he scale of trauma, suffering and devastation in Gaza has reached a level that is barely imaginable, according to a photographer with theChris Black, who recently returned after five and a half weeks in the Palestinian territory, said the most shocking moment came during a mission to a hospital.
The conditions that Black and his colleagues saw in the Gaza hospitals they visited were horrific, including at the besieged al-Amal hospital in Khan Younis.Clockwise from top left: Dr Sara al-Saqqa, of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs , at a checkpoint on mission to Khan Younis to transfer patients from al-Amal hospital. A patient in front of al-Amal hospital. The hospital’s car park, full of destroyed ambulances and civilian vehicles.
“Just imagine the courage to stay there and stick it out with the patients and their families. Because we were there they took advantage of the opportunity to go to the building next door to get food they had not been able to reach for a month.
In Rafah, nowhere felt safe, he said. “You sense it’s one of the most densely populated places world. People are living everywhere. On the streets, in tents, living in cars, houses with 30-40 people living them, thousands in every Unrwa shelter. There’s a stench of sewage, tents on roofs. Every inch of space is occupied. Everyone exhausted.