Aid workers trapped in besieged Gaza are living with the fear of Israeli bombardment, as they face an "unfathomable" situation with extreme difficulties finding food, water and dwindling medical supplies, an official with a humanitarian organization said Thursday.
Speaking to CNN's Kaitlin Collins, Mercy Corps vice president of global policy and advocacy Kate Phillips-Barrasso, said all 70 of the aid group's staff in Gaza have been displaced and had family members killed or injured in the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas.
"We fear for the worst for our colleagues in Gaza,” Phillips-Barrasso said.
Aid agencies have repeatedly warned that shortages of vital supplies including water are contributing to the unfolding humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza.
Phillips-Barrasso said one person had described waiting nearly 22 hours in a queue to get any sort of drinkable water.
Mercy Corps has also been collecting firsthand accounts from Palestinian civilians, who have spent more than a month living in deteriorating conditions.
One woman, referred to as Nasma, wrote that "at night, we try to guess which room is the safest. My mom insists on sleeping with us even though it is very crowded, so that if we die at night, at least we will die together."
"We rarely sleep," Nasma added. "Somehow we quiet our minds long enough to doze off; the explosion wake us up. We count the minutes to see the light and know we made it to see another day."
Mercy Corps also shared a voice note from one woman in Gaza who said, "What you guys are seeing on social media and on TV is actually 2% of reality. So we know that we are dying here. If we are not dead physically, we are dead inside.”
