Last Saturday, 9 December, a joint World Health Organisation (WHO)/UN/Palestine Red Crescent Society convoy of six ambulances and a truck set off from southern Gaza to deliver desperately-needed medical supplies to the al-Ahli Hospital in the north, and to transfer critically-injured patients from there to a hospital in the south.

To get to al-Ahli, the convoy had to pass through the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) checkpoint at Wadi Gaza.

“The one thing we expect when we go through a checkpoint in any military setting is free access for humanitarian personnel and goods”, says Mr Morland, who has been a UN aid worker for 20 years.

But this time, he says, “we approached huge sand dunes with Israeli soldiers standing on the top with their machine guns squarely aimed at the Palestinian paramedics, at the UN vehicles, and at the UN trucks carrying medical supplies”.

As they were held there for over an hour, two of the Palestinian paramedics were led away for questioning. “We understand one was put on his knees, stripped and detained for some time until we were able to negotiate his release and carry on to Gaza,” says Mr Morland.

“These moves (of aid) are clearly co-ordinated with the IDF,” he says. “We provide all the details of what’s on the convoy, what it’s going to do, and indeed the names of all the members of the convoy… So what was really a dehumanising treatment of Palestinian colleagues was unacceptable.”