‘In Gaza, humanitarian workers are not heroes, but victims’

KEYSTONE

Emergency coordinator for Médecins Sans Frontières (Doctors without Borders) Marie-Aure Perreaut Revial is just back from Gaza. In an interview with SWI swissinfo.ch she condemns systematic attacks on humanitarian workers by the Israeli army, just days after the deaths of seven World Central Kitchen employees.

“Humanitarians have become targets, just like civilians,” says Marie-Aure Perreaut Revial, emergency coordinator for Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), who returned from Gaza last week. 

On Monday, an Israeli strike killed seven World Central Kitchen workers. The NGO was delivering food to the Gaza Strip, where 1.1 million people face imminent starvation. The incident took place as delivery of humanitarian aid in the Palestinian territory has become increasingly difficult and dangerous.

Speaking at a press conference held in Geneva on Thursday, Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), which has approximately 400 aid workers in Gaza, condemned repeated attacks on its staff. Since October, at least 196 aid workers have been killed within the Gaza strip, including five MSF employees. According to the Hamas ministry of Health, over 33,000 people have died in Gaza. The UN estimates that about 70% of the victims are women and children.External link

Back in Geneva, Revial talks to SWI about working conditions and security of her staff.

Marie-Aure Perreaut Revial MSF/Julien Dewarichet

SWI swissinfo.ch: You have worked for MSF in Ethiopia, Congo, Pakistan, Sudan… How does Gaza differ from your previous assignments? 

Marie-Aure Perreaut Revial: Human suffering is present in every mission and cannot be compared. As an emergency coordinator, however, I have never been this frightened for the security of my team. Every time the phone rings, I hold my breath at the thought of having lost yet another colleague. This constant anxiety is specific to Gaza, where humanitarian aid workers have become targets, just like civilians. 

SWI: Israeli Prime Minister Benyamin Netanyahu said the strikes that killed seven aid workers from World Central Kitchen (WCK) on Monday were “unintentional”, but according to MSF, this was a deliberate attack. What makes you say this?

M-A.R: The WCK employees, with whom we worked closely, were clearly identified as aid workers. Their route was coordinated with the Israeli army and their identities were known. This procedure is followed by all humanitarian workers, including MSF: we constantly share our GPS coordinates and notify the Israeli army of all of our movements. If we die from a missile attack, no one can claim it was a mistake. 

Yet the hospitals in which we operate, our convoys, and even the shelters in which we sleep are constantly targeted. After the destruction of the Al-Shifa hospital in northern Gaza, it is now the Al-Aqsa hospital, where MSF also works, that has been hit by Israeli strikes. Over the last six months, nearly 200 aid workers have been killed in Gaza, including five from MSF. On such a scale, these attacks are either intentional or indicative of dangerous incompetence.

SWI: On the ground, you coordinate your work with Palestinian organisations such as the Palestinian Red Crescent. What contacts do you have with Israeli army and organisations? 

M-A.R: We were unable to establish a line of contact with the Israeli army. This is unprecedented compared to the conflicts we usually operate in. We are therefore forced to work through third parties, which considerably complicates our security management. As far as the Israeli humanitarian presence in Gaza is concerned, it is non-existent. 

SWI: Since the attack, World Central Kitchen and several other organisations have suspended their activities in Gaza. What about MSF? 

M-A.R: For the time being, we are maintaining our operational capabilities in Gaza, but constantly reassessing our presence. In November, we tried identifying limits regarding the presence of our international staff. Today, all those red lines have been crossed. There is no safe space for humanitarians in Gaza. This is something I have never experienced before in my career. We keep asking ourselves: what hospital will be bombarded next? Going to Gaza means accepting the possibility that we will not be coming back.  

SWI: In these conditions, can humanitarian aid really continue within the Gaza strip? 

M-A.R: The question is not whether it can continue, but whether it can even begin. After six months of intervention on the ground, we have not managed to help the population. The scale of the crisis is too great. No health system in the world has the capacity to cope with such bloodshed. The humanitarian response in Gaza today is therefore an illusion. We cannot reach our patients without being attacked. In Gaza, humanitarians are not heroes, but victims. 

SWI: The humanitarian community accuses Israel of bypassing the United Nations and international organisations, notably by dismantling UNRWA, in order to set up a parallel delivery system under Israeli control. Have you noticed this in the field? 

M-A.R: Indeed, Israel is not only excluding the UN but all international organisations. Several donors, including Switzerland, have suspended their funding to UNRWA, which Israel accuses of being complicit in crimes perpetrated by Hamas. Yet the UN agency for Palestinian refugees is the backbone of society in Gaza. It guarantees basic services such as food distribution, access to healthcare, waste and sewage management. It is simply impossible to replace it, especially as no Israeli aid is arriving in Gaza, despite the authorities’ claiming the opposite. 

SWI: Is the international community doing enough to protect aid workers? 

M-A.R: Absolutely not. Working conditions in Gaza are unprecedented. All the health facilities in Gaza where I worked last November had to be evacuated. Despite this, and the deaths of nearly 200 aid workers, we have not seen any outrage from the international community, nor any call for independent investigations to determine accountability, including regarding the attacks that targeted and killed MSF employees. 

SWI: To this date, the Security Council resolution for a ceasefire approved on March 27 has remained without effect. On the ground, is there any hope that it will be implemented? 

M-A.R: The UN Security Council resolution has come too late and has still not been implemented. It is just words on paper, while in Gaza, bombs are still falling. Many in the enclave now say that the lucky ones are those who are already dead.

SWI: Do you see international law as an empty shell? 

M-A.R: Unfortunately, that is the major issue at stake in the background of the conflict. The number of flagrant violations of international law documented in Gaza is immeasurable. This war is being fought with no rules, with complete disregard for international law, so much so that war crimes have become commonplace. As long as impunity persists, not only the credibility but also the future of international law is jeopardised. 

Edited by Virginie Mangin/livm. Adapted from French by Rachel Barbara Häubi.