UN humanitarian chief shares footage of devastation in Khan Younis
The UN humanitarian chief, Tom Fletcher, who has been in Gaza, has shared footage showing the ruins of Khan Younis in the wake of Israel’s military campaign:
Driving on the road from Gaza City to Khan Younis yesterday. pic.twitter.com/gDGGIm5VM1
— Tom Fletcher (@UNReliefChief) October 19, 2025
‘Nothing prepares you for Gaza’: UN humanitarian chief
Tom Fletcher, the UN humanitarian chief, crossed into Gaza City on Saturday. His diary for The Observer depicts the desperate situation on the ground.
“Nothing prepares you for Gaza,” he wrote after entering through Karem Abu Salem (known as Kerem Shalom in Israel) crossing. “The scale of destruction, the density of loss, the quiet resilience in people’s eyes.”
In Gaza City, he said he met a grandmother who apologised to him because she could not offer tea when they met.
“Her home was destroyed a week ago,” he said.
He said 950 trucks got into Gaza on Thursday, including 11 carrying fuel and gas, adding that at Castle Bakery in Deir el-Balah, the ovens are now turning out 300,000 loaves of bread a day. But the situation remains dire.
“Gaza is a wasteland. Roads choked with rubble,” Fletcher wrote, adding that what is needed is “not a trickle, but an avalanche of aid”, warning that we “owe it to those who have endured so much to move beyond the cycle of cruelty, terror and revenge”.
Costs of essentials still high and unaffordable in Gaza
Gaza’s government is stepping in to regulate prices of cash withdrawal commissions, offering some relief to shoppers in the Strip, but, for many, the cost of essentials remains high.
Al Jazeera’s Ibrahim al-Khalili, reporting from Deir el-Balah, said Gaza’s markets are slowly springing back to life and flourishing again. “In Deir el-Balah’s central market, crowds return, goods fill the stalls – but accessing money to pay for those goods – is a struggle,” he said.
Amna al-Dahdouh told Al Jazeera that Palestinians “started seeing all kinds of food to buy, but the commission is still high. It’s true that it’s dropped from 45 percent to 20 percent, but that still makes a lot of things unaffordable for many people”.
After months of having nothing to sell, market sellers are relieved to be trading again, but it’s still far from normal. “We wish the world would pressure Israel to allow cash flow into Gaza – that’s the real solution to the problem,” Mosa Afana, a trader, said.
