By Wendell Steavenson
In the last week of April 2024, six months into the war between Israel and Hamas, Gavin Kelleher, a security manager for ACTED, a French humanitarian organisation, passed through the crossing from Egypt into Rafah. Kelleher, on the verge of turning 30, had worked in Bangladesh, Somalia and South Sudan – but this was his first time in Gaza. For 45 minutes he was aggressively questioned by Hamas border guards: had he ever been to Israel? Had he ever been in the British Army? Was he working for an intelligence service? Palestinian colleagues vouched for him. Barely had he been let through when he heard his first air strike. “And then closer strikes. The drones were so loud that I thought, ‘I am never going to get used to this.’”