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Key Points
- An Australian UNICEF employee has told of the moment her vehicle was hit by gunfire while waiting at a checkpoint in Gaza.
- Tess Ingram, spokesperson for UNICEF, said the gunfire came from the direction of the checkpoint.
- Ingram said the incident shows how unsafe it is for humanitarian aid workers in the Gaza Strip.
A member of a UNICEF team whose vehicle was hit by live ammunition while waiting at a checkpoint in Gaza has recounted details of the incident, saying the gunfire came from the direction of the checkpoint and towards civilians.
Tess Ingram, spokesperson for UNICEF, was in the three-car convoy that was part of a coordinated mission between UNICEF and UNWRA to deliver fuel, nutrition and medical supplies to affected areas in the north of the Gaza Strip, including Kamal Adwan Hospital.
SBS has seen footage of a car with bullet holes Ingram claims she was a passenger in.
Ingram, an Australian who used to work as a newspaper reporter in Perth, said the vehicle was waiting at a designated holding point, just before a checkpoint, when gunfire erupted.
“The gunfire came from the direction of the checkpoint, towards civilians who then ran away from the checkpoint, and the gunfire hit us,” she recalled.
“We were really lucky. We had some colleagues outside of the car checking a mechanical problem with the nutrition truck when the [gun]fire broke out, and they had to run back to our armoured vehicle.”
“Fortunately they were safe, but three bullets hit the car that I was in, right on my passenger door, the window and also the bonnet of the car.”
Ingram said the incident shows how unsafe it is for humanitarian aid workers, whose missions to provide life-saving aid to civilians in Gaza are made “impossible” by violence.
“Safety is not guaranteed, even when we take all of the required steps, as we saw with the tragic ,” Ingram said, referring to an incident on 5 April when the Israeli military fired three missiles on a humanitarian convoy run by the leading international charity World Central Kitchen, killing seven aid workers including Australian Zomi Frankcom.
“This is just another example of an incident like that,” she said.
UNICEF said in a statement it had raised the incident with the relevant Israeli authorities.
“Sadly, humanitarians continue to face risks in delivering lifesaving aid. Unless humanitarian aid workers are protected, in accordance with [international humanitarian law], humanitarian aid cannot reach people in need,” it said.
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