An Australian aid worker says she is “really lucky” to have survived after her vehicle was shot at near a checkpoint entering northern Gaza.
Tess Ingram, who once worked as a journalist for the Perth bureau of the Australian Financial Review and WAToday, now works for the United Nations Children’s Fund.
She told Al Jazeera she was in a convoy of UNICEF vehicles and other aid vehicles on a coordinated mission to deliver fuel and water wells when shots were fired while waiting at the holding point near the checkpoint.
“We were waiting there when a shooting occurred nearby,” he said.
Tess Ingram says she is “really lucky” to have survived.
The shots hit the vehicle, but the UNICEF team was not injured.
‘The shots came from the direction of the checkpoint towards the civilians, who then fled from the checkpoint, and the shots hit us.
‘We were very lucky. We had some guys outside the car checking for a mechanical problem on the nutrition truck when the fire broke out and they had to run back to our armored vehicle. Fortunately, they were safe.
Australian Lalzawmi ‘Zomi’ Frankom, 43, was among those who tragically died earlier this month.
“But three bullets hit the car he was in, right in the passenger door, in the window and also on the hood of the car.
“This is just another example of how unsafe it is for aid workers and how missions like these become impossible.”
Ingram said the group had raised the issue with the relevant Israeli authorities.
“Safety is not guaranteed even when we take all necessary measures,” he said.
One of the planned stops was a hospital where children were dying from malnutrition, he said.
The shooting meant the group was unable to deliver supplies, but Ingram said they would try again.
Seven World Central Kitchen aid workers died earlier this month as their convoy left its Deir al-Balah warehouse after unloading more than 100 tons of food aid brought to Gaza by sea.
Australian Lalzawmi ‘Zomi’ Frankom, 43, was among those tragically killed after multiple drone strikes hit his convoy of vehicles in the war zone, after telling Israel that they were working in the area.
Britons John Chapman, 57, James Henderson, 33, and James Kirby, 47, died, as did Palestinian Saifeddin Issam Ayad Abutaha, 25, American Jacob Flickinger, 33, and Pole Damian Sobol, 35.