Olga Cherevko

Olga Cherevko, spokesperson for the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs in Gaza, draws on over twenty years of experience working in conflict zones across Liberia, Afghanistan, the Philippines, Somalia, Syria, Iraq, and Yemen to bear witness to what she describes as a level of destruction without parallel in her career. Beginning with the physical transformation of Gaza since her first deployment there in 2014, Cherevko traces the systematic obliteration of water, sanitation, and healthcare infrastructure, explaining how humanitarian teams are reduced to improvising repairs with the wrong materials because the right ones are blocked at the crossing. Cherevko challenges the public perception that humanitarian assistance is simply about food parcels, arguing that it is fundamentally about restoring dignity, and identifies the dual-use classification system and NGO registration restrictions as among the most consequential obstacles to scaling up the response. Addressing the psychological dimension of the crisis—the dimension she argues receives the least attention—Cherevko describes children who no longer flinch at explosions, parents shattered beyond recovery, and a population whose light of hope she watched dim month by month. She warns that a ceasefire does not end suffering, noting that the moment the world looks away is often the moment conditions deteriorate further, and closes with an appeal to keep Gaza on the global conscience long after the guns fall silent. Get full access to Savage Minds at www.savageminds.co/subscribe