'How much more do Gazans have to endure?' – Aid worker's ceasefire plea for trapped family

A heartbroken aid worker with family trapped in the besieged Gaza Strip has issued a desperate plea for humanity, asking: “How much more do Gazans have to endure?”

Oxfam policy lead Bushra Khalidi, 35, called for an immediate ceasefire to allow unfettered access for deliveries of food, water, fuel and medicine.

Just a fraction of the usual aid has been allowed through from Egypt in the wake of the atrocities, and supplies are perilously low.

One of Gaza’s largest hospitals, Al-Awda, warned it was hours away from running out of fuel while its wards remain full of critically ill patients who cannot evacuate.

Bushra said the barbaric attacks by Hamas 19 days ago were “horrific and appalling” but did not justify the collective punishment of 2.2 million people, half of which are children.

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She added: “These are serious, grave violations under international law – to bomb hospitals, to bomb schools, to kill and maim children.

“Hamas’ actions do not give carte blanche to Israel to do what it is doing. 5,500 Palestinians have died.”

Rishi Sunak stopped short of calling for a ceasefire on Wednesday, saying Israel “has the right to protect itself in line with international law”. But he told MPs “pauses” in the fighting were needed to allow safe deliveries of humanitarian aid.

Some 1,400 Israelis were murdered in the sudden eruption of sickening violence unleashed by Hamas. Victims were killed where they stood or dragged from their homes and brutalised, with more than 200 taken hostage.

Israel has been bombarding targets in the north of the Gaza Strip while preparing for a ground invasion.

Palestinian Bushra lives in the West Bank and faces an anxious wait every day for her loved ones to charge their phones enough to let her know they are still alive.

She met her husband’s family – including his parents, brother, sister, and nephews – for the first time in June, when she finally got a permit to enter Gaza after being married for eight years.

She now fears she will never see them again after they fled from Gaza City to the middle of the Strip.

Conditions are so dire that some desperate civilians, including Bushra’s parents-in-law, are returning to the north despite the threat of lethal missiles raining from the sky.

Her voice shaking with passion, Bushra told the Daily Express: “For them, it’s better to die at home than with no dignity in someone else’s house. They’re in danger everywhere. There is no safe place in Gaza.”

Bushra warned that the “trickle of trucks they’ve let in is a drop in the ocean of what Gaza needs”.

She said: “Describing my feelings is a very difficult task, knowing that my family is escaping near-death every day, and knowing that as Oxfam our hands are tied because of the borders being closed due to Israel’s decision to tighten the existing siege on Gaza.

“Families are struggling to find shelter, children are separated from their parents. There are so many bodies under the rubble still.

“People are making perilous journeys in search of safety, leaving everything behind with no clear destination. They are rationing water, food, there is a big risk of deadly diseases, cholera, diarrhoea, because of sanitation problems.

“And people’s mental health is deteriorating day after day, not knowing when this is going to end.”

Communication with Bushra’s relatives is severely limited, as they are struggling to keep their phones charged and access the internet.

She said: “We try to call them at different times of the day. Sometimes they pick up, sometimes they don’t, and they’re very quick conversations.”

The price of bottled water in Gaza has risen five-fold and her family is forced to drink brackish water collected in buckets.

Others who were old or weak could not obey evacuation orders and hospitals have warned of babies in incubators who will die if the power runs out.

Bushra added: “It is also critical to recognise that this did not start on October 7. Gaza has been under an illegal blockade imposed by Israel for 16 years.

“The humanitarian situation was already on the brink before these hostilities started, now it’s on its knees.”

Oxfam has condemned the use of starvation as a weapon of war against civilians in Gaza – something that is prohibited under international humanitarian law.

Its analysis of UN data found just two percent of the food that would usually have been delivered has arrived since restrictions were tightened on October 9.

As of Thursday afternoon, the charity said 62 aid trucks had been allowed to enter Gaza via the Rafah crossing since the weekend and only 30 contained food.

This amounted to one every three hours and 12 minutes since Saturday. Before the latest hostilities, 104 trucks were delivering food each day – one every 14 minutes.

Sally Abi Khalil, Oxfam’s regional middle east director, said: “The situation is nothing short of horrific – where is humanity?

“Millions of civilians are being collectively punished in full view of the world, there can be no justification for using starvation as a weapon of war. World leaders cannot continue to sit back and watch, they have an obligation to act and to act now.”

Bushra warned that pauses in the fighting or humanitarian corridors were not enough to guarantee aid convoys would not be targeted.

And she said the failure of the UK and other European countries to demand a ceasefire was “shocking, appalling and surprising”.

She added: “As a Palestinian, what I hear when people are not supporting a ceasefire is that Palestinian lives don’t matter as much as other lives.

“Israel has a duty as the occupying power to provide for the basic needs of its occupied population and protect Palestinian civilians, and it is not doing so. So it’s in contravention of international law.”