UN aid worker recounts desperate Gaza civilians' trauma

A UN humanitarian worker described the suffering she witnessed first-hand in Gaza, where she saw children mutilated and families bombed out of their homes, in an emotional testimony Tuesday.

Speaking to journalists in Geneva following a three-month stint in the territory, Yasmina Guerda of the UN humanitarian agency OCHA described the desperation from the viewpoint of civilians under the Israeli military's assault, sparked by Hamas's attacks on October 7.

"You have 10-15 minutes to evacuate your building because it's going to be bombed. Your little kids are sleeping... You wake them up," she said.

"You take one last look at your room and say a permanent goodbye because you know it will be dust."

As horrifying as that sounds, she stressed that this is the "best-case scenario", since many others are not warned before an attack. 

 Children lost limbs 

 Hamas's October 7 attack on southern Israel resulted in the deaths of 1,195 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on Israeli official figures.

Israel's retaliatory offensive has killed at least 37,658 people, also mostly civilians, the health ministry in Hamas-ruled Gaza says.

Guerda met people whose homes were destroyed by Israel's operation in the Nuseirat refugee camp to secure the release of four hostages earlier this month.

Gaza's health ministry said at least 274 Palestinians were killed and 698 wounded during the operation.

The next day at a hospital, Guerda met children who lost limbs in the attack.

"Many of whom reminded me of my own two little toddlers. They were staring into the void, too shell-shocked to produce a sound or a tear," she said.

 Barely surviving  

Nearly nine months of war have led to catastrophic humanitarian conditions in the besieged Palestinian territory and repeated UN warnings of the risk of famine.

For Guerda, there are no "living conditions" there.

"What they have... are survival conditions, and barely. They are holding on by a thread."

She said aid workers were trying to "quantify the suffering with figures", looking at the total number of displaced people, the liters of water they get per day, or the truckloads of aid that make it across the border.

"But it doesn't matter," she said. "Those numbers, they're never near enough ... (for) a population that has lost nearly everything."

The fighting has displaced much of Gaza's 2.4 million population -- some multiple times -- but with little hope of finding safety.

"There are no safe centimeters left in Gaza," Guerda said.

 Obstacles to aid 

 Guerda described the impossible "daily puzzle" of getting aid to those in need during the ongoing fighting.

The violence has killed more than 200 aid workers since the war began, she said.

Humanitarian agencies also struggle with administrative impediments and restrictions, bad internet connections, bad roads, a dire lack of fuel to get around, and the threat of looting due to the breakdown of security.

Since the Israeli offensive in the southern city of Rafah began last month, sending about a million people fleeing again, "the humanitarian space was reduced dramatically", she said.

Guerda hailed the resilience of people in Gaza, saying she had been amazed to see that "hope still has a strong pulse" there.

What people need, she insisted, "is a respite".

"They need decision-makers to finally make a decisive gesture to put an end to the relentless way in which they are being knocked down after every attempt to get back up."