As director of relief, Roger Hearn was responsible for organising the distribution of food from aid trucks coming in through the border. But what depressed him the most was being unable to bring in enough food to help feed Gaza's 1.9 million internally displaced people.
Nothing could mentally prepare Roger Hearn for the devastation he saw in Gaza during a visit in November."Kids were rummaging through the rubble for food. They're literally looking for food in bins and whatever they can find," he told the ABC.Mr Hearn said children in Gaza were rarely able to wash due to the unbearable circumstances in which they live.As director of relief, he was responsible for organising the distribution of food from aid trucks coming in through the border.
In early November, the United Nations secretary-general for human rights, Ilze Brands Kehris, warned that there was "a strong likelihood that famine is imminent" in the Gaza Strip's northern areas. He was equally concerned about southern Gaza, "if not even more", because of the million or so people on the beach north of Khan Younis as winter approached.
Israel has accused UNRWA employees of being involved in October 7 attacks, where Hamas killed 1,200 people in Israel, and kidnapped 250 hostages, according to Israeli officials. "We worked out to go through the entire consignment, it would take around 15 months before we could clear that from the port," he said.
Things got worse earlier this month when UNRWA paused aid deliveries through the Kerem Shalom crossing, on the southern border of Gaza and Israel."Once we've got the food into Gaza, we can't actually warehouse it so easily anymore in different locations. “They had rudimentary shelter, made out of whatever they could find — tattered bits of cloth, cardboard, plastic sheeting, if they're lucky," she said.Ms Stevenson recalled the very"difficult" feeling of being unable to help support the under-resourced hospitals that were barely operating.
MSF UNWRA Roger Hearn Sally Stevenson Volunteer Disease Outbreak Israel-Gaza Israel-Hamas War War Starvation IDF Humanitarian Aid Block Aid Food Distribution Relief UN Palestine
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