Australian UNRWA Head: Gazan Children ‘Rummaging Through Rubble’ for Food

Gaza (Quds News Network)- UNRWA Director of Relief and Social Services Roger Hearn said that children in Gaza “were rummaging through the rubble for food. They’re literally looking for food in bins and whatever they can find” as Israel’s assault in Gaza nears its 15th month.

Following a November visit to Gaza, the Melbourne-born UNRWA head told ABC News, “[In some parts of Gaza] they’re starving. It’s nothing like you can imagine.”

As director of relief, he was responsible for organising the distribution of food from aid trucks coming in through the crossings.

But what “depressed” him the most was being unable to bring in enough food to help feed Gaza’s 1.9 million internally displaced people (according to the United Nations) — about 90 per cent of the population. Many have been displaced repeatedly, some 10 times or more.

The people looked as if they were “forced to be homeless”, he said, making him feel helpless to ease their plight.

“The kids weren’t washed a lot of the time. Some of their hair started to dreadlock and become bleached from being in the sun and not washing it,” he said.

Hearn said he felt “helpless” when there were issues with UNRWA’s food distribution, which were present right from the start.

“There’s a whole regime of verification and checking which just feels like it’s just made to slow things down.”

He said there are hundreds of trucks full of food that was purchased earlier in the year, waiting in the sun while stuck at the border.

“We worked out to go through the entire consignment, it would take around 15 months before we could clear that from the [Ashod] port,” he said.

“We won’t be able to get into Gaza … we wouldn’t be able to pay the salaries of our Gaza staff. We’ve got 12,000 staff. We wouldn’t be able to bring supplies in, none of our stuff inside Gaza would be deconflicted.”

Hearn said with the shortage of food, prices have sky-rocketed in Gaza at the local meat and vegetable markets.

“One of my staff was saying that if they bought potatoes and tomatoes every day, that would be their entire salary. It’s crazy prices,” Hearn said.

“Israel has a lot of control in terms of how much food gets into Gaza,” Hearn noted.

“Once we’ve got the food into Gaza, we can’t actually warehouse it so easily anymore in different locations.”

“We have a whole range of portable warehousing equipment that we’re trying to get into Gaza [but] we can’t get permission to bring that in.”