Dr. Mahmoud Sabha was among the American doctors who were evacuated after being trapped in Gaza this week after Israel’s military offensive in Rafah shuttered a critical border crossing where they were planning to exit.
Sabha, 39, a Dallas-based doctor who specializes in wound care, was on his second humanitarian trip to Gaza that was supposed to end last Monday.
His wife, Dr. Samaiya Mushtaq, learned his plans to leave were on hold last Friday afternoon in a voicemail.
“He said we’re not leaving on Monday and I remember listening to it and just responding, ‘No – no, no, no,'” she told CNN in a phone interview.
She described an intensely emotional week amid the uncertainty: “I didn’t think this would be morally or legally allowed.”
Three of the American doctors stayed behind on Friday as 17 were able to evacuate.
Early Friday morning, her husband contacted her to say there was the possibility of an evacuation. He called again when he had reached the border and was in Jerusalem Friday evening eastern time.
“It’s been emotionally complex because there’s a lot of guilt,” she said of her husband’s decision to leave.
“The survivors’ guilt is much more pronounced because there’s no mission coming after him,” she said.
Still, she said, “I think he’d go back. I think the call to help this incredibly vulnerable population is a humanitarian call. He would go back if there were an opportunity to rebuild the hospital systems.”
