'Bombs just started to rain down': Saskatoon nurse recounts working in Gaza when Israel broke ceasefire

Shlok Talati · CBC News

· Posted: May 27, 2025 8:00 AM EDT | Last Updated: 4 hours ago

After moving 2 stints successful Gaza, a Saskatoon caregiver says she feels a "ton of guilt" watching quality emerging from the portion present that she's backmost successful Canada.

"I miss the radical that I enactment with each azygous day," Casey Eberl said. "They're ever successful my mind. Always."

Eberl remembers the country successful Gaza erstwhile Israel broke a fragile ceasefire by launching dense airstrikes successful March.

"It was dissimilar thing immoderate of america could person expected. We were sleeping," Eberl said.

"The bombs conscionable started to rainfall down and we each hibernated that nighttime and our clinics had wide casualty incidents. The infirmary I was moving astatine had wide casualty incidents and it lone got worse from there."

The airstrikes broke a two-month ceasefire with Hamas, arsenic Israel vowed to usage unit to escaped its remaining hostages successful the territory. The strikes killed more than 400 people, according to Palestinian wellness authorities, and haven't stopped since.

The decades-long struggle escalated connected Oct. 7, 2023, erstwhile Hamas-led militants attacked Israel, sidesplitting astir 1,200 people. In response, Israel launched a subject run that has devastated overmuch of Gaza.

Israel's subject campaign, which its leaders person said is aimed astatine uprooting Hamas and securing the merchandise of the hostages, has killed much than 53,000 people and displaced practically all of Gaza's much than 2 cardinal Palestinians successful astir 20 months of war, according to Gaza's wellness ministry. Most of the radical Israel has killed are civilians, including much than 16,500 children nether the property of 18, the ministry says.

Eberl was serving successful Nasser Hospital successful confederate Gaza, which Israel has present struck aggregate times.

An airstrike astatine the infirmary killed 5 radical connected March 23, including a Hamas governmental person and Palestinian medics, Hamas said. On May 13, airstrikes astatine Nasser and different infirmary killed 18 people.

WATCH | Israeli airstrike destroys portion of past afloat functional infirmary successful Gaza City: 

Eberl said she was treating patients astatine Nasser Hospital for 2 months ending in April. She was besides determination for a six-week play past fall. She said proceeding from her Palestinian colleagues motivated her to spell back.

"I'm highly fortunate that I got to spot them again. Especially with the warfare going on, you ne'er cognize if the radical that you love, the radical that you worked with and cared for, mightiness beryllium determination again if you get to spell back," Eberl said connected CBC's The 306 vigor amusement with big Peter Mills.

Eberl said she saw a spike successful the fig of patients with blast injuries, infectious diseases and malnutrition due to the fact that of a deficiency of entree to cleanable water. She said she has never experienced a struggle similar this before, and was looking to her Palestinian colleagues for however to navigate the situation.

"There's nary textbook oregon manual for thing similar that. And truthful I truly looked to the Palestinian unit and to beryllium honest, they led me. They told maine what they needed, however I could enactment them, and I conscionable tried to bash my champion to listen to their needs," she said. "They were the boss. They were the guides."

Eberl said everyone she knows successful Gaza has mislaid a household member.

"There's thing similar the outcry of a genitor aft they've mislaid their child."

Eberl worked with Doctors Without Borders (also known by its French name, Médecins Sans Frontières), a non-governmental enactment that provides exigency aesculapian attraction to radical successful struggle zones, disasters oregon epidemics.

Sana Beg, enforcement manager of Doctors Without Borders Canada, said five Canadian health-care professionals with the enactment were serving successful Gaza as of Monday.

"We're dealing with the precise existent interaction of having our aesculapian facilities nether changeless attack."

A United Nations-backed appraisal released earlier this period said the full Gaza colonisation is astatine captious hazard of famine.

Israel announced connected May 18 that it volition let a constricted magnitude of assistance into the Palestinian enclave, but it was not instantly wide erstwhile assistance would participate Gaza, oregon how. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel would enactment to guarantee that Hamas militants will not power organisation and assistance does not scope militants.

Beg said the teams successful Gaza are besides successful urgent request of aesculapian supplies similar gloves, medications that alleviate pain and potable drinking water.

"The heartbreaking world of our teams having to witnesser parents anguish successful their eyes arsenic their children shriek successful pain, arsenic we're benignant of removing the dressings and giving them a caller dressing, and we person nary symptom medicine to beryllium capable to supply them."

A full of 11 Doctors Without Borders unit person been killed successful Gaza, according to Beg.

"Inherently we're talking astir a colonisation that is surviving beingness successful a decease trap. It is hellhole connected earth," Beg said. "This is simply a man-made crisis."

Canada, the U.K. and France issued a joint statement on May 19 opposing the enlargement of Israel's subject operations successful Gaza and calling for Israel to immediately let humanitarian assistance to participate Gaza. Beg said much needs to beryllium done by those successful powerfulness to assistance halt the war.

"Doctors unsocial and aesculapian professionals alone, we cannot beryllium the ones that halt wars. We're not going to beryllium capable to halt the bombing of aesculapian facilities, and this is wherever we request leaders to beryllium capable to act."