I started working for the Palestine Red Crescent Society two years ago – just at the outbreak of the war in Gaza.
Since then, 56 of my colleagues have been killed, 31 while on duty, including two in the West Bank. They should have been protected. They should have been safe carrying out their humanitarian duty.
As international humanitarian law (IHL) co-ordinator, my role is to champion the rules of war. But over the past two years, I have watched those protective norms erode before my eyes.
From where I am based in Ramallah in the West Bank and across to the Gaza Strip, I’ve witnessed the highest human cost of this disregard. I’ve seen every day the challenges faced by my colleagues and the people they serve, and they are immense.
View from Palestine: How do we rebuild Gaza when more than 80% of buildings are destroyed?
Hamas armed wing says it will hand over body of hostage as airstrikes continue in Gaza
Israel says it has received the body of deceased hostage from Gaza
What the proposed Gaza security force means: Troops, timetables and governance
The humanitarian space is not just shrinking – it is actively collapsing. In the West Bank, our operations are a daily struggle.
Our emergency medical teams are obstructed constantly as they try to deliver medical aid – arbitrarily arrested, subjected to violence and denied access to the wounded and sick.
We see an increase in settler attacks on our medical missions, another sign of how far the protective norms of IHL have diminished.
Before the current ceasefire, our warehouses in the West Bank were stocked full of food parcels and relief items while those in Gaza sat empty, as our Gazan colleagues starved alongside the population they were trying to serve.
[ What the proposed Gaza security force means: Troops, timetables and governanceOpens in new window ]
In the face of huge suffering, we were severely challenged in carrying out the life-saving activities we were founded for, activities provided for under the 1949 Geneva conventions.
In Gaza, a sustained ceasefire is vital, but it is only the first step.
Looking at the wasteland and humanitarian disaster the Palestine Red Crescent Society is dealing with, it’s clear that what is most important now is facilitated, impartial humanitarian access so that urgent needs can be met.
But as we work to rapidly deploy long-awaited humanitarian relief, we are also looking at the long road ahead and asking what comes next. The scale of the crisis demands more than just humanitarian aid.
How do we rebuild Gaza when more than 80 per cent of its buildings are destroyed, when the ground is littered with unexploded objects and when children have not been to school in more than two years?
In Gaza City, at the Red Crescent Al-Quds Hospital, missiles lie unexploded on the ninth floor of an administrative building and on the roof of the emergency and ambulance facility.
The bombing from the skies may have stopped, but these deadly remnants continue to endanger lives. We run awareness raising campaigns, but the ordnance sits there, side by side with our colleagues and patients - and we have no means to remove it.
[ Higher education has been destroyed in GazaOpens in new window ]
Our current priority is the immediate relief of the civilian population and ensuring that all of their humanitarian needs are met. However, the international community must work together with us to enable the devastated Gazan population to begin to think beyond starvation and medical relief. Once we are past these humanitarian challenges, we will need a real recovery strategy for the entire Gaza Strip.
Of course, the Palestine Red Crescent Society and other humanitarian actors cannot be left to bear the brunt of this work alone; rather, this will require political support and unified efforts to rehabilitate Gaza.
This means allowing us to send our teams from the West Bank to give our team in Gaza a well-deserved break, and political commitment to hold Israel to its responsibilities to facilitate entry of all necessary experts, equipment and supplies to transform field conditions.
Humanitarians alone cannot be expected to devise such a complex plan; states must adhere to their duties and political will must steer the course.
Ireland, three years ago, led the way to a political declaration in which 83 states committed to avoiding the use of explosive weapons in populated areas.
Gaza is one of the most densely populated areas in the world. It leaves me wondering when we will see commitments such as this translating into actual protection on the ground?
[ Israel obstructing Gaza aid deliveries, humanitarian groups warnOpens in new window ]
We need to look honestly at the gap between what the law promises and the reality we see. International humanitarian law is meant to protect civilians, ensure humanitarian access, protect those delivering aid and regulate weapons use. In the occupied Palestinian territory, as in every armed conflict, those principles need to be more than words on paper.
We need international humanitarian law and we know it saves lives. How can we rebuild trust in the idea that even in war there are limits? How can we move from states’ commitments to international law to real protection for those caught up in armed conflict? How can we make sure that states live up to these legal responsibilities and hold others to account?
For those of us across the occupied Palestinian territory, what we need now is action. We need the courage of states to ensure that the laws designed to protect humanity in war are not optional but enforced.
Dana Abu-Koash is international humanitarian law (IHL) co-ordinator with the Palestine Red Crescent Society, based in Ramallah, the West Bank. Dana will be in Dublin today for the Irish Red Cross and International Humanitarian Law Conference titled From Commitments to Action: Protecting Humanity in Crisis
