Gaza Rescuers Are Excited by the Voices of Those They Can’t Save

Nooh al-Shaghnobi, a rescue worker in Gaza, is haunted by the cries of the people he could not save as he sleeps.

Memories of the past 14 months come flooding back, nightmares of collapsed buildings with no equipment to dig out survivors.

“We hear the voices of people under the rubble,” he said in an interview between rescue calls. “Imagine that there are people under the rubble that we know are alive, but we cannot save them. We have to let them die.”

It’s been more than a year since Gazan lifeguardsparamedics and ambulance drivers toiled front lines Race through countless Israeli airstrikes trying to rescue survivors of the war and recover the bodies of those who could not be saved. Only in the first seven weeks of the war Israel dropped about 30,000 military munitions into Gazarevealing one of the most intense bombing campaigns in modern warfare.

The International Committee of the Red Cross said Gaza rescue workers were facing dangerous conditions without sufficient equipment, vehicles and fuel. They are left to dig out what’s left, mostly with their hands and rudimentary tools, from under tons of broken stone, concrete and braided metal.

The massacre took a heavy physical, mental and emotional toll on the rescuers, and Israeli strikes killed at least 118 of them during the conflict. local lifeguards.

“First responders are suffering indescribable stress, anxiety and frustration,” said Hisham Mhanna, spokesman for the Red Cross in Gaza. “We heard them describe their feelings of helplessness for the victims they were unable to save and the great pain of losing their colleagues in the line of duty.”

Survivors of the war that began on October 7, 2023 after Hamas attacked Israel struggling to keep up with the speed of the airstrikes. In the first year of the war, the Israeli military said it hit more than 40,000 targets in an area the size of Detroit with about 60,000 bombs and other munitions.

Residents and aid officials say the war is unlike anything Gazans have experienced, with no safe place to shelter and no target. The Israeli army said it “takes possible measures to reduce the damage to the civilian population.”

Despite his trauma, Mr. al-Shaghnobi, 23, said he felt compelled to continue his rescue work with the Gaza Civil Defense, knowing he could save at least a few lives.

He said that he regularly shares videos and images on social media to draw attention to the suffering in Gaza.

In one Video released in October It calls out to a young boy whose muffled screams are heard from under the rubble in the Zeytun neighborhood of Gaza City.

Saying “Don’t be afraid”, Mr. al-Shaghnobi gives instructions for rapid fire and shouts: “Rashid, don’t tire yourself. don’t talk Don’t lose consciousness.”

The rescuer, lit by a headlamp, crawls through the collapsed floors to reach Rashid’s partially exposed head, the rest buried in crushed cement and stone. After three hours, Rashid was pulled out alive from under the rubble.

“Every day is harder than the day before,” said Mr. al-Shaghnobi. “My soul is weary of this war.”

The Red Cross, which provided rescuers with masks, boots, protective clothing and bags, also offered limited mental health counseling. But given the extreme trauma of the situation, the sessions were not enough, Red Cross spokesman Mr Mhanna said.

Amir Ahmed, a paramedic, said a few months ago the nightmares became too much for him and he stopped working with the Palestinian Red Crescent rescue service.

“You get to a point where you can’t take it anymore,” he said recently.

Mr Ahmed said he worked in antiquities conservation before the war and also volunteered with the Red Crescent during many of the conflicts in Gaza as he trained as an emergency medical technician. He said that he was called to serve on the second day of the war.

As the conflict dragged on, he said, he became more depressed. At home with his wife and three children, he became increasingly tense and angry.

Some days he tried not to talk to anyone, and even when they were huddled in tents or one-room apartments, he wanted to spend all his time sleeping.

“I would dream of people cut to pieces that I picked up with my own hands,” he said, lowering his voice.

After one rescue and recovery, the smell of blood lingered on their hands for days, she said, adding that there was almost no psychological support or mental health help.

Although he felt guilty for leaving his job as a lifeguard, he said he did not regret his decision.

Some rescuers accuse Israel of targeting them, as do the Red Crescent and the Gaza Civil Defense.

The Israeli army has said it has never targeted rescuers and would never do so on purpose. “The Israel Defense Forces also recognize the importance of the special protection given to medical teams within the framework of international humanitarian law and take measures to prevent harm to them,” the military statement said.

They lost contact with Red Crescent dispatchers shortly after arriving at the scene and were found about two weeks later. died in a burnt-out ambulance. Hind was also found dead in his family’s car.

The Red Crescent accused Israeli forces of bombing an ambulance that arrived “despite prior coordination” between the organization and the Israeli army. The Israeli military has not made a statement about the attack, despite repeated requests.

At the start of the war, Mr al-Shagnobi said he and his colleagues would see each other off every night, unsure how long they would survive the Israeli attack.

In November 2023, he and his crewmates were at the scene of a seven-story building that had collapsed in an Israeli airstrike a few days earlier, he said. pick up the bodies of a family.

As rescuers waded through the rubble, another Israeli airstrike came down, killing two rescuers and two surviving family members, according to relatives and Mr. al-Shagnobi at the time.

He took it immediately after the strike in the video.

“Why does this only happen to people who save people?” said more recently. “We have nothing to do with weapons and resistance. All our work is humanitarian work. Why are the Israelis targeting us?”

Naseem Hassan, a paramedic and ambulance driver, said his brother was killed about a year ago while working with the Red Crescent at Al Amal Hospital. According to the surviving brother, he died in an airstrike after climbing onto the roof of the hospital to start the generator. The Israeli army said it was “not aware of the incident”.

Mr Hassan, 47, said he was tired of the stress and fatigue of rescuing the wounded in war.

He said he weighed 190 kilos when the conflict began. Now, after subsisting mostly on canned food and bug-infested bread and enduring physically draining days spent digging through rubble, he’s down to about 150 pounds.

“Mentally, we are patient and determined because we have to be,” he said. “If we have a nervous breakdown, who else will save people? Who will remove the bodies? Who will bury them?”

Patrick Kingsley contributed to the report.