Seven Red Cross aid workers have died on the job in Gaza and Israel.
Petra Ketonen,
Anu Leena Hankaniemi
According to experienced aid workers, helping people in Gaza is difficult and dangerous. This is what doctors from the organization Doctors without Borders say Henriikka Ollila and director of the international aid activities of the Finnish Red Cross Tiina Saarikoski.
The Palestinian terrorist organization Hamas launched a surprise large-scale attack on Israel on October 7, after which Israel has carried out attacks on Gaza.
We listed the reasons that make helping in Gaza difficult now.
1. Huge number of patients
Anesthesiologist and intensive care doctor Henriikka Ollila worked in the Gaza region in 2020 through the organization Doctors Without Borders. He is still in contact with doctors working in Gaza and has received messages from them during the crisis.
In an interview with Radio Suomen Päivä, Ollila said that according to local doctors, the situation is chaotic.
– Now that the number of patients is unprecedented, doctors cannot treat all patients.
According to Ollila, the conditions in hospitals are unhygienic. Procedures have even been performed on the floor, because there are not enough operating rooms.
More than 5,000 people have already died in Israel’s attacks on Gaza, according to the Gaza Ministry of Health, which is controlled by the terrorist organization Hamas. According to the Ministry of Health, more than 2,000 of the dead are children and the number of wounded is well over 15,000.
According to Israel, more than 1,400 Israelis have died.
2. There is a shortage of everything
Aid organizations describe the situation in Gaza as catastrophic. Henriikka Ollila has also received information about the difficult conditions. There is a shortage of medicines, relief supplies, staff, clean water and fuel in hospitals. Fuel is needed to produce electricity with the help of generators.
Doctors are starting to lose hope, says Ollila.
– They have never seen a situation like this, where the bombings have continued for two weeks almost non-stop.
3. Life-threatening relief work
For aid workers, the war situation is dangerous. Seven Red Cross aid workers have died in Gaza and on the Israeli side. In addition, several have been wounded.
Tiina Saarikoski, director of the international relief operations of the Finnish Red Cross, says that the situation is life-threatening. In war, one may be in the wrong place at the wrong time, even if there is no target.
– There should be security guarantees that aid workers will not be attacked. That they can work safely.
– A natural disaster can be understood with reason. For example, an earthquake cannot be prevented. People go to war, and that’s hard for me to understand at least, says Saarikoski.
According to Saarikoski, the Finnish Red Cross has not sent aid workers to the site. There is a Palestinian Crescent in Gaza and a Red Star of David on the Israeli side.
4. Closed area
Saarikoski reminds that Gaza is a small closed area.
– There are no places to go. There is no emergency accommodation for such a number of people, says Saarikoski.
A new aid shipment from Egypt reached the Palestinian territory of Gaza today. Reporters from the AFP news agency reported that twenty trucks drove to Gaza.
This is only the third major aid shipment to Gaza since the start of extensive fighting. During the weekend, a total of 34 trucks reached Gaza in two batches, said the Egyptian Red Cross.
According to the UN estimate, Gaza’s 2.4 million inhabitants would need at least one hundred truckloads of aid every day to survive.