'Palestinians are scared'

Deutsche Welle: The Israeli army has been flying air strikes over the Gaza Strip for several days. How is that affecting everyday life?

Riad Othman: Most people are really scared, because it's impossible to guess where the rockets are going to hit. The Israeli army said this morning that it had flown 860 attacks so far. That's an unbelievable number of bombs, rockets, and mortar shells. Those attacks often aren't just one missile, but several missiles.

All our partner organizations in the Gaza Strip have said that this is bad enough for adults, because the constant bombardment means you can barely sleep at night. That means you're totally exhausted after the first night - and then it keeps going. But for our partners the worst thing is that they don't know how to care for the children.

The trust that children have - that their parents will protect them - it's this trust that is being seriously impaired by the bombardment. The parents are now facing this challenge that they can't take the fear away from their children anymore. The children have long since worked out that their parents are powerless in the face of the bombardment.

You have to remember that the population of Gaza is very young. Of the 1.7 million people now being attacked, 40 percent are 15 years old or younger. That means almost half the population are children. And I don't want to imagine what this is doing to brutalize, traumatize, maybe even radicalize this new generation of young adults.

There have already been many casualties in the Gaza Strip in the past few days. How are the victims being cared for?

This morning there was talk of 90 dead and over 600 injured. Where these people are treated depends on how serious their injuries are. If they are minor injuries, they can certainly be treated in one of the NGO facilities like those of our partners. That is mainly a primary health care center. People who are more seriously injured and need surgery have to be taken to public hospitals.

You have to consider what the Palestinian health ministry said on June 3 - long before the military conflict - that it lacked 85 percent of essential medication. And now the needs of hundreds of injured people come on top of that. In the Al-Shifa hospital, the biggest in Gaza, the intensive care unit is completely full. Another wing that has converted into an extended intensive care unit is now also full. And now they're in the middle of desperately converting other rooms into intensive care units.

Even without the air strikes, the people in the Gaza Strip live under the most difficult conditions, because of the Israeli blockade. How does that manifest itself?

The most elementary way is unemployment and the shortage of electricity and fuel - the two really go together. After the fall of Egyptian President [Mohammed] Morsi in June 2013, the Egyptian army destroyed the tunnels on the border with the Gaza Strip, and that almost led to the collapse of the economy. Tens of thousands of people lost their jobs. Not because they worked in the tunnels - the Israeli blockade of Gaza has stopped the import of construction materials, for example. If no more cement, steel, or gravel arrives via the tunnels, the people working on construction sites lose their jobs.

Fuel too, can now only be imported from Israel, and it's two or three times as expensive as what comes from Egypt. Many people can't afford to run generators anymore. And without power companies can't produce anything. That means they will let their workers go. Not only that, the people no longer have any access to traditional markets like the West Bank, but also Israel and Egypt, because all the borders are closed.

The lack of electricity also has an affect on the water supply. The running of desalination plants, for example, has had to be reduced by 40 percent since January. If you brushed your teeth in Gaza, you wouldn't use the water from the faucet. It's brackish and salty. And if you shower in the morning you feel like you've just stepped out of the Mediterranean.

Do the people in Gaza still have any hope that the situation will improve?

As long as the Israeli blockade holds? No. A lot of people were glad when the reconciliation between Fatah and Hamas came closer. That was the first time since 2007 that people said that now something might move. But as far as lifting the blockade goes, the people in Gaza aren't under any illusions.

Riad Othman is office director of the aid and human rights organization Medico International in Israel and the Palestinian territories and is based in Ramallah.