Death and destruction continue daily in Gaza: Red Cross

International Committee of the Red Cross spokesperson Pat Griffiths said this week that death and destruction continue to affect Palestinians in Gaza every day despite a decrease in hostilities since last year's ceasefire, warning that the suffering persists even when the enclave fades from international headlines. "Let's be clear: death and destruction for Palestinians in Gaza continues every day. The suffering is real, present and here every day – even when Gaza isn't in the headlines," Griffiths told Anadolu during a weeklong visit to Gaza City.

She noted that urgent humanitarian needs remain across the enclave, particularly for food, water, shelter and health care. "Life for Palestinians here is disrupted in ways that are hard to imagine. Children go without education. People go without access to specialist or chronic medical care. Families have lost homes, livelihoods – many are still missing loved ones, not knowing if they are detained or deceased," she said, adding that the ICRC adapts its humanitarian response to changing needs but that much more remains to be done.

Humanitarian access blocked

Griffiths said humanitarian access represents one of the biggest challenges facing ICRC teams working in Gaza, noting that permission from authorities and security concerns often prevent reach to those in need. "To help people in need, we need to be able to reach them – wherever they are, including in places of detention. That's not always possible," she said.

The spokesperson stated that granting humanitarian access is an obligation for parties to armed conflict and occupying powers, yet emphasized that this remains outside the organization's control. She added that shortages extend beyond access to the entry of essential supplies, with hospitals facing medicine shortages and heavy machinery restricted from entering to clear rubble or repair water systems, while fuel shortages disrupt electricity from generators.

Displaced face choice between tents and unsafe buildings

Thousands of Palestinians continue to live in tents after being displaced or losing their homes, with many forced to move multiple times over three years of extreme weather, Griffiths said. She noted that some families are returning to damaged buildings despite collapse risks because they lack alternatives, recalling a recent incident in Gaza City where more than 100 people were sheltering in a damaged structure that collapsed, killing several children.

"Choosing between life in a tent … or a building that is damaged and at risk of collapse, just to have a roof over one's head, is not a choice any family should have to make," Griffiths said. With winter approaching, she warned that heavy rain and winds could increase collapse risks and called for heavy machinery to clear rubble and durable shelter materials to enter the strip.

'Spread their wings and live'

Despite the hardship, Palestinians in Gaza continue to express "the desire for a normal life" — to attend school, work, and return home — while their dreams remain absent from international coverage, Griffiths said. She highlighted the solidarity among people helping families and strangers despite years of hardship, noting that this desire for dignity reflects the purpose of international humanitarian law.

Griffiths recalled a Palestinian journalist who read her a poem about a bird spreading its wings and flying, then revealed that he was the bird seeking freedom and dignity. "So many people in Gaza are like him. They have dreams and hopes and fears for their future. They want to spread their wings and live, but they can't," she said. The ICRC continues to call for international humanitarian law to be upheld in its dialogue with Israeli authorities.