a New Jersey pharmacist and mother of six who was stranded at a hospital in Gaza is back home with her family tonight G Abu Quake of TOA was part of a group of 19 medical workers volunteering at the European hospital just outside of Rafa since May 1 but one week into their mission escalations by the Israeli military caused the borders to be sealed trapping Abu quake and the other volunteers which included Americans and a New Jersey doctor NJ Spotlight news spoke with before the team was evacuated with the help of the white house but the group said they left the region with deep reservations heartbroken to abandon their gazen patients and others who weren't being guaranteed safe passage G Abu Quake is with me now to talk about her experience G you just returned home on Monday how are you where is your mind at right now h i I feel that I still live in Gaza with the real people and the real life over there um um I told my family and my kids I'm not sure how long it going to take me to have the balance and H to go back to the real to to the life in us um it was the best ever three weeks that I had in my life in Gaza the best ever why are you qualifying it like that when when you when you are helping people and you are living with with people that they have nothing in life they have no food they have no water they have no shelter they have nothing they're is buming all the time uh and they still happy and they still they still want to live and you are there to help them and to give them the hope and to show them that we still love you it's a kind of a different feeling that no one can understand it till they live it it sounds like a resilience that none of us could possibly know unless we've lived it I agree that's right H I was in Co time we were very proactive as a pharmacist in Co time testing people and helping people around so the the the way just the humanitarian relief to be around people to help them it is kind of a different feeling so what about to be in a war zone that you know that you may you are not safe you may die anytime but you are giving all what you can do to help people around you if you can share with us what were you treating with these patients what types of injuries what types of illnesses you can imagine anything that you can imagine it's worse than that we saw so many cases and injuries in the TV however I have all the pictures I have all the the stories and all the real cases that came to the hospital it's not only one kind of burn or one kind of injury in the body it's multiple injuries that actually you can even see the bone when you are doing kind of let me say wound to to to replace to clean the wound or to clean any kind of different injuries in the body H the burns we know that there is 10 20% burns on the of the body when when there's a bumb but when you see the 70 and 80% burn of of the body it's something different when you see the the um um the injuries that we saw even the doctors who were in different kind of Zone War Zone in different countries before Gaza they mentioned they never saw what they did in Gaza it's totally there is destruction in the infrastructure and the injuries that coming to the hospital they are most of them they are coming dead by the way and when you see the the body when you see the hands and the legs and the head by itself coming you know to the hospital we heard about that but when you see it in your eyes it's totally different and yet somehow you managed to provide a sense of safety to the people you were treating what was it like inside the hospital ER the the health system is collapsing the capacity of the people working in the hospital is less less than 20% however the international medical team they they are available in the hospital they provide the hope they provide the medications and the surgical supplies and the knowledge that they have with them when they come in so the safety that we have people just to see the vist that we are International Medical Fe medical doctors they feel that they are safe that this is a green zone they will not be killed in the Hospital which they have the same experience before in chifa hospital back few months ago that's number one number two the the medical missions usually get with them so many supplies and medication surgical supplies and equipment so those kind of things we use it while we are there for the two weeks um so we have all these kind of Plenty things that we are able to help doctors the doctors over there they are as I mentioned less than 30 or 20% of the capacity of the Hospital either they are killed or they are relocating their families so being around them someone who come for only two or three weeks so we have all the energy the energy to help them out doctors over there they are exhausted they are working full-time of course they are all volunteers they are not been paid for how many hours not not able to see their families for eight months so just imagine how they feel and how and how we are able to help them with that I can't and many of us can't and and so it begs me to ask would you go back again if the opportunity were to present itself given what you've seen and and what you know now I told them I will be the first to go I promised people over there that I will not leave them and I will come once they open the borders we know the story about what happened with us we should be there only for two weeks but what happened that when the Israeli um block the borders Rafa borders we were not able to come back and the other Mission which is in Cairo not been able also to go across to go to Gaza but my name is there now I have the experience of the war zone I did a lot and I will do even more when I will go back so my name g to be number one on the list and I told my kids I promised them I will be safe when I came back I told them we will not die before our day each one of us I can die right now with a heart attack being over there doesn't mean that I may die so helping people being without being in this kind of War Zone being able to be a humanitarian relief for others is something I believe is a must and I urge all doctors surgeons pharmacists nurs nurses to write their name and to be and to go with the medical missions to Gaza I can't imagine those conversations K with your family with your young ones especially I'm sure that had to be very painful for you as a mom and scary for them knowing that you may not return H my family my brothers and sisters they didn't talk to me and they told me you cannot go there you have no mind to go over there you are a woman you have kids they need you more than people over there you are a pharmacist you what you going to do and they were against me being there my family I mean my husband and my kids they actually didn't want me to go and my little one six years old didn't talk to me a word while I was in Gaza I believe because he was worried about me and his his colleagues in in the school they told him his peers that your mom gonna die no one goes there and will come back life um but my kids they work with me in Co time and CID was number two Pharmacy in the United States with e through North and massen we did the most vaccination and testing in in New Jersey so we ranked number two Pharmacy so they knew what does it mean to help people they were working with me 24 hours going to different state being able to have the compounding for the sanitizers for the alcohol back then in the co time so they understand the meaning of helping people so when I told them don't worry I will make sure that I will be safe I will not do any kind of a crazy move I will stay in the green zone in the European Gaza hospital just helping people when I came back safe I told my little one I really wanted to hear your voice mama and I'm back safe as I told you nothing going to happen to me but if each one of us will not be next to those people then who will be next to them my kids they have shelter they have house they have food they have everything over there they have nothing you you cannot imagine it's it's a city of ghosts we we see how the horrors moving are over there is more than that and still people they they say we want to live we we we are sure that you know one day gonna come very soon and we will have we will be back to our homes we will build it up and things will be different a city of ghosts um the example that you're setting for your family is remarkable uh and as are you God I thank you so much thank you appreciate that thank you [Music]