I saw many atrocities as a senior aid official in Gaza. Now Israeli authorities are trying to silence us. Devastated hospitals, mass graves, bodies eaten by dogs in the street. After speaking out, I discovered my visa will not be renewed

Palestinians after a limited aid distribution in Gaza City, 1 August 2025. Photograph: Anadolu/Getty Images

by Jonathan Whittall

Devastated hospitals, mass graves, bodies eaten by dogs in the street. After speaking out, I discovered my visa will not be renewed

• Jonathan Whittall is head of office at the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) in the occupied Palestinian territory. He writes here in a personal capacity

Gaza has been held under water for 22 months, allowed to gasp for air only when Israeli authorities have succumbed to political pressure from those with more leverage than international law itself. After months of relentless bombardment, forced displacement and deprivation, the impact of Israel’s collective punishment of Gaza’s people has never been more devastating.

I have been part of coordinating humanitarian efforts in Gaza since October 2023. Whatever lifesaving aid has entered since then has been the exception, not the rule. More than a year after the international court of justice (ICJ) ordered Israel to “take all measures within its power” to prevent acts of genocide – and despite all our warnings – we are still witnessing starvation, insufficient access to water, a sanitation crisis and a crumbling health system against a backdrop of ongoing violence that is resulting in scores of Palestinians being killed daily, including children.

Powerless to change this, we humanitarians have resorted to using our voices – alongside those of Palestinian journalists who risk everything – to describe the appalling, inhuman conditions in Gaza. Speaking out, as I’m doing now, in the face of deliberate, preventable suffering is part of our role to promote respect for international law.

But doing so comes at a price. After I held a press briefing in Gaza on 22 June in which I described how starving civilians were being shot while trying to reach food – what I called “conditions created to kill” – the Israeli minister of foreign affairs announced in a post on X that my visa would not been renewed. The Israeli permanent representative to the UN followed up at the security council announcing that I would be expected to leave by 29 July.

This silencing is part of a broader pattern. International NGOs face increasingly restrictive registration requirements, including clauses that prohibit certain criticism of Israel. Palestinian NGOs that, against the odds, continue to save lives daily are cut off from the resources they need to operate. UN agencies are increasingly being issued only six, three or one-month visas based on whether they are considered “good, bad or ugly”. The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (Unwra) has been targeted through legislation, its international staff barred from entry and its operations slowly suffocated.

These reprisals cannot erase the reality we’ve witnessed – day in, day out – not just in Gaza but in the West Bank too... READ MORE  https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/aug/03/gaza-aid-israel-authorities-hospitals

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