New UN footage shows devastation in Gaza's Khan Younis

I was in that car that was hit. It was waiting at a holding point just South of the Wazi Wadigaza checkpoint where we are often instructed to wait before being called through the checkpoint. We were waiting there as instructed and gunfire broke out in the vicinity. It seemed to be coming from the direction of the checkpoint towards civilians who then turn and turned and fled from the checkpoint. Luckily myself and that my colleagues, we were all safe. But this just underscores how dangerous it is for humanitarian aid workers in Gaza at the moment, that incidents like this continue to happen when they absolutely shouldn’t say. We decided to go ahead because it was such a critical mission, with nutrition products for the children who are malnourished in the north of Gaza, among other things. Unfortunately, after deciding that we would go ahead, we were still delayed. We waited at that holding point for at least another two hours before deciding that the mission was no longer feasible because we didn’t have enough time, even if we were given the green light, to go up, conduct all of our activities and then get backs. This is, you know, something that happens almost every day in Gaza, not always to us, but but to the children as well. And I’ve seen so many examples here of, of children who’ve been wounded in this war, and it’s just heartbreaking, it’s tragic to see anybody suffering from malnutrition, which is such a painful condition, let alone in a place where malnutrition was almost nonexistent before October. And it’s now skyrocketed in the north of Gaza because of disruptions to to food production, but also because of restrictions on aid access to that area. We’ve really struggled to get up there with aid, and as a result, we know that children are dying of malnutrition there. At least 23 children have reportedly died at the Kamel Adwan Hospital, which is where we were trying to bring these nutrition treatments on Tuesday. Doctors are struggling to provide the care that they want to and that they used to in Gaza. It means that supplies are running out, it means that staff are unable to be paid salaries and many more of them are having to become volunteers and and that’s not sustainable because they have to be able to support their families in such desperate conditions. It means the children are dying without the appropriate medical care or they’re unable to receive treatment that they need.