Chicago area doctor says Gaza is most chaotic situation in which he's provided aid
CHICAGO (CBS) -- The Palestinian death toll in the Israel-Hamas War passed 26,000 this past weekend, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry.
The war in Gaza has been an exhausting and never-ending battle for medical personnel and humanitarian groups to help those in need. Among those helping were doctors from the Chicago area who recently returned home.
The images pouring out of Gaza are in many ways traumatizing. Dr. John Kahler of MedGlobal said those images do not even scratch the surface of reality.
"I expected it to be bad. I've been to bad places. I was in Haiti after the earthquake," said Kahler. "It turned out to be a magnitude worse than I had expected."
Dr. Kahler was among a team of doctors from the Chicago area who recently returned after three weeks in the war-torn region – as part of a medical mission on behalf of MedGlobal, a humanitarian charitable organization that provides emergency medical responses to vulnerable communities across the world.
MedGlobal provides everything from diapers to life-saving medical care.
Their mission in Gaza, Kahler said, has proven to be the most taxing and chaotic.
"A hundred percent of the children that I saw had diarrhea because of the water situation," said Kahler. "A lot of them were hungry. People were beginning to really worry about the onset of significant malnutrition."
With basic needs like water and shelter not being met, Kahler said the crisis in Gaza could reach a level the modern world has never seen.
In the past 48 hours, relief efforts on the ground took a hit after Israel accused 12 United Nations employees in Gaza in taking part in Hamas' Oct. 7 attack. This has led to at least 12 countries, including the U.S., cutting funding to the U.N. agency tending to Palestinian refugees.
"This measure is extremely dangerous, and it is our hope that it will be reversed," said Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh.
Bundling that with air strikes and unstable security, the climate has made the job for organizations such as Chicago Ridge-based MedGlobal a lot harder.
"If the bombing ended, if the violence ended, and if the borders were open to humanitarian aid, a lot of the basic needs – not the big problems, but the basic ones - could be assuaged really quickly," said Kahler.
Dr. Kahler said he plans to return to Gaza on another mission in the coming months. He is eager to serve the people of Gaza, whom he said continue to persevere.
"'Resilient' is the operative word here," Kahler said.