Gaza's frontline - horrifying sights seen by heroic aid workers putting lives on the line
For the last 12 months I have witnessed widespread, relentless and intolerable suffering in Gaza and the wider region along with families in Israel and around the world enduring a year of desperately waiting for news of their loved ones held hostage in Gaza.
I am now seeing the escalation at my doorstep in Lebanon, but I have also seen the unwavering commitment of Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement colleagues across Gaza, the West Bank, Israel, Lebanon and beyond.
Palestine Red Crescent Society (PRCS) colleagues have delivered 1.6 million emergency items to people, including food, water and blankets. Magen David Adom (MDA) colleagues in Israel have responded to over one million emergency calls.
And colleagues at the Lebanese Red Cross have deployed over 350 ambulances since mid-September alone.
But our colleagues are also impacted by this crisis, they live in and come from the communities they support.
Tragically, 19 PRCS colleagues in Gaza, two in PRCS colleagues in the West Bank and six colleagues from MDA have been killed in the line of duty. In recent days several Lebanese Red Cross colleagues have also been injured while working to save lives.
They continue to deliver lifesaving work despite facing great risks. Earlier this week I spoke to a brother and sister at the Lebanese Red Cross.
They told me they do not work in the same ambulance, to spare their parents the agony of losing both of their children should the worst happen.
Colleagues are also making similar considerations when sending out someone who is an only child or who has young children.
In Gaza, Hanadi, a medic with the Palestine Red Crescent Society has to leave behind her son and daughter when she goes to work.
She spoke of the pain and fear she felt when the building her children were staying was bombed. She responded to help the casualties not knowing if her children were among them. Luckily they weren’t hurt.
There are stories of hope too. Just this week colleagues at the Syrian Arab Red Crescent helped deliver a baby girl as her mother fled from Lebanon into Syria.
However, they now must decide whether she is registered in Lebanon or Syria, which will be safer?
Across the region, civilians continue to pay the price of the continued fighting. They desperately lack safety, food, water, healthcare and shelter.
But the Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement continues to provide a lifeline, even in these most desperate of times.
This is work we’re only able to do through the continued generosity of our supporters donating to our Gaza Crisis Appeal. Aid alone will not solve this crisis, but it will save lives.
