The doctor who saved Senator Tammy Duckworth in Iraq is imprisoned in Gaza. Now she’s trying to save him.

Senator Tammy Duckworth, Democrat of Illinois, says she owes her life to Adam Hamawy, an American surgeon who provided intensive care to her 20 years ago when she was injured in the Iraq War.

That’s why she’s on the phone to try to help Hamawy, who is trapped in Gaza with other aid workers, return safely home to the United States.

“We are shaking every tree, calling everyone to make sure we do everything we can to ensure the safe passage of these doctors to any intersection where we can get them,” Duckworth told NBC News in an interview Tuesday.

Hamawy is one of 10 American doctors from a team of 19 health professionals from the Palestinian American Medical Association who traveled to Gaza this month to provide emergency medical assistance at the European Hospital in the Khan Younis area of ​​Gaza.

The group was prevented from leaving Gaza on Monday due to the border closure at Rafah, the medical group said in a press release.

The Biden administration has warned Israel against a full-scale invasion of Rafah, a city in southern Gaza where more than 1 million people are sheltering, citing humanitarian concerns.

The State Department said it continues to collaborate directly and actively with the governments of Israel and Egypt to advocate for the medical group’s safe exit from Gaza.

“We believe there is more that can be done here and this is just another example of why it is so crucial and important that the Rafah border crossing is open,” State Department spokesman Vedant Patel told reporters. reporters on Tuesday. “Not only for the proper flow of humanitarian aid, but also for the safe departure of foreign nationals.”

Duckworth, who said he was in contact with Hamawy, said the doctor and his humanitarian colleagues lacked basic medical supplies and were treating people who were in a United Nations vehicle that was hit on Monday.

“They’re severely restricted, that’s what he told me,” Duckworth said.

“They are low on medical supplies, low on food and water. And, you know, it’s pretty terrible there right now,” she added.

NBC News has reached out to the Palestinian American Medical Association for additional comment.

The Biden administration is following the matter closely and working to see if it can get the group out of Gaza, but had no further details to share at this time, according to a US official.

“We continue to work to see if we can release them, but we will not have more to share at this time. We’ll let you know if that changes,” the employee told NBC News.

Duckworth said he had a “very productive conversation” with Israeli Ambassador Michael Herzog, as well as contact with the White House National Security Council and several groups that have contacts in the region.

On a post on XDuckworth called on Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to ensure the protection of aid workers and civilians.

“Netanyahu’s administrator must work to open the Rafah crossing, support evacuations, and allow in much more aid,” she wrote.

Like many of his Democratic colleagues, Duckworth, who sits on the Senate Armed Services and Foreign Relations committees, has expressed concern about civilian casualties in Gaza since the war began last year. She also criticized Netanyahu’s handling of the war.

A former member of the Army National Guard, Duckworth lost both legs and partial use of his right arm during the Iraq War in 2004 after his helicopter was hit by a rocket-propelled grenade. She credited Hamawy with providing her with life-saving care.

“I am alive because of Dr. Hamawy and the doctors and medical personnel who saved me in Iraq. He was there, he took care of me when I couldn’t take care of myself,” Duckworth told NBC News on Tuesday. “He is certainly very near and dear to my heart because he saved my life 20 years ago.”

Hamawy, who is from Princeton, NJ, is the father of four children. He was deployed to Iraq from May 2004 to February 2005, according to a U.S. Army spokesman, who said Hamawy also enlisted in the New Jersey National Guard and served in the Army as a plastic surgeon, general surgeon and as a flight surgeon in the Medical Corps.