Exclusive: Relief worker describes ‘horrific’ scenes in Gaza after week in Egypt coordinating aid deliveries into Rafah

A member of the UK charity Muslim Aid has described the “horrific” scenes in Gaza after returning from a week in Egypt coordinating aid going into Rafah.

Sam Cook, global programmes manager at Muslim Aid, who lives in Telegraph Hill, Brockley, returned home on Saturday.

Speaking to the South London Press, the 32-year-old said: “In Gaza at the moment, it’s horrific. 

“Since October 7, one in 40 people have been killed as a result of the war. 

“Every person is facing food insecurity. 

“Half of those are facing what we call catastrophic food insecurity, which means people are malnourished, people are starving and it’s likely this will lead to more deaths.”

On May 6, while Mr Cook was in Egypt, Israeli troops seized control of the Palestinian side of the Rafah crossing with Egypt – one of the main aid crossings into Gaza –  and ordered the evacuation of eastern Rafah, where about 1.4million displaced people were sheltering.

Mr Cook said: “When the border closed we had trucks in Cairo ready to go. There was nothing going in for five days.

“We had set up one warehouse in Rafah which had supplies and was ready to receive our next aid load drop.

“Last week we managed to secure a new warehouse in a different part of Southern Gaza which has now been termed the humanitarian area – so we shifted our supplies there.”

An estimated 150,000 Palestinians, many displaced multiple times, have fled Rafah, the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) said on Saturday.

Sam Cook discusses the difficulties with getting aid into Gaza (Picture: Claudia Lee)

Mr Cook said:  “I heard stories of people paying upwards of $1000 just to use a vehicle to transport their family a few miles up the road.

“No aid agency can support the shortage of fuel in a meaningful way.”

Since October 7, Mr Cook said the charity has adapted several times to navigate around blockades, sieges and displacement.

He said: “A lot of our work relies on cooperating with partners – we have workers and groups in Palestine who we coordinate with to provide aid and find out what is most needed on the ground.”

Aid deliveries Mr Cook has organised include food packages, which are easy to cook and last a family around a week, as well as hygiene kits.

Mr Cook said: “When you send aid into Gaza, Israel has a list of what is permitted. 

“If you want shelter or tents you might have a problem, the authorities might find something which is seen as having dual use – anything with metal. 

“If one item in a truck is not eligible, the whole truck is turned around. Our job is to work out these lists to avoid that happening.”

Mr Cook has worked with Muslim Aid delivering emergency responses and humanitarian work in “unstable countries” around the world. But, he said what is happening in Gaza is unique.

He said: “The famine conditions we are seeing in Gaza are completely avoidable if different political choices were made. It’s preventable if it was possible to get more aid in.

“When we work on natural disasters you have constraints like roads being closed, but they are reestablished. In Gaza you have blockages and the closing of borders.”

Mr Cook said his work with Muslim Aid is a small part of a much larger picture.

He said: “We rely on the incredible work of our staff and partner organisations in Palestine who are in need of assistance themselves. They are there with incredible strength and resilience and I am constantly in awe of my colleagues.”

Muslim Aid has been in Gaza since 2006. Since October 7, the charity has called for a ceasefire and the opening of humanitarian corridors.

Gaza’s Ministry of Health said on Saturday that at least 34,971 people have been killed and 78,641 wounded in Israeli attacks on Gaza since October 7. The revised death toll in Israel from Hamas’s October 7 attacks stands at 1,139 with dozens of people still held captive.

A Muslim Aid Ambulance in Gaza, Sam Cook Global Programmes Manager at Muslim Aid (Picture: Muslim Aid, Claudia Lee)