War in Gaza: About the lives of two doctors with borders

Thorsten Schroer and Hala Schabir work as doctors for the aid organization Cadus in Gaza. They are experiencing the same war. And yet very different worlds.

When Thorsten Schroer lies awake at night on the roof terrace of a house surrounded by palm trees in Deir al-Balah, in the middle of Gaza, he can sometimes see Israeli rockets. How they whiz over him, hitting somewhere in the darkness of the powerless city, just a few hundred meters away. The windows in the house then rattle and the pressure wave slams the doors. Schroer looks silently into the war sky. The Israelis know its exact coordinates. He knows: he is safe here. As safe as it can be in war.

Just a few kilometers south, in Khan Yunis, Hala Schabir sleeps on the ground floor of a battered four-story apartment block. Her family temporarily concreted over the holes in the walls. There is no tap water, no internet, no electricity. Directly across the street, what was once their home is crumbling into a pile of rubble on the side of the road. The Israelis have actually declared their neighborhood a humanitarian zone. But what does that mean in this war? Whenever Shabir wakes up in the morning unscathed, she thinks: “Al-Hamdu li-Llah! I am not lying dead under rubble!”

Schroer and Schabir. The German, the Palestinian. Both risk their lives as emergency doctors for the Berlin aid organization Cadus. They operate on the front lines. They want to save what can still be saved in this goddamned Gaza. They work together. And live next to each other.

He, 43, half-bald and with a full beard, is the mission leader. Already been with the Bundeswehr in Afghanistan and for the UN in Sudan. A humanitarian helper with conviction. Always leaves Gaza after a few weeks and therefore has remorse.

She, 29, shy, bespectacled face under a baby blue headscarf, local employee. She once defied her father to become a doctor. Now she thinks about death every day and fears for the life of her family. That’s why she got a different last name for this story.

The two report this in several long conversations star about their experiences in Gaza, send photos, videos and exact coordinates in order to make events understandable. Initially from on site, then later from an apartment in Berlin with old stucco. She answers via the shaky cell phone network.

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