UN Humanitarian Chief Says What He Witnessed in Gaza Drove Him to Therapy
Gaza (Quds News Network)- A UN’s top humanitarian official says the horrors he witnessed in Gaza pushed him to seek therapy. As Israel continues its genocide and blockade on the besieged Strip, aid remains stuck at the borders, and Palestinians are starving and being murdered.
Tom Fletcher, the UN’s Humanitarian Coordinator, shared his emotional testimony in an interview on Zeteo. “Nothing was as bad as going to Gaza,” he said. “It is that smell and sound of death on this scale, and trauma on this scale… You do carry that with you.”
Fletcher added, “I’ve started therapy myself because I think it’s important we find ways to deal with these experiences. But my experience is nothing like someone living in Gaza.”
The humanitarian chief rejected Israel’s claims that Hamas is stealing aid. “We have the food. It is sat there on the border,” he said. “We have provisions to fill 9,600 trucks right now – that’s baby food, food, medicine, shelter. But we’re not allowed to get it in.”
He said Israel is refusing to allow the aid in “at the scale we need to.” Gaza remains under a tight Israeli siege, with international agencies warning of rising famine and disease.
“We are seeing levels of starvation which are completely avoidable,” Fletcher warned. “We are sitting at the killing of civilians on an extraordinary scale.”
He called the ongoing suffering in Gaza a “21st-century atrocity,” and urged world leaders to take action to stop the genocide.
Fletcher compared Gaza to war zones he’s seen throughout his career. “I’ve been to Darfur, Kupiansk, Syria, Kandahar, Kabul, and Mandalay,” he said. “But Gaza was worse.”
His comments come as Israel continues to bomb residential areas and block essential humanitarian supplies. Over 182,000 Palestinians have been killed or injured since October 7, 2023, most of them women and children.
Despite mounting international pressure, aid remains largely blocked. Rescue workers are operating without resources, and communications blackouts continue to isolate Gaza from the world.
