I had my first nightmare about Gaza six weeks after the end of my first deployment with the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) in February. I dreamed I was in the OCHA guesthouse: the walls were crumbling before my eyes from constant explosions. The smoke from the blasts was filling my throat as I shouted into my laptop microphone during a coordination meeting. We all went about our business as if nothing was happening.
When I woke up, I felt as if smoke was still suffocating me. I felt powerless, angry and guilty for leaving Gaza. There have been many more nightmares since then, but none has come even close to the harrowing reality that people in Gaza are living in.
Since October 7, more than 38,000 people have been killed in Gaza and more than 87,000 wounded, according to Gaza’s Ministry of Health. Many have suffered life-altering injuries. Some 1.9 million people – or 90 percent of the population – have been displaced; many have had to move multiple times, as there is no safe place in Gaza.
Using the term “living conditions” to describe the dreadful circumstances Palestinians in Gaza face seems absurd. People are not “living”, they are barely surviving. Many are forced to reside in crammed shelters in ever-shrinking spaces where they are allowed to seek refuge. I have seen tents where as many as five families are staying together under sheets of plastic or ripped blankets propped up by a rickety frame.
The vast majority of people in Gaza lack the very basics of life, including food, water, medicine and hygiene supplies. Digging latrine pits near one’s tent has become increasingly common to avoid having to search and wait for communal........