‘We didn’t think it could get even worse’: Canadian nurse returns from Gaza

Canadian nurse Amy Low describes her experience working in Gaza in an interview with Quebec Bureau Chief Genevieve Beauchemin.

Montreal nurse Amy Low has returned home from an eight-week job in Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) in Gaza. It’s her third time in the region since 2023, and while reflecting on the visit, she said it “doesn’t seem like there is any humanity left.”

“The first time, it was pretty difficult,” said Low. “The second time was even worse, and we didn’t think it could get even worse. And it did.”

She described “chaotic and extremely sad” moments as the wounded and dead bodies were rushed over to an MSF primary care facility from a food distribution centre located about two kilometres away.

“We’re not a trauma centre,” she said. “For people who were critically injured, you had to call the ambulance. But often, the ambulance didn’t come. It was better for us to have some kind of transport vehicle available, to take these people to the hospital. But if the hospitals were full, they would say: ‘Keep them,’ And we can’t. We have no space. And we can’t do anything but stabilize them.”

After strikes on a church earlier this week, The Associated Press reported that Israel’s military said it was “operating to dismantle Hamas military capabilities” and that it takes “feasible precautions to mitigate civilian harm.”

The report also addressed shootings near food distribution centres like the one near the site where MSF is operating, that are run by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), an Israeli-backed American contractor. The AFP reported that the Israeli military said its troops have only fired warning shots to control crowds.

MSF says its teams in Al-Masawi in southern Gaza and in Gaza City are witnessing a sharp rise in acute malnutrition. Seven-hundred pregnant and breastfeeding women and 500 children are now being treated at feeding centres.

Low also recounted a 13-year-old boy who was rushed over with a graze wound to his calf, holding a bag of food from the centre. A nurse told her his father had died, and he had been sent to get food for his family.

“He said he was happy that he managed to get a bag of food, even though he was injured trying to get it,” she said.

Low’s local colleagues faced the strain of seeing injured people come in, as well the extreme mental stress of fearing for their loved ones or dealing with having to evacuate their homes on a moment’s notice.

“When we come back, we may have PTSD,” she said. “But they have it consistently. How are they going to recover?”

The hospitals and care centres have faced shortages of some supplies, putting medical staff in the difficult position of whether to use a chest tube on a person who may not survive, because the next patient may have a better chance of survival.

MSF says that since October 2023, 12 people working with the organization have died in Gaza.

Low grew up in Montreal and trained as a nurse at McGill University. She joined the organization’s ranks more than a decade ago and has vast experience working in conflict zones. She has worked in Haiti, South Sudan, Ethiopia, Yemen, Nigeria, Mexico, Costa Rica and Congo.

As medical team leader, she coordinated teams on the ground in two primary health care centres and the maternity pediatric department of Nasser hospital.

Low says despite the massive challenges she faced, she plans to return to Gaza for the medical teams on the ground.

“Showing them that we still care, that we’re still there, that we still want to support them and that the world hasn’t forgotten about them.”