Colorado Doctor Sleeps in Gaza Parking Lot During ‘Medieval’ War Siege
Dr. Barbara Zind, a 68-year-old American pediatrician from Colorado, arrived in Gaza just a day before all hell broke loose.
It was Oct. 6 and the start of Zind’s eighth visit to the enclave as a volunteer physician, her 32-year-old son, Danny Preston, told The Daily Beast from his home in Denver.
The pediatrician has been stuck in Gaza ever since, watching as horror after horror unfolds in a war that has killed some 8,000 Palestinians in the besieged strip so far, according to health ministry reports.
Preston was always “on edge” during his mother’s previous visits to the strip, where she regularly volunteers with the Palestine Children’s Relief Fund (PCRF), a U.S. charity, as a visiting physician.
“There’s been sporadic rocket attacks, or Israeli military action in one of the towns she’s in,” he said.
But in the aftermath of Hamas’ attacks on Israel, in which 1,400 Israelis were killed, “She was walking down on the water and saw the rockets going up and the Iron Dome missiles intercepting them. And I think she knew pretty quickly that this was going to be something more serious,” he said.
Nothing, however, could have prepared her for the ensuing weeks—and the sheer scale of destruction, civilian casualties, and dire shortages in food, water and medical supply she would bear witness to.
Dr. Barbard Zind treating a patient in Gaza.
The Daily Beast was unable to interview Zind directly, due to the major disruptions in internet and phone services in Gaza. But according to Preston—who last heard from his mother over the weekend, when she borrowed a colleague’s phone to text him—the Grand Junction-based pediatrician is “sleeping outside on a little mattress” in a parking lot outside of a United Nations facility in southern Gaza.
When asked about his concern for Zind as Israel continued to bombard the strip with relentless airstrikes, Preston said the family was “worried as much about food and water as we are about bombs.”
“It’s basically a medieval siege at this point,” he said, adding that Zind has had to ration her food intake by 900 calories a day.
Dr. Barbara Zind in Gaza.
One of the most disturbing parts of his mother’s plight so far is having to resort to makeshift medical treatments due to the absence of even the most basic medical supplies, Preston said.
“My mom, who is a licensed doctor, has been texting my dad to Google alternatives” for “very basic” medical resources, he said, like using diluted vinegar in lieu of antiseptics. “The most staggering thing for me is just seeing a doctor being like: Can you Google what the ‘wartime alternative’ for this is?”
Zind had gone into Gaza with two phones and two SIM cards, her son said. “We probably have a lot more contact with my mom than most people do,” he said. “But even if we're out of contact with her for five minutes then you're automatically fearing the worst. Because it seems like nowhere in Gaza is safe.”
Barbara Zind pictured her with son, Danny
No Way Out
Steve Sosebee, the head of PCRF—the charity that Zind volunteers with in Gaza—said in a social media post a few days into the war: “There is little we can do to protect our Gaza staff, but getting these two out is our mission,” referring to Zind and another trapped colleague, Seattle-based Ramona Okumura.
Since Saturday 2 volunteer Americans have been trapped in #Gaza, Dr. Barb Zind, a Colorado pediatrician, & Seattle-based Ramona Okumura, a prosthetic specialist. There is little we can do to protect our Gaza staff, but getting these two out is our mission.
— Steve Sosebee (@Stevesosebee) October 13, 2023
He told The Daily Beast in an interview earlier this month that they are desperately working to get Zind and Okumura to safety.
“We have not been able to get them out. And that’s a huge problem for us because their lives are in danger,” he told The Daily Beast, adding that he fears his volunteers will starve or fall victim to the bombardment of Gaza.
Both Sosebee and Preston expressed some frustrations with how little influence the U.S. has been able to exert to get U.S. citizens out of the war zone, as Zind had tried—and failed—to leave the strip through the Rafah border crossing with Egypt.
Dr. Barbard Zind treating a patient in Gaza.
The U.S. Department of State said in its latest advisory about American citizens trapped in Gaza: “The military conflict between Israel and Hamas is ongoing, making identifying departure options for U.S. citizens complex. We are working on potential options for departure from Gaza for U.S. citizens,” and asked citizens in Gaza to fill out a form available on their website “should we need to reach out to you on short notice.”
“We anticipate that the situation at the Rafah crossing will remain fluid and unpredictable. If you assess it to be safe, you may wish to move closer to the Rafah border crossing—there may be very little notice if the crossing opens, and it may only open for a limited time.”
As Israel’s bombardment of the strip intensifies, and with ground operations expanding, U.S. efforts to help citizens out of Gaza have “been disappointing,” Preston said. “They obviously don’t know much, and they don’t have much control over their situation.”
For now, there’s not much Zind’s colleagues and family members can do but hope for the best.
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