Born and raised in Gaza, Mohammed Maqadma is no stranger to the endless conflicts and turmoil in the region. But he says the havoc wreaked by Israel's latest military offensive in Gaza since July has reached such an unprecedented scale that it is beyond even his imagination.
As a doctor with more than 30 years of experience providing medical care for refugees and now heading the health department for the U.N. Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) in Gaza, Maqadma appealed for Japanese assistance in an interview during a recent visit to Japan.
"I have actually lived through three wars — this one, the one before and the one before that," Maqadma said, referring to the three major conflicts between Israel and the Hamas-controlled Palestinian territory in the Gaza Strip from 2008 to 2009, in 2012 and this year. "And I have never seen something like this, except in the movies."