A doctor who had been working in Gaza until his evacuation to Ireland last week has said there is nothing left there.
Deputy Medical Coordinator for Médecins Sans Frontières in Gaza, Dr Mohammed Abu Mughaisib, said he did not recognise the streets of Rafah while he was being evacuated as they were just rubble.
Speaking on RTÉ's Morning Ireland, he said hospitals are collapsing one by one.
"The population now in the north area has an evacuation order to move to the south. One million people are struggling to move," he said.
"They are asking them to move to the south area, which was called the 'humanitarian zone'. It's not a humanitarian zone.
"The hospitals are collapsing one by one, which are in the north. Patients are actually in these hospitals, are lying on the floor there. There is no beds at all.
"Gaza [is] destroyed socially, physically, materially, and psychologically," he said.
Dr Abu Mughaisib said hospitals are functioning without electricity because there is no fuel to run the generators.
He said they desperately need drugs and disposables to operate and treat patients.
"So doctors now are consulting the patient without giving any treatment because there is no more treatment," he said.
"The population still are struggling to find shelters, which there is no space, there is no tents, struggling to find water.
"There is no term to describe what's going on in Gaza... there is neighbourhoods erased from the planet."
Watch: Dr Mohammed Abu Mughaisib speaking in Dublin this morning
'Acute hunger'
Dr Abu Mughaisib said he was "lucky" because he managed to evacuate his family to Cairo while he stayed in Gaza and moved around.
"I used the electricity unit room to put my mattress [in]. I mean, that was your life - your mattress, your pillow, and your documents," he said, adding that while he was able to afford food because he was working, there was no food to buy.
"It was a kind of luxury to find bread and to buy it, it's very expensive. The cost of one bread was €5 ... I can afford it, I'm still working," he said. "But imagine the population - 80% of them are in poverty.
"There were children ... crying in the tent because their families cannot provide for the milk or food, and they were crying because of hunger, and they sleep because they get tired from crying, so they sleep.
"There was acute hunger. Famine - I was not waiting to declare the famine in Gaza because we witnessed it, me and my colleagues who are working with MSF."
Dr Abu Mughaisib explained that he applied through MSF Ireland to come here "and the Irish Government and embassy really facilitated my work papers".
He said the evacuation was well organised by the Irish Embassy, but the trip itself inside Gaza was "really horrible".
"When I entered some areas in Gaza during the evacuation, I didn't recognise Rafah, I didn't recognise Khan Yunis. It was just rubble," he said.
"And the tanks, of course, are there. They were blocking the road but they open it and they allow the convoy, but I didn't recognise none of these streets of Rafah and Khan Yunis that I know it by heart.
"I'm living there for 25 years so I know Gaza by heart. I didn't recognise no street."
Dr Abu Mughaisib said he has not seen his family in over 18 months and would like to be reunited with them.
He said he has found it "very strange" to be in Ireland.
"I have really mixed feelings. It's very difficult to wake up without the sound of the drones, the shelling, the bombing. And I left all my memories there," he said.
"I have friends, colleagues, families there that are. I know that they are still suffering and they wanted to be evacuated, to be in security.
"But it's difficult. I still have my heart, my soul is there. Physically, I'm here, but my heart and soul is there."
Read more:
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'It's an act of piracy' - Irish activist on Gaza aid flotilla slams drones targeting boats
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