"We were trained to help. My training, my background, I am able to put it to use, and I'm not being able to put it to use where it's needed the most," said Dr. Thaer Ahmad, a MedGlobal emergency medicine physician volunteer and board member.
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Ahmad had planned to take medical equipment into Gaza as part of a humanitarian trip with a team of health care professionals from the Chicago area with MedGlobal, taking things like a mobile ultrasound unit that plugs into a phone.
Ahmad is a suburban emergency medicine doctor, and he is Palestinian-American. He has made several humanitarian trips to Gaza with MedGlobal, most recently, in March.
"We knew that any sort of escalation in violence, any bombing would exacerbate the already concerning humanitarian crisis," Ahmad said.
For now, the Rolling Meadows-based organization has been sending funds to the MedGlobal staff in Gaza to buy fuel, water, food and medical supplies nearby.
MedGlobal members like Ahmad are encouraged by movement of humanitarian aid into Gaza. They are preparing for a long-term humanitarian crisis with fundraising and organizing healthcare volunteers. And, they wait.
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"It's agonizing. It's absolutely agonizing. It's torture," Ahmad said. "We want to get in there. We want to use our hands to help, and especially being someone who has been to the area before, and you're just thinking 'I'm doing nothing.'"
The MedGlobal team this month was supposed to be 20 doctors, nurses and other healthcare professionals.
"I hope there is a cease fire as quickly as possible, but I think many organizations like MedGlobal are already starting to think about the aftermath," Ahmad said.
Ahmad knows he is not alone in his agony, and he expects there will be even more who want to help when they are able to make the trip.