“Gaza has become a death trap,” warns OCHA official

2 April 2025

Opening Remarks at the Daily Press Briefing by Jonathan Whittall, OCHA Head of Office for the Occupied Palestinian Territory

So firstly, thanks a lot, Farhan [Haq, Deputy Spokesperson for the Secretary-General], for having me. Good afternoon to everyone.

To be honest, I wasn’t sure what I could say in this briefing that could adequately convey the magnitude of the situation on the ground here in Gaza. So I decided not to mince my words.

And I guess this decision was made easier, because I’ve recently, together with my colleagues, coordinated a mission in Rafah that uncovered a mass grave of medics. Sounds shocking to say, I can tell you it was, it was shocking for us to experience. These were medical workers from [Palestine] Red Crescent Society (PRCS) and the Civil Defense, still in their uniforms, still wearing gloves. They were killed while trying to save lives.

They were being dispatched into Rafah as Israeli forces were advancing into the area, the ambulances were hit one by one as they advanced, as they entered into Rafah. The grave that they were buried in, that we found them in, was marked by the emergency light from one of the ambulances that were crushed by Israeli forces. Around the area that we found this mass grave – the ambulances, the fire truck, a UN vehicle had all been crushed – the bodies of those killed, who were buried in the grave.

I’m starting with this particular case, because I think it’s very emblematic of the point that we’ve reached in Gaza. What is happening here, it defies decency, it defies humanity, it defies the law.

It really is a war without limits.

And this case of our colleagues that were killed while trying to save lives is one horror in an endless parade from the past two weeks alone. We’ve had UN premises that have been shelled by tank fire, killing one of our colleagues and seriously injuring others. We’ve had international aid compounds and hospitals that have been hit. We’ve seen municipal workers that have been killed in humanitarian-donated trucks.

People have been bombed in food distribution points, where aid workers have also been killed. Humanitarian warehouses have been damaged in strikes. And since the ceasefire collapsed two weeks ago, forced displacement orders are back. So, in the last two days alone, we’ve had around 100,000 people that have been displaced out of Rafah, many of them fleeing under fire.

But I saw some of them in the same mission that I had described here at the beginning, where we recovered the bodies of our colleagues from the PRCS and Civil Defense. We saw people running towards us under fire and being shot in their backs.

As of today, 64 per cent of Gaza is under active forced displacement orders or falling within the so-called “buffer zone.” That’s 64 per cent of Gaza that is today not accessible to the population. Nowhere and no one is safe in Gaza.

My colleagues tell me that they just want to die with their families. Their worst fear is to survive alone.

Day and night, and I don’t know how much you can hear of my background noise, but day and night we listen to air strikes shaking Gaza. Bombs are falling nonstop. Hospitals are overflowing with mass casualties, the one just a block away from me included.

It’s an endless loop of blood, pain, death. And Gaza has become a death trap.

We cannot accept – and as humanitarians, I need to emphasize this – that we cannot accept that Palestinian civilians are dehumanized to the point of being somehow unworthy of survival.

And yet today unfortunately marks one month without any supplies entering into Gaza. That’s one month of no food, no fuel, no aid, nothing. Nothing has entered.

So, 2.1 million people are trapped, bombed, starved – and the consequences are apparent to all of us that are here. It’s mostly apparent to the people that are living through this war.

The humanitarian crisis is quite literally spiraling out of control. Yesterday, all 25 subsidized bakeries supported by the WFP were closed. And people’s survival is dependent on [an] aid system that itself is under attack, as aid workers are killed and our work is obstructed.

And yet we’re told, and I find this very difficult to hear, that Gaza has enough food because supplies have entered during a month-long ceasefire following a year in which supplies were literally drip-fed into the Gaza Strip.

Humanitarians here in Gaza are certainly inspiring, creative – but we’re not magicians. We know how to deliver food. We know how to deliver water, shelter, medicine. We can do our jobs when we’re enabled to do so. And we did exactly that at scale during the ceasefire.

When the ceasefire was holding, we were delivering. We were able to deliver far more than we’ve ever been able to. Now, we’re collecting the dead bodies of first responders.

I want to say that there’s no humanitarian solutions to the problems that Gaza faces … This crisis needs political action, and I believe that this needs to start with accountability.

Aid will not and cannot compensate for the political failures that we’ve seen in Gaza. And I think it’s important for us to acknowledge that what is happening in Gaza is not going to stay in Gaza.

We cannot let the rules-based order be replaced by one set of rules for some and another set of rules for others.

But in closing, I do want to acknowledge that there is hope that remains. I’ve heard people in Gaza say that hope dies last in Gaza. So, there is hope that Member States will finally use their political and economic leverage to enforce international law.

There’s hope that a ceasefire comes into effect that stops the slaughter and frees the hostages.

And I think there’s hope that Palestinians will finally be seen as humans and that this cruelty will end.