‘Smell of death everywhere’: Aid worker describes devastation in Gaza

ISTANBUL

Caroline Seguin, an emergency coordinator for Doctors Without Borders (MSF), described the severe destruction in the northern Gaza Strip, including deliberate attacks on medical facilities and a critical shortage of humanitarian aid.

Seguin said there is no health system anymore in the north, in a report published Wednesday on the medical charity’s website.

She recounted harrowing scenes from the Indonesian Hospital, where she said every medical machine appeared to have been “deliberately” destroyed.

“They were smashed to pieces, one by one, to make sure no medical care could be provided anymore,” said Seguin. “You have to ask, what is the motivation of such action? These machines are made to save people’s lives, mothers, fathers, children. It’s devastating to see the state of these hospitals.”

She described the overwhelming destruction. “In Gaza City we were already shocked by the level of destruction, but then we went north to Jabalia, we couldn’t say a Word,” she said. “There is nothing there anymore. Only ruins and the smell of death everywhere because of the dead bodies still trapped under the rubble.”

Despite a ceasefire agreement, Seguin reported that humanitarian aid remains critically insufficient in the north.

“After four weeks since the implementation of the ceasefire, we are still not seeing the massive scale up of humanitarian aid needed in northern Gaza,” she said.

“The humanitarian community is failing to provide vital services to a population in dire need of humanitarian and medical support. Both Israel and international actors need to urgently ensure the delivery of vital supplies such as shelter and food and to increase the capacities for its distribution,” she added.

Palestinian medics and rescue teams recovered two more bodies from the rubble in Gaza, bringing the death toll from Israel’s genocidal onslaught since October 2023 to 48,222, the Palestinian Health Ministry said Wednesday.

A ceasefire agreement has been in place in Gaza since Jan. 19, halting the Israeli war that has caused widespread destruction and left the Palestinian enclave in ruins.

The International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants in November for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant for war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza.

Israel also faces a genocide case at the International Court of Justice for its war on the enclave.