For more than 14 days, the Gaza Strip has been under Israel’s tightening siege imposed in response to the rocket attacks by Hamas militants. The situation has considerably worsened as Israel announced its decision to cut off water and electricity supplies as well as internet connections. The Rafah border crossing with Egypt, the only gateway through which to deliver aid and relief, has been closed and subjected to military attacks.
Inside Gaza, the scene is one of utter devastation. Omar Mohammed, a 30-year-old Palestinian relief worker who has seen the nightmare with his own eyes, describes the situation as “catastrophic.”
After the blast on the Al-Ahli Hospital in Gaza, Omar rushed to the scene to assess the damage. The smell of death filled the air. He found patients, doctors, paramedics, and even the families of patients who had been waiting outside for a glimmer of hope, all dead.
“It was like a scene from hell,” Omar says. “I’ve never seen anything like it.”
Omar was forced to flee his home at the beginning of the war after receiving a warning that it would be demolished within minutes.
“We didn’t have time to carry anything with us. We fled without money, documents, or clothing. We just had our souls and fear with us as we hurried up the building’s steps: me, my father, my two sisters, my stepmother, and the neighbors. We have no idea where to go. Wherever, but just as far as possible away from the region,” Omar remembers.
After the area was bombed and his home was damaged, Omar and his family moved from Western Gaza to the south. Several days later, they had to move for the second time.
“People want a ceasefire now more than anything else, more than humanitarian aid.”
DevelopmentAid interviewed Omar Mohamed for further insights into the situation in Gaza.
DevelopmentAid: There is an agreement between the United States, Israel, and Egypt to open the Rafah crossing for humanitarian aid. How do you assess the situation at the moment before any relief is received?
It’s very tragic. The humanitarian situation is really bad and dire. The UN has said that over 500,000 people have been displaced, and many of them are in UNRWA schools without any basic goods, safety, or anything. And this is the best recipe for an environmental catastrophe.
We’ve been seeing a huge loss of civilian life. It’s getting more and more tragic. Nearly 4,000 Palestinians have been killed, and over 13,500 are injured. The health system is collapsing. It’s falling apart, and they say that it’s going to shut down completely in a few hours due to a shortage of medicine, capacity, and, of course, electricity. So we’re talking about imminent death for patients who need surgery and who are on life-saving machines.
DevelopmentAid: How is the scarcity of water and electricity being dealt with?
Water is very scarce. We have to watch how much water we drink every day, and we have to schedule our showers because, of course, you want to guard the resources that you’re using since they’re very scarce. We’ve had days without electricity and days without internet. Landlines are no longer working, mobile networks are very weak, and they also fail now and then.
DevelopmentAid: How would a ceasefire help the situation?
You know, a ceasefire is very much needed, and it’s needed now, even before humanitarian aid, because we need to stop the loss of civilian lives. It’s very bad. The streets are empty. It’s very dangerous to try to get out and restock food or water supplies. And even if, by a miracle, you can do that, the shelves are nearly empty in most of the rarely open stores. Little bakeries have opened, but they’re not managing to keep up with the people’s demands.
DevelopmentAid: Are there ways in which citizens could feel protected and the rapid loss of civilian lives slowed down?
Nowhere is safe, no shelters, no bunkers, nothing, and people have nowhere to go; borders are closed, homes are destroyed, hospitals are blasted, and relatives are either killed, injured, or displaced.
Mass graves have become a common sight. There is no distinction between Christian or Muslim burial rites. Everyone is under fire. The city’s cemeteries are overflowing, and Gaza has become a large cemetery. I have seen scattered remains in the streets. The residents have begun to write their children’s names on their arms so they can identify them if they are bombed. Death is now just a matter of time.
DevelopmentAid: What are the most urgent needs of the people trapped under the rubble?
There are more than 1,200 people still under the rubble. Some of them have died, and others are still alive, but they will not last long without water, food, oxygen, or digging tools to rescue them.
When the shells fall on the houses and the smell of gunpowder mixes with the ashes, smoke, and charred bodies, and before the screams and the sound of ambulances rise, there is a moment of forced silence, which seems like the thin thread that separates life from death. And even this thread is starting to fade now. We can no longer psychologically or mentally cope with what we are going through. We are all devastated. This war must stop now, in this moment, not in minutes. We can no longer bear any more minutes.
