I have worked in the world’s most dangerous combat zones. Never have I felt as unsafe as I did in Gaza | Amy Neilson

I have worked in medical humanitarian aid in Sierra Leone, Lebanon, South Sudan, Syria, Iraq, Ukraine, Libya and Jordan throughout the last decade. Some of these jobs have been imbued with serious, tangible risk to life and limb, or of kidnap, but never have I felt as unsafe as I did in Gaza.

Israel poses a palpable, unprecedented risk to humanitarian and medical workers in Gaza. The Israeli state has systematically demonstrated a complete disregard for the imperfect system that has long enabled me to deliver medical care to both civilians and combatants in conflict – that of international humanitarian law, AKA the rules of war. More that 240 aid workers have been killed in Gaza. Hospitals have been destroyed, medical staff murdered, detained without trial, and tortured in prisons. When Dr Al-Bursh was killed recently, the updated numbers reported were of 496 medical workers killed by Israel since Hamas’s attack on 7 October, and 309 arrested.