The continuing bombardment of Gaza has resulted in massive loss of civilian lives
When the bombardment of Gaza started three weeks ago, a member of my team asked if we would send a team to Gaza. And my response was: absolutely not! I am not going to establish a team in Gaza. We are going to support and work with a local NGO, which is something we learned through NEAR.
We are fighting for localisation, so we should be supporting local NGOs. My role is currently only connecting donors or INGOs directly through NEAR to local Palestinian NGOs, and I think we should encourage more coordination like this. Several large donors have approached me, wanting to assist with the relief efforts for Gaza. We are facilitating relief with colleagues in Egypt and cooperating with the Egyptian Red Crescent convoy to facilitate delivery.
You don't have to implement directly. We don't understand the local context, so we will rely on local coordination of local actors or local NGOs directly. Of course, we must do screening, we have to do a lot of vetting these days. But we can do it carefully and we can still deliver aid through the local NGOs.
The challenge is that that local NGOs who are usually the first responders are now themselves victims, and in need of help. This is what happened to us in Syria with the earthquake, and during the bombardment of Aleppo, with health facilities being the prime target for attacks. With these cases, you can't bring aid workers from outside because they don't have access, and the aid workers are displaced themselves, it's a dilemma.
This is also why we are for now working through NEAR so that communication is centralised and we don’t overwhelm local leaders in Gaza even more.
We have heard with great dismay that some Western governments are freezing aid to Palestinian NGOs, especially those prominent in advocating for international humanitarian law. I am so disappointed with governments who are usually strong advocates for human rights but now turn their backs on violations of basic human rights and ignore basic human needs. I am so disappointed to see organisations penalised for speaking up and calling for lives to be spared and for avoiding further escalation.
I'm not sure of the reasons behind such a decision, but this will not be helpful in the long term. There are desperate times that need unity and working together to ease the pain of civilians affected in Gaza, not time for more pressure on already exhausted communities.
It is very important that we show our colleagues trapped in Gaza that we are concerned about them, and that we understand what they are going through.
The head of a major Palestinian NGO said ‘I now know how Syrians feel now because I lost my home. I lost all my belongings and I left my home with the only the clothes I'm wearing’.
My reply to him was ‘be ready, because next they're going to target schools and hospitals’.
Sadly, I was right.