An Interview with Danila Zizi, former country manager at Handicap International in Palestine. This interview took place on the 15^th of February 2024 while Danila still occupied her functions as Country Manager.

Alain Boinet: Danila, for the benefit of our readers could you remind us how long Handicap International has been active in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank and tell us what your personal role was? What operations you were running in Gaza and the composition of your team on the ground before the 7^th of October?

Danila Zizi: Handicap International started operations in the occupied Palestinian territory in 1994, basically in the aftermath of the signature of the Oslo agreement. In Gaza, we started the process in 2007 and we were operational at the end of 2008. Before the escalation of the hostilities in Gaza, we were operating in three main sectors:

• One was a complex programming related to early childhood development that also addressed the entire sphere of the family. So basically, the child from detection until enrollment into school, but also support to the family with voucher assistance whenever the family did not have any source of income.
• We also had in a consortium a program on rehabilitation and inclusion, that was run in the Gaza strip.
• And lastly, we had inclusive education in emergency.

So, these were the three of our programming in the Gaza Strip prior to the hostilities. There was also a very huge component of preparedness, and this is what allowed us to be operational immediately when the hostilities started. We had five warehouses in each Governorate of Gaza, and we trained over the years 300 volunteers in a variety of topics. Our volunteers have knowledge in nursing, physiotherapy, we have social workers and psychologists. HI was able to operate in a variety of settings from really supporting safe evacuation if needed, down to early debilitation for injured people and in the middle of wounding, also including a provision of risk education sessions against the risk on mines.

Alain Boinet: Personally, how long did you stay in the field?

Danila Zizi: In and out I have been on the occupied Palestinian territory six years. This is not my first time. My first time in the OPT was at the end of 2014, after the 2014 war. I joined HI in Palestine in 2017 as a field coordinator for West Bank and then I came back in 2021 as country manager.

Alain Boinet: How did you live through the Hamas attack on Israel on the 7^th of October? Four months later, what are the consequences of the war for the population in Gaza as well for Handicap International and its team?

Danila Zizi: I think that, like everyone, we were completely shocked at the beginning of the scale of the operations conducted on the 7^th of October. The scale that was put in place on the 7^th of October immediately made us realize that the response and the retaliation would not be either quick or easy. There has always been a hostility situation when it comes between Gaza and Hamas and the State of Israel. But it has been an escalation that is unprecedented in the territory. Today, over 28,000 people have died. 11,500 of these people were children, so below the age of 14. There have been more than 68,000 injured people, 1.7 million displaced. By the latest accounts, 17,000 children are alone and unaccompanied, either because they have lost their families in the process of evacuating or because their parents are dead. These children are completely alone dealing with the consequences of these hostilities. More than 60% of the civilian infrastructures in Gaza have been either destroyed or severely damaged.

Since the beginning of January, HI co-leads the mine action working group in the Gaza Strip. Oversees, comparisons and analysis that the mine action working group have done together also with some other sources have reported 45,000 bombs dropped in the Gaza strip, and that doesn’t count the last month or so. Of course, now the number has increased. This number represents 7.5 times more than the number of bombs dropped in 2014 throughout the 55 days of the war in 2014. This is a major disaster. The failure rate of the bombs in 2014 was approximately 20% because of lower technology. By the way, not all of these bombs have been cleared out. So now with what is happening there are these previous bombs dropped in the Gaza strip that remain unexploded in the ground and on top of that, the failure rate now because of technology is lower. It is placed between 10 and 15%. Which all sums up to more than 3000 potential bombs unexploded in the territory. These are extreme consequences, there are immediate consequences, because whenever the population moves, they are not safe, they can run into unexploded bombs. But the situation is so dramatic that even if the population is aware of the risk – and HI has a very strong programming on risk education currently ongoing in Gaza together with other actors such as NPA or UNICEF, that are all doing risk education and CPP (Conflict protection and prevention) – Despite the awareness, people still chose to go and look in the rubbles for food, water, and anything viable despite the fact that in the rubbles you may find unexploded bombs and the people is so desperate that they are also not reporting whenever they identify, or they see an item. This also gives the scale of the dramatic situation in the Gaza Strip. The population still decide to take the chance to go and look for food and water, even though that might result in their death or severe injury. At the same time, it is unpleasant for the Gaza strip, the complete lack of food and the complete dependence of aid. There is no food or water that does not come from humanitarian aid at the moment in Gaza. So virtually 2 400 000 people are entirely depending on aid: no aid means no food or no water.

Alain Boinet: Have you managed to continue your action and to be in regular contact with your team in Gaza? Are you able to receive supplies from outside tanks through the humanitarian convoy?

Danila Zizi: Constant contact is unusual and doesn’t apply to the Gaza strip. We have lost contact with our colleagues in Gaza multiple times throughout these four months, sometimes even for one week straight due to the telecommunication cuts which are affecting the entire population. And here I need to stress that it is not just about us contacting our team, but also internally for them to check on their beloved ones. There have been days and days in which they could not even check if their beloved ones were still alive. From the mental health perspective, it is an atrocious situation. At the same time, due to our preparedness program before the escalation of the hostilities, HI was able to intervene quite immediately. We mobilized the volunteers and our warehouses quite soon after the beginning of the escalation. At the same time, due to HI’s emission in Egypt, we were supported in the purchasing and coordination for the transfer of trucks and humanitarian aid into the state.

We are importing items and providing early rehabilitation to injured people and people with disabilities that we identified inside the designated shelters. We provide assistive devices, nonfood items such as hygiene kits, dignity kits, kitchen sets for the ones that are displaced and do not have anything with them, dressing, first aid kits and all that is related to that. We are as well able to provide recreational activities inside, so basically modify our education activities to become recreational activities and include some PSS component into them for the children in terms of stress release. We are performing risk education as well such as CPP.

Alain Boinet: How many disabled people are there in Gaza? And what can you do for them?

Danila Zizi: Prior to the escalation of the hostilities, 21% of the population was recorded with some form of disability, so that amounts to more than 400,000 people. It is impossible to determine how many we are looking at now. The impressive number of injured people suffer from a variety of severe to mild injuries. All of them have a high percentage of possibilities to become permanent because the health system has completely collapsed, so it means that there is no trauma care that could prevent disability.

Until we get complete eyes on the ground, meaning access throughout the Gaza Strip, it is impossible to determine how many persons with disabilities are now in the state. We also must consider that people with disabilities are the most exposed to the conflict.

Imagine a deaf person who cannot hear the alerts, does not hear the planes just cannot deal with bombing. A person who is in a wheelchair cannot evacuate because they cannot move for kilometers on destroyed roads.

We will most probably have a scenario in which many people with disabilities were unfortunately killed during the hostilities and more are created because of the injuries created by these hostilities.

Alain Boinet: How is the humanitarian principle of neutrality, partiality and dependence applied? And what about the application of international humanitarian law in Gaza?

Danila Zizi: HI applies all those principles in the states where we provide Humanitarian aid. This is a question asked by many journalists to HI or, to international NGOs to provide suggestions on the terms of a ceasefire or a resolution of the conflict. Of course, we have our own impression, but this is not our role, our role is to provide humanitarian aid to whomever is in need, no matter where they are.

At the same time, it is undeniable that there is a strong suspect that international humanitarian law is disregarded in the Gaza strip by all parties since the 7th of October, the international humanitarian law has been disregarded. HI is not a human rights organization, so we do not document consistently, there are other actors that do so.

Alain Boinet: UNRWA employees are suspected of taking part in the Hamas attack on Israel on the 7^th of October, as a result, several countries have stopped funding UNRWA. What do the humanitarian workers on the ground think?

Danila Zizi: UNRWA is substantially the backbone of the response. It is the only actor in the Gaza strip that has enough logistic capacities to carry on a response. Enough vehicles, enough personnel to respond to the needs of the displaced people – not that that is near enough, the scale of the needs are so high that not even UNRWA alone could provide a thorough response. However, they are the backbone, they have supported humanitarian response in terms of vehicles, in terms of logistic support, so the responses could not happen without UNRWAs facilities.

They also – and this is the paradox – are the only actor entrusted by the state of Israel to manage fuel. They are the ones that distribute fuel to essential facilities such as hospitals and humanitarian organizations for moving.

This is where we have a paradox, on one side UNRWA is currently under attack and many countries have decided to suspend or freeze their fundings, and at the same time they are the only actors that do and can perform a comprehensive response on the ground. So obviously we all ask for the funds to UNRWA not to be suspended or even being moved to other entities. Simply no one can do what they do. On top of that, I do feel that it is quite dangerous that we base our decision on allegations without waiting for the investigation to be over.

Alain Boinet: More than 50% of Gaza buildings have been destroyed and the war now looks set to continue in Rafah. How do you see this and what do you think could happen?

Danila Zizi: I think many agencies and people on the ground have already defined this as a catastrophe because it is a catastrophe. An offensive into Rafah is unimaginable. There would be nowhere to go for the population, where are they supposed to go? There is literally nowhere, beyond Rafah, there is the border. At the east of Rafah, there are canyons, the barrier and armed hostilities, at west there is the sea, so they cannot move.

The point is that. The state of Israel is okay for a safe evacuation of civilians but has not said yet where these people should go and how they should move. It is substantially impossible to do that and on top of that, there is the fact that Rafah is the only area in which Humanitarian response is operating at the moment with some form of assistance and resources. Beyond that it would be simply impossible to respond to the needs of the population, it would be impossible to distribute food, water, and any basic need. I hope they reconsider, and I invite everyone to pressure the parties not to move forward.

Alain Boinet: As someone who has lived and provided humanitarian aid for years in Gaza and the West Bank, how do you see events unfolding and do you think a negotiated solution is possible in the future?

Danila Zizi: I haven’t allowed myself to think very much of the future. This is my personal perspective, so I’m not providing HI’s perspective on this. It is hard to think of the future unless there is a willingness to open dialogue and also to provide justice.

I have studied law for many years, so I’m a lawyer specialized in international humanitarian law, and I always remember that my professor said that there could not be peace without justice, any peace built without justice is a fragile peace. I do believe in that, if there is no justice for all parties, there will never be peace or future.

Alain Boinet: How would you like to conclude?

Danila Zizi: I would like to conclude by saying that sometimes we are very caught up into numbers. The number of people that have been killed, the number of people that have been injured and we forget the faces. Each number has a face, a name, a story, potentially some dreams in their lives that have been completely destroyed.

Most of the time, all of them are innocent. The people need to remember that the consequences of this war are devastating.

We have encountered many heartbreaking cases. One of the testimonies that we collected from the Gaza strip was the one of a person with a disability who had completely lost every single piece of his dignity. This man was refusing food and water whenever provided because he could not access the toilet. There are hours of cue to go to the toilet. People start queuing to go to the toilet at 5:00 AM in the morning, he could not do so. To avoid going to the toilet too often, he was avoiding eating and drinking. This is how you strip out the dignity of a person. We cannot forget that this is just one case and there are so many cases like that in the Gaza strip. So many women and children are reduced to beg in the street at the mercy of other people because they cannot reach out to aid. We cannot forget that. We need to stop it.

Alain Boinet: Thank you, Danila.

 

Danila Zizi

Danila Zizi has a 15-year career in the humanitarian field. She has been the Director of Humanity & Inclusion’s operations in the West Bank and Gaza since November 2021 and was previously Humanity & Inclusion Country Director in Lebanon. She has been working with Humanity & Inclusion for 6 years, primarily in the Middle-East. Danila is a specialist in international humanitarian law.