Zaher and Sami are nurses. They work with MSF in Gaza City, in the northern Gaza Strip. The Israeli army's genocidal campaign culminated with a ground offensive in Gaza City in late September, forcing MSF teams to evacuate to the southern part of the Palestinian enclave.
On 10 October, when a fragile ceasefire came into effect, Zaher, Sami, and their colleagues resumed work in two health facilities in Gaza City, which had been spared enough from the bombings to receive patients. They recount their return to a city devastated by two years of war.
MSF and the Gaza genocide
As of October 2025, over 67,000 people have been killed in Gaza, including 15 MSF staff.
Our teams have seen the deliberate targeting of medics and hospitals; the use of starvation as a weapon of war with a blockade starving people of food, water, fuel and medical supplies; the militarisation of aid, and the massacre of starving people queuing for aid.