Nurse from York on horrors of providing aid in Gaza

Kate White was deployed to Gaza earlier this year with Manchester-based frontline medical charity UK-Med.

The 44-year-old, from South Bank, has worked in different war zones and responded to Ebola outbreaks.

But, she said, these do not compare with the horrors of what is happening in Gaza.

Smoke rises following an Israeli airstrike in the Gaza Strip, as seen from southern Israel, Tuesday, Nov. 21, 2023 (Image: AP Photo/Leo Correa) “I’ve been to lots of tricky war zones, but Gaza is by far the worst I’ve seen,” Kate said. “I’ve been to Libya, Iraq and Syria but Gaza is like a conflict on steroids. The level of destruction that had happened in Gaza over four months took over four years in north-east Syria. It’s like a conflict on fast forward.

“There’s not been a cholera outbreak in Gaza for a long, long time, but infectious disease outbreaks are common in conflict and disaster zones where health and sanitation infrastructure are damaged and destroyed.

Kate White (Image: Adam Finch) “Our teams on the ground are already witnessing thousands of cases of scabies, hepatitis A and respiratory tract infections, which is why we do all we can to prepare medics in the UK for what they might encounter when deploying abroad. Preparation saves lives, that’s our mantra.”

Brisbane-born Kate is now preparing to return to Gaza after a month-long deployment in February.

Of that time, she recalled: “The conveyor belt of patients at Shuhada al-Aqsa hospital in the north of Gaza was relentless.

Kate White in Gaza (Image: Supplied) “This hospital is comparable in size to York and it was overflowing. And oh my God, the injuries.”

Kate said the severity of the injuries meant that even treating them in a Western hospital would be difficult.

“You might be able to keep them alive and give them some quality of life, but none of the things you’d ordinarily do were available in the whole of Gaza,” she added.

'Every second day the thought would pop into my head that we’d dodged death'

Kate explained how she regularly experienced nearby explosions during her stint in Gaza.

“Every second day the thought would pop into my head that we’d dodged death,” she said. “Gaza is a tiny space and the humanitarian designated zone is extremely close to explosions. It’s possibly the closest I’ve ever been.

“I think the weirdest thing for me is that it has become too normal for the population. You feel the explosion when you are really close. You feel it in the ground. It’s almost like it radiates through your body. In other places I’ve worked in, there would be fear and panic.

“But in Gaza, people just shrug and then carry on what they are doing. It is not normal to live like that.”

UK-Med’s work in Gaza is funded by the UK Government/Foreign Commonwealth and Development Office.

Development Minister Anneliese Dodds said: “In Gaza and elsewhere, aid workers from around the UK are operating in some of the most dangerous places in the world, treating the most vulnerable.

“The UK’s official Emergency Medical Team pools medical expertise from across the country to make a real difference in reacting to humanitarian disasters around the globe. The UK government is proud to support their crucial work.”