem, who went to Gaza on a medical relief mission and had been stranded by an Israeli blockade there since May 6, returned on Saturday and was greeted as a hero by a crowd of family and friends at Detroit Metro airport.
Ghanem of West Bloomfield Township immediately embraced his children, who said they had been eagerly waiting at the international arrivals gate for his last flight home from Frankfurt to land.
"It was the best day of my life," his daughter, 10-year-old Haneen Ghanem, said of the moment she learned he would be able to safely return.
Some doctors on the the medical mission chose to remain in Gaza, despite escalated danger with Israel's latest military assault, Ghanem said.
"Those are the real heroes," he said.
DANIELLE KURTZLEBEN, HOST:
We begin tonight's program in Gaza, where, despite aid trucks now coming ashore from a floating pier, the humanitarian situation remains dire. One area where that's especially true is medical care. Supplies are low, and doctors are scarce. Adam Hamawy is an experienced combat surgeon and U.S. Army veteran who is currently in Gaza. He refused an evacuation when he realized he would have to leave colleagues behind. In a statement released today, he had strong words for U.S. leadership. Quote - "I want our president to know that we are not safe." He added, "as a doctor, I cannot abandon the remaining members of my team, and as a former soldier, I cannot abandon my fellow Americans."
We reached Dr. Hamawy earlier today via WhatsApp. Doctor, welcome.
ADAM HAMAWY: Thank you very much for having me.
KURTZLEBEN: Of course. I'm hearing some background noise there. Tell us where you are right now.
HAMAWY: I am right across the street from the European hospital. There's a nursing college here, and this is where most of the doctors and staff stay when, you know, their families are elsewhere, just so that they could be close to the hospital and not have to travel at night.
KURTZLEBEN: I do want to talk more about this statement that you made. It's really powerful. And in it, you call on President Biden and other world leaders to, quote, "use their full influence to ensure medical personnel can continue their critical work without being put in harm's way," end quote. Now, we know that Prime Minister Netanyahu and President Biden aren't always in agreement on Gaza. So to you, what does a change in policy here look like? What would that help look like?
HAMAWY: It's basically abiding with our international agreements that have been in place for a long time. There are no - there's no one that argues that - you know, there's the Geneva Convention. There's like, the rules of war where like, once you have medical personnel involved, any combatant who's injured, anyone who's providing medical care should be allowed to do that safely. And that's something that we have tried to honor in the past. That's something that we try to enforce on others when they don't do it. So this should not be the exception. Here we have doctors that have been consistently been targeted. We have hospitals that have been consistently been targeted.
The mood here in the hospital, especially since many of the Americans have left, is that there's a sense of fear now because there's a risk that is not unprecedented that this hospital is going to be next. And already since the last two days, there have been people leaving. There's less patients coming, and there's plans to move operations to other locations in the near future, especially when the remaining humanitarian workers like myself leave the hospital at some point.
KURTZLEBEN: Yeah. I did want to ask you about the mood in the hospital among the patients you're treating, their families. How much hope or, on the other hand, fear are you hearing from them?
HAMAWY: Everyone is asking us. Everyone is asking, are you leaving? Are you leaving also? Everyone's asking about the ones who left by name. Like, when I tell them that, yes, they did leave, and we're still here with you, they just go silent because everyone knows that this is not going to be a long-term thing. And everyone understands that there's a limit and this won't go on forever. So they don't have to say anything. You could just see it in their eyes. And you could feel it. I mean, the halls are much emptier now than when I first came, and, you know, a little bit more empty now than it was two days ago.
Gaza remains under assault. Day 225 of the assault in the wave that began in October. Binoy Kampmark (DISSIDENT VOICE) points out, "Bloodletting as form; murder as fashion. The ongoing campaign in Gaza by Israel’s Defence Forces continues without stalling and restriction. But the burgeoning number of corpses is starting to become a challenge for the propaganda outlets: How to justify it? Fortunately for Israel, the United States, its unqualified defender, is happy to provide cover for murder covered in the sheath of self-defence." CNN has explained, "The Gaza Strip is 'the most dangerous place' in the world to be a child, according to the executive director of the United Nations Children's Fund." ABC NEWS quotes UNICEF's December 9th statement, ""The Gaza Strip is the most dangerous place in the world to be a child. Scores of children are reportedly being killed and injured on a daily basis. Entire neighborhoods, where children used to play and go to school have been turned into stacks of rubble, with no life in them." NBC NEWS notes, "Strong majorities of all voters in the U.S. disapprove of President Joe Biden’s handling of foreign policy and the Israel-Hamas war, according to the latest national NBC News poll. The erosion is most pronounced among Democrats, a majority of whom believe Israel has gone too far in its military action in Gaza." The slaughter continues. It has displaced over 1 million people per the US Congressional Research Service. Jessica Corbett (COMMON DREAMS) points out, "Academics and legal experts around the world, including Holocaust scholars, have condemned the six-week Israeli assault of Gaza as genocide." The death toll of Palestinians in Gaza is grows higher and higher. United Nations Women noted, "More than 1.9 million people -- 85 per cent of the total population of Gaza -- have been displaced, including what UN Women estimates to be nearly 1 million women and girls. The entire population of Gaza -- roughly 2.2 million people -- are in crisis levels of acute food insecurity or worse." THE NATIONAL notes, "Gaza death toll reaches 35,386, with 79,366 wounded" Months ago, AP noted, "About 4,000 people are reported missing." February 7th, Jeremy Scahill explained on DEMOCRACY NOW! that "there’s an estimated 7,000 or 8,000 Palestinians missing, many of them in graves that are the rubble of their former home." February 5th, the United Nations' Phillipe Lazzarini Tweeted:
We’re talking about a three-storey building that housed not only residents but also dozens of other displaced Palestinians in Rafah that made it to Nuseirat three days ago.
I met the neighbours. I met the family. I met one of the relatives of people still trapped under the rubble earlier today. They were telling me heartbreaking things.
Imagine escaping the air strikes in Rafah, looking for a safe space but being killed after three days of evacuating – not only being killed but being trapped where the Civil Defence teams do not have any equipment to remove or pull these people from under the rubble.
I saw Civil Defence teams doing their best to pull people from under the rubble. They were digging with their bare hands, with very basic tools. This was not the first time we have seen this scene. We have been seeing this for more than seven months now.
Unfortunately, it may come to a point where the Civil Defence teams will give up on this house because there are more people being targeted every single hour across the Gaza Strip.
-
-
-
-
-
-
Idiot of the week8 hours ago
-
-
So Help Me Todd21 hours ago
-
-
P Diddy23 hours ago
-
Dabney Coleman1 day ago
-
