A Scottish aid worker has told of the unimaginable suffering of children in Gaza – where bodies are now visibly littering streets.
Christian Aid worker Katie Roxburgh has reflected the catastrophic descent into hell in Gaza, as bombs have rained down.
Starvation is now a major threat and charities are stressing the huge need for donations to save lives.
Katie also tells of the hope that still exists, with international aid groups seeking to allow kids to somehow live like children amid the carnage.
Katie, from Glasgow, said: “Children are seeing corpses on the street and there’s the mass destruction of infrastructure.
“People have lost their homes, hospitals, schools are destroyed, and then there’s huge displacement as well. Many people have been displaced multiple times and are now living in cramped conditions with very little help.
“It’s really the most difficult situation any human can imagine. It’s utterly devastating. People have lost everything and have nothing to live with.
“Many schools have been destroyed or are being used to house thousands of displaced people, and the constant threat of bombardment looms over everything. Every day that puts fear into children.
“Some of our partners said that they couldn’t even imagine 1% of what they’re seeing now before the war started. It’s horrific.”
Katie, who travelled to Gaza several times before the Israeli conflict exploded, said the psychological trauma that children in particular are going through is huge.
She said: “Any kind of space where children can go and be distracted, be a kid again is hugely important.
“So, they have activities with like clowns coming in and doing some nice entertainment for the children: reading sessions, singing songs, playing football, some classes as well.
“There are some teachers living in the shelters and those teachers are volunteering to teach the children who are also there – basic classes, English, Arabic maths, etc.”
Around two thirds of the 42,000 Palestinians killed since October 7 last year are believed to be women and children.
Women are also struggling to maintain personal dignity, with hygiene items hard to come by and a massive shortage of soap.
Programme manager Katie said: “There’s no soap, no shampoo. Women have said they hadn’t had a shower in a month and when they do shower there’s very little privacy.
“And they are having to queue for hours to access portable showers, portable toilets. It’s s a really awful situation, beyond imagination.”
Hunger is now a daily problem. Katie said: “There’s very little food that people are able to get their hands on. But our partners have set up community kitchens, which is a great kind of community initiative, and they are providing those kitchens with food.
“At the start of the war our partner told us that she had lost 30 kg in the space of 2 months because she was foregoing food to feed her kids.
“It’s a really unbelievable situation that that women particularly are going through. And that just gives you a sense of the kind of scale of hunger.”
Katie is appealing for Scots to support the Disaster Emergency Committee, which brings together 15 leading aid charities at times of crisis overseas, where there is significant unmet humanitarian need. Those fundraising in Scotland are British Red Cross, Oxfam, Islamic Relief, Save the Children, Tearfund and Christian Aid.
DEC Scotland raised £1.4 million in its first five days.
*Donations can be made at www.dec.org.uk or by calling 0330 123 0333 or Text HOPE to 70676 to donate £10.
Don’t miss the latest news from around Scotland and beyond – Sign up to our daily newsletter here.