'People returning to Gaza use GPS to find their homes as there are no longer any landmarks' 

Tom Fletcher, the head of the United Nations Office for the Co-ordination of Humanitarian Affairs, speaking at Iveagh House in Dublin on Tuesday. Picture: Moya Nolan

Driving through Gaza on roads recently cleared of rubble and dead bodies, the UN’s Tom Fletcher could see only twisted concrete and empty spaces as trucks brought in the first trickle of aid last week.

“You just drive for miles and miles through a war zone, there are vast parts of that where you don’t really see people,” he said.

“Now and again you see someone moving in the ruins of a house. You can see some tents.”

A ceasefire between Israel and Hamas has been in place following a landmark deal on October 13 although it is “fragile”, said Mr Fletcher.

UN humanitarian chief Tom Fletcher visiting a Red Crecent logistic centre at El-Arish in Egypt last week at the beginning of the Israel-Hamas ceasefire. Picture: Mohamed Arafat/AP

It has meant border crossings including at Rafah are reopening. Cooking gas was brought in last week “for the first time in months”, said the UN humanitarian chief.

“People have started to go back in the last few days, and many of them had to use GPS to try and find their homes because there were no landmarks,” Mr Fletcher told the Irish Examiner on Tuesday.

Hospitals, mosques, and schools have been largely destroyed.

Mr Fletcher recalled talking to a grandmother sitting on rubble in front of what had been her house. She apologised for not offering tea.

“Her house had been flattened and I just felt despair,” he said. “At the idea she should be apologising to me in that situation when I’m there as the representative of an international system and the world that hasn’t been there for her in the way that we should have been.

Trucks carrying humanitarian aid driving through Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip on Monday. Picture: Jehad Alshrafi/AP

“There’s that determination to put their roots back down again where they were.”

While aid is urgently needed, especially food and supplements, it is also vital that local businesses are helped to reopen, said Mr Fletcher.

“Now under the Trump deal we can bring in aid, the target is 600-plus trucks a day,” he said.

He visited the Castle Bakery chain which is now making thousands of pita breads daily again.

“Getting [this sector] moving will help us address the starvation levels faster,” he said, noting that eggs are still prohibited from deliveries despite requests from doctors.

Tom Fletcher, the head of the United Nations Office for the Co-ordination of Humanitarian Affairs at Iveagh House in Dublin on Tuesday. Picture: Moya Nolan

Mr Fletcher estimated food accounts for half of UN truck deliveries, including baby food.

“We’re doing a lot now on child malnutrition in particular,” he said, adding that there is a need for “human solidarity”.

Mr Fletcher, whose wife is from Youghal, Co Cork, recalled watching Live Aid and the difference Bob Geldof made then.

“We need to find some new way to galvanise that same sense of spirit,” he said.

He warned that the next few weeks and months are a high-risk time.

“We’ve got great support from the international community, and it’s clear the Americans see us [the UN] now as very leading the charge on the humanitarian surge,” he said. 

“So we’ll be there delivering as best as we can but it’s a mountain to climb. And we need that sustained generosity.”

Mr Fletcher was in Dublin to meet the Government and President Michael D Higgins.