People throughout much of the Middle East are anxiously awaiting what comes next.
After two assassinations this week of leaders from Hamas and Hezbollah, Iran and its allies have promised revenge. And Israeli officials have also said they are ready for anything, with the Biden administration in the US saying it will help Israel, while cautioning it to avoid an escalation with Hezbollah in Lebanon.
Meanwhile, the situation in the Gaza Strip continues to deteriorate for Palestinian civilians — especially children.
The World’s host, Carolyn Beeler, spoke with Salim Oweis, who is a spokesperson with UNICEF, the UN children’s agency, about the humanitarian situation. He spoke from the city of Deir al-Balah in central Gaza.
Carolyn Beeler: What are you seeing where you are in Gaza right now?
Salim Oweis: Getting just the basics of the basics is really a challenge, a daily challenge for so many children and families. Yesterday, I was in a camp and I was talking to the families there, and skin diseases are spreading because of the lack of hygiene due to the lack of water.
And I was talking to the mothers and they told me, “We took them to the doctors. The doctors prescribed some antibiotics or some creams and we can’t find that. And if we find it, it’s too expensive.” So, even the necessities for health are a problem. Camps are depending on delivery of food aid, water trucking.
UNICEF has a desalination plant and we deliver truck water to some camps around that area. And people wait anxiously to get that tank and another tank from another organization, and they just get in crowds queuing to get just one jerrycan of water or so. So, really, it’s not a condition that you would call a normal life.
And I was talking to the mothers and they told me, “We took them to the doctors. The doctors prescribed some antibiotics or some creams and we can’t find that. And if we find it, it’s too expensive.” So, even the necessities for health are a problem. Camps are depending on delivery of food aid, water trucking.
UNICEF has a desalination plant and we deliver truck water to some camps around that area. And people wait anxiously to get that tank and another tank from another organization, and they just get in crowds queuing to get just one jerrycan of water or so. So, really, it’s not a condition that you would call a normal life.
The Gaza Health Ministry has reported that it has found polio virus in sewage in Gaza. I know those tests that revealed that were conducted in conjunction with UNICEF. Can you tell me any more about how prevalent the virus is, and if there are cases of human infection that have been reported?
Well, thankfully, until this moment, we don’t have any cases reported — symptomatic cases. As you said, the samples collected from two different locations in the Gaza Strip, 6 out of 7 have shown traces of a variant of polio virus. And what we’re doing now is to assess the situation.
We already have routine polio vaccines coming in, but also, there’s a need for specialized vaccines for stopping the spread or catching of the polio that we found in the sewage system.
So, as UNICEF, with our partners from WHO and UNRWA, the health authorities here and several NGOs working hand-in-hand to get those vaccines and get the children who need it vaccinated as soon as possible to stop it before it even starts.
We already have routine polio vaccines coming in, but also, there’s a need for specialized vaccines for stopping the spread or catching of the polio that we found in the sewage system.
So, as UNICEF, with our partners from WHO and UNRWA, the health authorities here and several NGOs working hand-in-hand to get those vaccines and get the children who need it vaccinated as soon as possible to stop it before it even starts.
You work with the UN children’s agency. Can you tell me more about your interactions with kids in Gaza since you arrived and how they’ve been coping?
Well, you can see that children are tired just as their families are. When I went to one camp, I was faced with two to three children without me even trying to interact, just coming in front of me and asking me, “When is the war going to stop?”
And really, it was heart wrenching, because I don’t have an answer for that. And when you ask them, “What do you do on your day-to-day routine?” And they say, “Well, we just spend it fetching water from either the desalination plant or any water point back home and then go back to get some more because it’s not enough, because we can’t carry much more.”
Of course, children are children. They want to play. They want to be happy. But it’s honestly, evidently, it’s becoming harder for them to be the children that they were supposed to be.
And really, it was heart wrenching, because I don’t have an answer for that. And when you ask them, “What do you do on your day-to-day routine?” And they say, “Well, we just spend it fetching water from either the desalination plant or any water point back home and then go back to get some more because it’s not enough, because we can’t carry much more.”
Of course, children are children. They want to play. They want to be happy. But it’s honestly, evidently, it’s becoming harder for them to be the children that they were supposed to be.
Obviously, life is very far from normal for these kids. Is there any schooling or studying happening right now in Gaza?
Not really. Of course, there are efforts to get some education back and UNICEF is trying to do that. But under the circumstances, even if we have some programs providing that education, it’s not reaching all the children in Gaza.
Just today, I met a child in a hospital, and this child has been thrown by a blast, and landed on his side, rupturing his liver and breaking his arm. And he was in agony, but at the same time, he was very sad and very upset that he lost one year of school. And he was like, “Do you think I need to redo this year?”
And I was like, “It’s OK as long as war stops.” And I was trying to encourage him. But children are really missing education, and we’re talking about Gazans who were proud of being able to study, and of their education, and even that, they’re being robbed of.
Just today, I met a child in a hospital, and this child has been thrown by a blast, and landed on his side, rupturing his liver and breaking his arm. And he was in agony, but at the same time, he was very sad and very upset that he lost one year of school. And he was like, “Do you think I need to redo this year?”
And I was like, “It’s OK as long as war stops.” And I was trying to encourage him. But children are really missing education, and we’re talking about Gazans who were proud of being able to study, and of their education, and even that, they’re being robbed of.
I’m wondering how many times you have been in and out of Gaza since the war started, and if anything is striking you differently this time.
To be honest, this is my first time in Gaza. But what I know from colleagues who have been here during the last 10 months, the situation just gets more dire. And what’s sad is the despair that grows with the situation, because we owe it to children not to let them fall into despair and lose hope.
While the world is discussing, children are dying. Children are suffering. Children are losing their childhood. And this needs to stop now.
While the world is discussing, children are dying. Children are suffering. Children are losing their childhood. And this needs to stop now.
This interview has been lightly edited and condensed for clarity.
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