5 January 2009
For the second day we had to postpone our planned aid distribution – the security situation gets worse by the hour making it very difficult to go out on the streets and deliver aid.
Homes are without water and electricity. Gazan’s have only been receiving water once a week for the last six months. But the electricity is down which means the water cannot be pumped up. This is very dangerous. As well as the obvious dangers of being without water there are the added health issues and the possibility of the spread of disease.
Gaza is now divided and it is pretty much impossible to travel to the central areas. My Islamic Relief colleagues who work with orphans are in the middle of Gaza – it is now very difficult to reach this area.
The inability to travel safely is severely affecting the aid effort. Only today I was at a bread queue talking to ordinary Gazans. Explosions could be heard in the background. I met one woman who had been queuing from 7.30am to 10.30am. But others had been queuing for up to ten hours – such is the shortage. One man I met told me he was taking shifts with his brother in the bread queues in order not to lose their place. Others I met just broke down in tears when I began speaking to them – it seems they have no words left.
I often feel like I am saying the same thing again and again but the humanitarian situation is nothing short of desperate. Our colleagues in the UN are calling it a humanitarian crisis. Each day in Gaza it feels like it can’t get any worse – but it does. People just don’t know what to do or expect. Imagine finding yourself with little food, water and no electricity. And all the time the sound of explosions can be heard everywhere.
It’s not just the children who are petrified – it’s every living soul in Gaza.