“You can hear bombs from the north, central and south…Gaza is truly hell on earth right now, It’s very hot…Trash is piled up everywhere, people live under plastic sheets where the temperature rises high,” said Ms. Wateridge, a senior. Communications Officer for the United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWAhours after returning to a land devastated since Hamas-led terror attacks and hostage taking last October sparked war.
After arriving on Thursday through the Kerem Shalom crossing in the southernmost part of Gaza, Ms Wateridge said what she saw in nearby Rafah was “destroyed”. The city was her base during her first visit in May, when Israeli forces seized the key border crossing, further hampering aid deliveries into Gaza.
The scene of devastation was repeated on the aid worker’s journey north to central Gaza, where she now lives.
Empty houses serve as shelter
“The drive through Khan Younis was horrifying – I hadn’t been there since before the Rafah attack on 6 May and it was like a ghost town because everything was destroyed.”
“Now, there are many families living inside these destroyed skeletal buildings. People have spread blankets or plastic sheets over places where walls were blown away. So the difference between the invasion of Rafah and the ongoing military action is clearly visible.”
Lawlessness and looting
UNRWA staff confirmed reports of a breakdown in law and order after nearly nine months of intense Israeli bombing that has disrupted normal life in Gaza and forced people to stop aid trucks in search of food as they cross Gaza via Kerem Shalom.
“The road was full of looters when we arrived. We arrived at the same time as some relief vehicles, so there were hundreds of armed men waiting for them to arrive. The trucks we passed on the road were badly damaged – the windscreens were completely smashed, all had metal bars reinforced in the driver’s area. It felt completely lawless.”
‘Every single building’ of the UN damaged or destroyed
Moving further into Gaza, Ms. Wateridge described the damage caused to UN facilities along the road from Kerem Shalom to Khan Younis, Deir al Balah and elsewhere, some with large holes in them from shelling and others destroyed or damaged by the weather.
“Every UNWRA facility – schools, warehouses, food distribution, etc. – was significantly damaged or even destroyed. Bullet holes, blown-out walls, floors collapsed like pancakes on top of each other – you would not know that these were UN facilities protected by international law.”
According to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Aid, (OCHA), as of the beginning of 2024, only 14% of the fuel (diesel and benzene) that was brought into Gaza monthly before October 2023, was allowed into the zone (two million liters compared to 14 million liters).
“We have no fuel so we can’t go anywhere – it’s all humanitarian,” Ms Wateridge said, confirming that relief operations continue to be hampered by difficulties in getting fuel from Kerem Shalom. “For UNRWA, there is a plan to distribute what we have – food and mattresses – but it is very limited. This is another example of how bad the situation is for the humanitarian response, when we don’t even have enough fuel to move ourselves.”
In addition to these challenges, the UNRWA staff face their own problems, Wateridge explained. “I look forward to seeing them; they are fine, but they are devastated by the displacement from Rafah. They have nothing left.”
