For free real-time breaking news alerts sent directly to your inbox sign up to our breaking news email
Sign up for our free email newsletter
A United Nations humanitarian aid worker has spoken of the moment her aid vehicle caught fire as she was queuing to enter Gaza City.
Louise Wateridge, of the UN’s Palestinian refugee agency, the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), gets stuck at a checkpoint as she tries to clear a UN building of unexploded shells.
He told me Independent: “We sat there. There were a few families who came, which has become common in the last few weeks, people are forced to move from the north to the south.
“There is some military action on the right side, the Israeli military is clearing some areas to the right of the convoy in the east, and they have bulldozers and machines.
“There were gunshots and there were five crashes into the car I was in, which was the last car in the convoy.
“Two or three of the bullets entered the vehicle, there were several fragments in the vehicle.”
He said the bullet struck the empty back seat of the vehicle — empty because a friend had gone out that morning.
He added: “Unfortunately, if there wasn’t someone in the back seat – it probably wouldn’t have happened.
“Assessment at that time was IDF fire. Right where we were in the IDF-controlled area, and there was an IDF operation of sorts that happened while we were there and the bullets came from the direction.
“It was hit by five bullets, the back window was broken and several bullets entered the vehicle. It looked like one of the bullets had fragmented and shattered.
“My driver, Mohammed, felt shrapnel in the car as it forced him to back up. It takes a bullet to destroy a car like this.”
The car was forced to return to a UN warehouse deemed too dangerous to continue its mission. The mission was followed by three more armored vehicles.
Ms Wateridge said she was “fighting a losing battle” trying to clear unexploded ordnance from UN buildings used for shelters.
He said: “Wherever you are in the Gaza Strip today, you are close to the front line. The front line is everywhere, it is all around us.
“The people of Gaza city told me two things: One, they don’t want to leave the north because they still have families buried under the rubble, they haven’t come out and they haven’t been put in.
“Or they’ve talked to family or friends down south who say, ‘Don’t come here. It’s not better. It’s not worth it.’
He emphasized that the ongoing evacuation orders that keep thousands of people on the streets make it impossible to guarantee security in any area of ​​Gaza City.
“The schools in the south that I went to you couldn’t see the floor. There are old people sleeping in the hallway or stairs”, he said.
“People say to us ‘Why move? I’m going to die here or I’m going to die here, so I’d rather die here for all of us.
An IDF spokesman said: “Last week there were reports of damage caused by UN vehicles as they approached the humanitarian corridor in the Gaza Strip.
“The IDF is currently unaware of the incident as described in the statement.
“The IDF is working around the clock to coordinate with international humanitarian organizations operating in the Gaza Strip.”
This was before Israel’s parliament gave preliminary approval to a bill declaring UN aid agencies working for Palestinian refugees a terrorist organization.
The bill, sponsored by Israeli politician Yulia Malinovsky, accuses UNRWA of being “Israel’s fifth column”. The bill claims many UNRWA staff members are members of terrorist groups like Hamas and Islamic Jihad, although no evidence has been provided.
UNRWA, which offers services to millions of Palestinians, has faced opposition from Israel, which has called for it to disband.
UNRWA spokeswoman Juliette Touma called the law “another attempt in a wider campaign to dismantle the agency”.
“These measures are unprecedented in the history of the United Nations,” he said.
