Many aid workers have died in the Middle East war due to Israeli attacks. Aid organizations have therefore sharply criticized Israel. Although work in Gaza is becoming increasingly difficult, most people do not want to give up.
The Gaza war has been going on for around half a year now – during that time, according to the United Nations, more than 180 employees of international aid organizations have died. They have expressed sharp criticism of Israel’s conduct of the war in the Gaza Strip.
“This pattern of attacks is either deliberate or a sign of reckless incompetence,” said Doctors Without Borders International Secretary General Christopher Lockyear. “It shows not only the failure of measures to defuse (the conflict), but also the futility of these measures in a war that is being waged without rules.”
Several aid organizations criticized the unsafe and precarious working conditions for their local and international employees. “We cannot do our job properly under the current circumstances. This is unlike anything we have ever experienced,” said Amber Alayyan, deputy Middle East program manager for Médecins Sans Frontières Paris.
Save the Children: No one is safe in Gaza
The helpers in the Gaza Strip are exhausted after all these months, said the head of international cooperation at the German Red Cross (DRK), Christof Johnen, to the dpa news agency. “We have colleagues who have worked in surgical teams of the International Committee of the Red Cross – these are experienced people who have worked in Iraq, in Afghanistan, in South Sudan and everywhere. They say they have never had to work in such difficult circumstances ” said Johnen. For humanitarian workers, the Gaza war is one of the worst conflicts currently.
Most recently, seven foreign employees of the aid organization World Central Kitchen (WCK) died in an Israeli air strike on Monday evening. “Allowing these attacks on humanitarian workers is a political decision,” Lockyear said.
“We’re not particularly safe here, but neither are the people of Gaza,” said Karyn Beattie, team leader for Save the Children in Gaza. Several aid organizations will still remain in Gaza. “We will never stop working and helping our workers in the Gaza Strip,” said Isabelle Defourny, CEO of Doctors Without Borders France.
There is no protection anywhere in Gaza
Organizations such as Oxfam, Save the Children and Doctors of the World share the same belief. “The dramatic thing is that we were already in a very dramatic situation before this incident,” said the director of Doctors of the World Germany, François De Keersmaeker, to the dpa. It is clear that there is no real protection anywhere in the region.
Their building in Gaza City was bombed and destroyed, even though it was marked as the office of a non-governmental organization and reported as such to Israeli authorities, de Keersmaeker said. “These are things that happen every day in Gaza, and we continue to lose confidence in all measures to protect our employees.”
After the attack on the WCK employees, Israel’s Chief of General Staff, Herzi Halevi, spoke of a “serious mistake” by the military and expressed his regret for it. “We do not accept the narrative of unfortunate incidents,” Lockyear emphasized. “The widespread and indiscriminate criminal attacks on civilians, medical personnel and health facilities must stop immediately.”
Children’s mental health surprisingly good
The aid organizations continue to report that the situation for the children in the Gaza Strip is particularly dramatic. More than 13,800 children have died and over 12,000 others have been injured, according to data from the United Nations and the Hamas-controlled health authority in Gaza.
“Even if the numbers are difficult to verify: every child who is killed, maimed or injured in this war is one child too many,” said the managing director of Save the Children Germany, Florian Westphal. Rising cases of malnutrition are also alarming. But the mental health and resilience of these children is remarkable, said the Save the Children team leader.