The doctor who saved Sen. Tammy Duckworth in Iraq is trapped in Gaza. Now she's trying to save him.

Sen. Tammy Duckworth, D-Ill., says she owes her life to Adam Hamawy, an American surgeon who provided critical care to her 20 years ago when she was wounded in the Iraq War.

That's why she's working the phones to try to help Hamawy, who is trapped in Gaza with other aid workers, make a safe return home to the United States.

“We’re shaking every tree, calling everyone to make sure we do everything we can to ensure safe passage of these doctors to whatever crossing we can get them to,” Duckworth told NBC News in an interview Tuesday.

Hamawy is one of 10 American doctors from a team of 19 healthcare 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 in Gaza.

The group was blocked from leaving Gaza on Monday due to border closure in Rafah, the medical group said in a news 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 was continuing to engage directly and actively with the governments of Israel and Egypt to advocate for the medical group’s safe departure from Gaza.

“We believe that 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 be open,” State Department spokesperson Vedant Patel told reporters Tuesday. “Not just for the appropriate flow of humanitarian aid, but also for the safe departure of foreign nationals.”

Duckworth, who said she's been in contact with Hamawy, said the doctor and his fellow aid workers were lacking basic