An Australian health worker helping to manage the emergency response in Gaza is blunt when asked what her fellow Australians need to know about the situation in the besieged territory after a year of war.
“That it’s worse than you can imagine,” Sally Stevenson tells Guardian Australia. “The destruction is everywhere, as far as the eye can see, it is in the air we breathe. There is no safe place in Gaza. For everyone, especially children.”
Stevenson, the executive director of the Illawarra Women’s Health Centre, arrived in Gaza three weeks ago on behalf of the medical charity Doctors Without Borders (MSF).
It is based in the al-Mawasi region of Gaza, which Israel has designated as a safe space. Stevenson describes the area as “the so-called humanitarian zone”.
Stevenson explains that more than 90% of Gaza’s 2.1 million residents have been displaced during the war, many multiple times, while 50% of MSF staff live in tents.
Because of these “ruthless forced movements,” she says the 41-square-kilometer humanitarian zone is home to 1.2 million displaced people.
She says 30,000 people live in one square kilometer, “in the most rudimentary temporary shelters.”
These shelters are “made with whatever is available, some plastic sheeting, torn pieces of cloth, cardboard.”
“There is no water or sewage system. There are no toilets,” Stevenson said.
“People like you and me now live in the mud or sand, with no food or water security… no education for their children, and very limited access to medical care due to a decimated health care system.”
As emergency coordinator, Stevenson is responsible for supporting MSF’s medical and logistics teams and ensuring “we reach the most vulnerable patients with the highest needs.”
But she says the “unsanitary and poor living conditions” are directly affecting people’s health, with MSF teams seeing an increase in diarrhea and skin diseases.
“As winter approaches, we are seeing a worrying increase in upper respiratory infections, which we know will only get worse,” she says.
“More than 500,000 women of childbearing age do not have access to essential services, including antenatal care, postnatal care and family planning. More than a million children now require mental health and psychosocial support and are likely to carry the trauma of war with them for many years to come.”
Monday marked the first anniversary of the Hamas-led attacks in southern Israel, which killed around 1,200 people and took 251 others hostage – about 100 of whom remain missing.
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At least 41,909 Palestinians have been killed and 97,303 injured in Gaza since Israel launched its military response to the October 7 attacks, the territory’s health authorities said on Monday, while thousands are likely lost under the rubble.
Australian Foreign Minister Penny Wong told the UN last month that the death toll in Gaza included more than 11,000 children, and that the area was the deadliest place on earth to be an aid worker.
Wong said Monday the October 7 anniversary was a time to “commemorate the horror of the Hamas terrorist attack” and that the loss of civilian lives in the conflict was “devastating.” She added: “The need for peace has never been greater.”
The Israeli government states that it focuses on Hamas, and not on Palestinian civilians, but that Hamas nestles between civilians and civilian infrastructure. Israel has also rejected accusations of genocide as “false and outrageous.”
Stevenson found it heartbreaking to witness “the utter inhumanity of this war,” but she also wants to recognize “the humanity, compassion, generosity, professionalism and dignity of the Palestinian people.”
She says MSF has opened two field hospitals in Deir al-Balah “as the healthcare system in Gaza has been effectively dismantled by the Israeli forces after a year of war.”
“The hardest part is seeing the loss of hope – the destruction of homes, olive trees and memories, history and identity; the strikes that killed children and erased entire family lines.”
Stevenson firmly believes that there must be an immediate and lasting ceasefire. “And Australians, if we want to be true to our own humanity, must do everything we can to make this happen.”