City nurse grapples with reality of working in Gaza

NHS STALWART VOLUNTEERS FOR AID CHARITY

- ANDY PHILLIPS

A PLYMOUTH nurse who has returned from a second spell providing medical care in Gaza said conditions in the region are ‘awful’, and claimed the civilian population is at ‘breaking point’.

Paula Tobin is an NHS nurse who also volunteers with humanitarian charity UK-Med, and has provided medical care in disaster zones for the last decade.

Having spent eight years in the British Army, Paula has put her skills to use in helping people from Sierra Leone to Ukraine. She first travelled out to Gaza to provide care for the civilian population in March, and has already signed up for a third trip in October.

With the population having been concentrated into the south of the region, Paula said she fears for those innocent families left fighting for limited resources.

“They [conditions] are awful,” she said. “They have changed a lot since March when I was first there. Rafah was still a thriving city, people were still living there. It was overcrowded because people were moving there from the north of Gaza, but now Rafah has gone and everyone is concentrated in the centre, between Deir el-Balah and Khan Younis.

“Conditions are horrendous for people living their normal day-today lives. They are civilians and they have lots and lots of young children, and they are living in makeshift shelters with a lack of water – a lack of everything.