A nurse practitioner from the Milwaukee area is eager to return home after being trapped in Gaza.
Laura Swoboda was on a medical mission with FAJF Scientific, a nonprofit based in the United States when the Israeli military took the only border crossing for aid workers in Rafah last week.
Officials in Israel and Egypt are at odds over the closure and who is to blame.
Meanwhile, Swoboda and several other American medics were left not knowing when or how they could leave.
"It was a very kind of bizarre feeling as our water supplies were running out. Our food supplies ran out. We were trying to find rations on the street and buying food off the street Once bombings came closer to the hospital even the street food got cut off," Swoboda told TMJ4.
"When we arrived at European Gaza Hospital, it was essentially a refugee camp of 20-30,000 people. There were tons in the hallways at the hospital. People were living in the outpatient clinic," Swoboda recalled. "Then as a bombing became closer and closer and more severe we started hearing tank fire and artillery fire. The bombs would shake us awake at night."
As negotiations between the governments were strained, Swoboda says their friends and families began contacting elected officials. Eventually, Swoboda and her family say that the U.S. State Department was able to secure their passage.
"Once they said, ok, the convoy is picking us up at 7 am. This is our route. These are our checkpoints and we loaded onto the bus. There was a pretty profound sense of relief. However, that route through Rafah was probably the most danger that we had been in and the entire time," Swoboda stated.
Currently, Swoboda says the plan is to fly out of Jerusalem on Saturday. However, she is bracing for any last-minute changes.
"There are some you know intermittent difficulties that I've heard out of Tel Aviv just because of the war so I'm still hoping that my plane will take off and I can start my journey back home. I'll be landing hopefully in Milwaukee on Sunday evening. I'm really looking forward to some cheese, curds and hugging, my son and my family and being home again," Swoboda said.
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