Two New Jersey residents volunteering in Gaza are unable to return home due to a lack of safe passage.
Dr. Adam Hamawy and pharmacist Ghada Abukuwaik are working in a hospital in Khan Yunis, just outside of Rafah, which has taken heavy casualties in the Israel-Hamas war.
Hamawy, a plastic surgeon in Princeton, was scheduled to leave Monday, but with no safe way out, he’s stuck until he and other doctors can be safely replaced. “We’re told every day that is probably going to be the day after tomorrow. So I don’t believe that anymore,” Hamawy said.
“This can easily be taken care of with one phone call. How are we not protecting American citizens abroad with our colleague and partner, Israel?” said Heba Macksoud, owner of Plainsboro Pharmacy, a friend of both Hamawy and Abukuwaik.
Hamawy said he isn’t comfortable leaving behind his patients until a team of replacement doctors from Cairo can safely enter the hospital in Khan Yunis.
“We feel like we are providing not just medical care, but we’re providing hope, we’re providing support,” he said. “We’re showing them that people care and we’re going to continue to do that.”
Abukuwaik remains hopeful that she’ll be back in New Jersey soon.
“I made a promise to my kids and my family that I’ll be safe and back for them,” she said in a video posted by the Palestinian American Medical Association on Tuesday. “My daughter’s graduation from Rutgers is next Tuesday, and I promised her I would celebrate her success together.”
