Chicago-area doctors volunteering in Gaza call for ceasefire; over 40,000 Palestinians killed

CHICAGO (WLS) -- A group of doctors with the humanitarian non-profit MedGlobal were in Chicago Wednesday, sharing their experiences from medical missions to Gaza over the past year.

The group is calling on the United States government to hold Israel accountable for its bombings of Gaza.

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"What we have seen over the last year has been a total 360-degree assault on life in Gaza," said MedGlobal board member Dr. Thaer Ahmad.

Dr. Ahmad is an emergency medical physician on the South Side of Chicago. He spent three weeks volunteering in Gaza earlier this year.

"People are not able to earn a living, children are not able to go to school," Dr. Ahmad said. "People are not able to move from area to area unless they're running away from bombs."

Another emergency doctor and MedGlobal volunteer, Dr. Tammy Abu-Ghanaim, most recently returned from Gaza in August. She said many emergency rooms in Gaza don't even have soap and infection control is impossible.

"Palestinians deserve to live. They have the right to safety," Dr. Abu-Ghanaim said. "Palestinian civilians should be extended the same rights and protections that we offer any civilian in any conflict zone."

Gaza's Health Ministry says more than 40,000 Palestinians have died since the war began last October. The ministry does not differentiate between fighters and civilians in its count.

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In order to keep that death toll from rising, MedGlobal's group of humanitarians is calling on the United States to throw it's full weight behind a ceasefire.

"I hope that there is the political will that is necessary to establish a ceasefire, a ceasefire that the Gazan people, the people of Palestine, are able to have the dignity to be able to move on with their lives and start the very necessary rebuild," Dr. Ahmad said.

For some, a rebuild is hard to picture.

Retired pediatrician and co-founder of MedGlobal Dr. John Kahler has worked internationally for more than three decades. He said he's been to many difficult places, but says the destruction he witnessed in Gaza was the worst he's ever seen.

"I know that I'm not going to be here long enough to see the end of this, but I really am desperate for my children, and particularly my grandchildren, to inherit a better world than it appears I'm leaving them right now," Dr. Kahler said.

The group said their purpose in sharing these stories is to reiterate the humanity of Palestinian people and to make sure their suffering is not forgotten with our presidential election just over a month away.