I am a pharmacist in the central clinic in Rafah
We also face another kind of difficulty when I go to the main stores in Gaza to receive the medicines and come back to Rafah. This problem is the checkpoints on the way. The soldiers stop thousands of people for long times without reason, most times for hours and often for days. So, anyone moving from city to city in the Gaza Strip cannot know when he will return to his family or to his work again. Sometimes the municipality of health arranges with the IDF to let its cars pass, but during invasions, there is no way to open the road, which affects our services in Rafah for both the normal people and the injured people.
Normal people cannot move during the invasion as well as I can. It is my personal responsibility to try to open the pharmacy. During invasions I feel it is very risky to try to go there, but I feel I should be there to help the needy people, as all areas face a severe shortage of medical aids and no one can move, not even the ambulances. I try to go, but sometimes I cannot. One time when we were living in Al Brazil camp, I left my family to go to work, and after that the IDF sieged the area and held my family until the next day. I could not get back to them. I heard from the news that there were many killed in the area, I was afraid it was my family, but I was not allowed in there to find them.
After many hours being afraid, I tried to enter the area to bring back my family, even though any attempt to enter this area would result in killing, but neighbors stopped me. The next day the IDF withdrew and I found them well thank God. It was a very emotional moment.
