An American pediatrician, who became stranded in Gaza at the beginning of the war while on a relief mission to treat children, was finally able to leave the territory Wednesday, her husband told CNN.
Dr. Barbara Zind passed through the Rafah crossing into Egypt, Paul Preston said.
“She was there for four or five hours in passport control, and that’s when I was starting to get discouraged,” Preston told CNN’s Erin Burnett from his home in Grand Junction, Colorado.
Zind had attempted to cross the border once before but had to give up after fighting among people desperate to leave made it impossible for her to pass through.
Preston said he believes Zind is okay, but communication difficulties have made it impossible for him to speak to his wife directly as of Wednesday evening.
“I’ve just been hearing secondhand about her,” he said.
After leaving Gaza City and moving south, Preston said his wife had to live in an outdoor camp for several days and had only recently been able to sleep indoors again with access to hot food.
“It was so bad, she kind of got used to it,” Preston said. “It was bad, like, all the time.”
