Aid worker diary: Part seven

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Hatem Shurrab is an aid worker in Gaza with the British-based charity Islamic Relief Worldwide.

In the seventh instalment of his diary, he describes the situation as Israel begins a ground offensive into Gaza.

GAZA: 3 January

As I finish writing this I am having to move to the basement of my house with seven members of my family, including a baby aged 7 months.


The American International School in Gaza was hit in an Israeli strike

Loud explosions are going off all around and a colleague from the UK is writing down my words as I speak to her on the phone.

I am trying very hard to hide the fear in my voice but I don't think I'm doing a very good job.

The ground invasion has started and now nobody knows what will happen next.

My colleague is asking me if the rest of our team are safe - I spoke to them one hour ago and as far as I know everyone is ok for now.

The colleagues who live in Jabaliya camp have moved out deeper into Gaza so that they can try and stay safe. Jabaliya is a very exposed place and its safer for people to move out of this area.

Before this ground invasion was launched I had been out visiting children who should have been in school, but of course all the schools are closed.

I heard the news that the American International School was hit in a strike. Of course the school was empty - they all are.

I spoke to 12-year-old Nour today. He studies at Dar Al Arqam school. It was hit in the first few days of the bombing.

Instead of sitting his exams he sits at home reading books trying desperately to blank out the bombing.

"I have a number of story books. I love reading but I read all the stories. There is no electricity to watch cartoons and there is no safety to go and buy new story books, it's terrifying and boring to stay under fire all this time," he said.

The schools have called the winter holidays early as the security situation is getting worse each day.

But these holidays won't be the same for Nour or his friends. They won't be playing in the streets of Gaza, instead they will be sitting terrified in their houses.

"I want the shelling stop because I become scared when I hear it everyday"
Masa, 9

"I'll never enjoy this holiday. Everyday I listen to bad news about people being killed.

"I will also not go to my desk if schools open because my class is among the classes which were destroyed.," he said.

Nine-year-old Masa is another Gazan child who is trying to make sense of what is happening: "I fill my time in studying, but the sound of planes and shelling is not letting me focus on the lessons. I try to stay near my mother and father and hug them several times a day," she said.

"I got bored of staying at home all this time. I want to play with my friends and cousins. I want the shelling stop because I become scared when I hear it everyday."

It's sad speaking to these children and hearing their stories and thoughts.

They should be playing in the streets, but instead they spend their time hiding indoors - terrified and confused.

More than 50 children were killed during the last week. Schools are shut down and students are not going to their exams.

Tomorrow [Sunday] we had planned to deliver blankets and food parcels to three shelter locations which have been opened in schools for families who live in the border areas and who have been evacuated from their homes.

Now that the ground invasion has started...well, we simply have no idea if we will be able to leave our homes. It's going to be a very long night in Gaza.

GAZA: 2 January

A week is a long time when you live in a place that is cut off from the outside world and are surrounded by death, devastation and destruction.


"The bombardment continues and I hope it stops so that people can go out and bury the dead"

It is seven days since the attacks were launched on Gaza and in that time hundreds of people have been killed and many more injured. According to the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights among the dead are 51 children and 14 women.

When I do manage to snatch the odd hour of sleep I wake up hoping to find that all of this has been a bad nightmare and that Gaza is back to being a place full of life. It seems that the situation we are in now is not going to end anytime soon and the nightmare will go on.

The bombardment continues and I hope it stops so that people can go out and bury the dead.

The numbers of people who went to attend the Friday prayer today was much less than any other Friday prayer I can remember.

Mosques are located in the heart of communities and often close to government buildings. These mosques have closed their gates, something unheard of in the Middle East - a mosque being closed on a Friday.

Long bread queues

Today I managed to have a snatched conversation with a woman who was on her way to buy some bread from one of the few bakeries open on Gaza's Wihda Street.

Um Nasir is a mother of five children; the eldest is 17 years old. She told me she was widowed and her husband had been killed during an air raid on Gaza some three years ago.

She told me that she hides in the basement of her house with her children when the bombing attacks start. Every night the children sleep on mattresses close to their mother.


Hatem Shurrab says more international food aid is arriving in Gaza

Um Nasir had to wait for over an hour to get her bread but she said she felt lucky she didn't have to spend more than an hour queuing.

She said she was terrified to be away from her children and was eager to get back to them in the case the bombs started dropping again.

Um Nasir is one of thousands of Gazan women who are worried for the safety of their children and are trying their best to keep their families safe and keep some kind of normality in their homes.

While we were talking I discovered that two of Um Nasir's children are being sponsored by Islamic Relief and this makes life a little easier for her as she survives with very limited resources.

Islamic Relief has a large orphans sponsorship programme and individuals from around the world provide Islamic Relief with donations so we can assist these youngsters.

The office in the UK told me that many people have been calling to find out if the children are safe and how they can help them.

The good news is that some aid is now arriving in Gaza through Israel's borders and this has given the Islamic Relief aid team a much needed energy boost. We hope to step up our work on the ground and reach more people in the coming days.

GAZA: 1 January

I could barely sleep last night due to the continuous explosions - they seem to be hitting every part of the Gaza Strip.


Palestinians queue up to buy bread outside a bakery in the Jabaliya refugee camp on 31 December 2008
Gaza residents are facing serious shortages of basic necessities

Despite the dangers, Islamic Relief is increasing its humanitarian work - we have no choice. This morning we delivered four trucks of food to the main Shifa hospital.

Even as we were delivering the food, newly injured people were arriving at the hospital. I wonder if the doctors are having any rest at all - it seems the wounded just keep on coming with no pause.

The food aid included flour, rice, beans, tinned meat and fish. Islamic Relief also provided hospital stores with four large trucks filled with food supplies. It was desperately needed. The supplies are enough for the Gaza Strip hospitals for more than a month.

Since the bombing started six days ago, people are becoming more and more desperate. I've met families who are resorting to boiling weeds that they've dug out from the ground in order to feed their families.

People are queuing up to an hour to get bread rations. The long queues are dangerous - bombs could fall at any time and being out in the open is the worst place to be.

The weather is getting colder and this is another danger for Gazans. Islamic Relief has already distributed blankets. We distributed 400 today to the injured at Shifa hospital to take home with them.

Vulnerable children

Due to the density of people in Gaza, homes are built very close to government buildings so when bombs are dropped, homes are damaged too.

Many people are living without windows or doors, shattered by the force of the bombs. People are worried about the structures of their homes as walls have caved in. Some people are trying to replace the broken glass with nylon. But nylon, like most things in Gaza, is in short supply and not many people can afford to buy it.

Most people do not have gas, and electricity is limited. There are long periods of time when Gaza has no electricity.

People are trying to keep themselves warm by using extra blankets. Many people have started to burn wood to cook food - it also helps to keep them warm. Others are burning paper from exercise books to cook tea on.

As usual, it is the vulnerable who suffer the most, and it's the children I fear for - they are hungry, tired, scared and cold. It is not easy to blank out the sounds of screaming F-16s or bombs being dropped for an adult, but more so for children.

As aid workers, we know we are taking big risks leaving our homes in the morning and going to work but we have no choice as we can't stand by and watch our people suffering, and so we keep going.

The Islamic Relief staff are trying their best to do what they can. They are Gazans like the rest of the people and we all feel scared. But at the same time we know that if we do not go out and help our fellow Gazans then who will?

It's the new year, but for Gazans it feels like 2008 never ended.

GAZA: 31 December

People around the world will be about to celebrate the new year - not here in Gaza.

This is usually a time when people make new plans and have high hopes for the coming year. At the moment the people in Gaza are just hoping they will be alive tomorrow.

Food is beginning to become a major issue. Only two weeks ago the United Nations Relief Works Agency (UNRWA) suspended the distribution of food in Gaza because of shortages.

We pray there is some respite from the constant bombing - this will allow desperately needed aid to get in. The crisis in Gaza seems to tick every box to make it a major humanitarian disaster; hunger, killing, insecurity and poverty.

What makes the food situation even worse is that Gazans were already facing difficulties with food over the last year - now they are on the brink.


Islamic Relief Worldwide workers in Gaza
The urgent need for Gazans will soon be food distribution

Eighty per cent of Gaza's 1.5 million population depends on international humanitarian assistance; that is an incredible amount of people in such a small area of land. The level of poverty is spiralling out of control.

When we go out and assess what is needed you can see that the people are beyond despair. Food provided by Islamic Relief, the UN and other agencies is beginning to run out in people's homes. The heads of households are despairing at the thought of how to feed their children.

Every family has a story of suffering. They will tell you about the shortage of food, of cooking gas and fuel, and of course electricity. People have to queue for an hour to get bread.

At the moment only a quarter of the bakeries are operating due to a shortage in gas and electricity.

There are 47 bakeries in Gaza. However, 27 of them have not been operating for some time now and the rest are unable to open every day. There is only enough flour in Gaza to last two weeks unless more supplies are brought in.

As an aid worker I have seen poverty deepening in Gaza since the blockade began 18 months ago. This year has been one of the worst years I can remember in terms of the desperation people are feeling - not knowing if there will be enough food in the markets, if there will be electricity or fuel.

Over the past 12 months Islamic Relief has delivered food assistance to 40,000 families, in addition to supplying vast amounts of medical equipment, hygiene kits and kitchen tools to half a million people.

At the moment Islamic Relief is able to source food from suppliers here in Gaza. In a few days we will begin emergency food distribution. 2008 was a bitter year for Gazans - it looks like 2009 will be the same.

GAZA: 30 December

On Saturday, Gazan schoolchildren were supposed to be sitting their exams - schools should have been full. This is exam time but instead of sitting at their desks children hide in their homes.

The intensity of the bombing is affecting me - but I'm a grown man so what about the children?

I can see how my nephews and nieces are being affected. Tala, my youngest niece, is only five years old. When she hears explosions she rushes to her mother - both are terrified.

A lot of the time, parents try telling their children that the bombing is the sound of thunder, but Gazan children are not ordinary children - they know a bombing when they hear it.

The panic caused by the strikes and the shelling from the sky and the sea has an immense impact on the psychology of Gazan children.

Islamic Relief has been running a project in Gaza for a number of years trying to help children to deal with psychological trauma.

The programme has taken many steps forward, however the current bombing means we will have to start all over again. Sadly, I feel the need for counselling will be greater.

The security situation is getting worse. My colleagues and I make sure we walk to our office - going by car is far too dangerous. We phone the office as soon as we step out of our houses.

Then along the way we phone the office about four times at specific points - we do this so they know we are safe. Once we get to the office we ring our families to tell them we have made it safely.

This is what life in Gaza is like these days. Even a simple walk to work could be life threatening.

This is why most of the shops and businesses are closed. The safest place to be - if there is one - is indoors. But as humanitarian workers we have to be out in the community, our job is to help people.

We are now communicating with suppliers outside the Gaza Strip. We are trying to prepare for what lies ahead in the coming days.

We do not know if the bombing will stop or if it will get worse - but we have to be prepared and, unfortunately, that means preparing for the worst.

GAZA: 28 December

We are working round the clock now to try and get as much medical aid to the hospitals.

As the bombing continues, the hospitals are reaching breaking point. We are doing our best to source the aid needed from local suppliers and our existing stocks. We have enough at the moment but the way things are going we need to start getting aid in from outside Gaza as stocks will be running out very soon. The hospitals were already low on supplies before this crisis - they can barely cope now.


Palestinian children walk past a destroyed mosque in the northern Gaza Strip
More than 60 civilians have died in the Israeli strikes, the UN says

Yesterday we delivered five trucks of aid to the ministry of health in Gaza - they then distributed this to five hospitals. The hospitals seem to be the focus of the aid effort at the moment.

We just met the UN and other aid agencies to help co-ordinate the aid effort and make sure there is no duplication.

I can't bear to think what will happen if the bombing continues. There are not enough beds in the hospitals and they are severely short of equipment, including x-ray machines.

But as we go out and asses the damage, we can see other needs. There is a shortage of food and flour and people are rushing to the bakeries but there's not enough bread.

I can't imagine the fuel lasting much longer. Due to the bombings, people are staying in their homes - they are too frightened to venture out. Aid workers are not exempt - the fact that nobody knows when the next bomb will fall makes our job very dangerous.

The shops are closed and so getting food is not easy. Trying to live in electricity blackouts is difficult - so working becomes that much harder.

Soon we will be distributing food as this is going to be an urgent need in the coming days if the bombing doesn't stop. That's our plan but we are now working to make sure we can source what is needed.

Every day is bringing fresh challenges and we have to find ways of dealing with them. The lack of supplies in hospitals, the food shortage and of course the fear that stalks the streets - I only hope and pray that tomorrow is different.
GAZA: 27 December

I was coming home after visiting a friend at 1130 on Saturday, when I heard the horrific sound of three huge explosions. Then a series of explosions rocked Gaza City. I live in the centre near a number of police buildings which were targeted first.

As I rushed home, I saw the main Gaza police station had been destroyed. Suddenly, another missile hit it again and, along with dozens of people nearby, I ran away. When I got home I found almost all the glass from the windows and doors was shattered due to the explosions.

I ran to the Shifa hospital to check on casualties and was shocked by the number of cars and ambulances bringing in the injured. There was panic everywhere.

In less than half an hour, the hospital was full of casualties. There was no space for more, yet the casualties kept coming. At the hospital I saw something I have never seen before - dead bodies outside on the floor. Everyone in Gaza has a relative or a friend killed or injured after these attacks.

Islamic Relief is working hard to get medical aid to the hospitals, which desperately need disposable equipment. We spoke to the committee at the Shifa Hospital to find out what's needed. We are now supplying it with syringes, sponges, surgical gloves and other such equipment.

Hospitals are so overwhelmed that they are now using normal beds for intensive care patients. Everything is so desperate. Only 50% of the ambulances are working. If the attacks go on for another week the doctors are going to have to start using old and traditional ways of treating the injured - that means no anaesthetic. We have to get new supplies in!

For two years, Palestinians in the Gaza Strip have been witnessing daily crises over shortages of food, fuel, health services in addition to severe poverty and unemployment. We have seen the closure of crossings and the banning of patients from travelling for medical treatment.

All these restrictions have slowly sucked the life out of Gazans and it's no exaggeration when I say that trying to live daily life is a struggle. But Gaza has not witnessed anything like this onslaught since 1967.

I used to describe what was going on in Gaza as a catastrophe, now I have no words. I received news that the brother of one of my work colleagues has been killed in the attacks. They had been looking for him all day and discovered him under the ruins of a destroyed building.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/mid...st/7802295.stm