A humanitarian worker from Oxford has revealed what it is like working in Gaza first hand.

Liz Allcock, 46, has been working as the head of protection at Medical Aid for Palestinians (MAP) since April 2024, and regularly spends six weeks at a time in the conflict zone.

She has previously worked in several other conflict zones, including Yemen, East Sudan, Syria and Lebanon.

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Ms Allcock said: "I’ve been going to war zones and insecure environments for a long time, so I can draw quite a lot of comparisons between the situation in Gaza and in other places.

"Nothing is risk-free, but we take so many risk mitigation measures.

"It’s relentlessly intense and busy while we’re there, so there isn’t really time to think about my own safety.

"I don’t really feel that fear for myself at all."

The charity has acquired some guesthouses, which also serve as offices so that all the staff are able to stay in an MAP building.

Ms Allcock said: "Last time there was an office downstairs and I lived upstairs with the security officer and his family, and established quite a good relationship with the family, and the kids."

Ms Allcock first went to Gaza in 2015.

She said: "Everyone said I wouldn’t recognise it when I went back this year and I was like ‘yeah, yeah,’ but I really didn’t recognise it.

"I saw the name of a school that I recognised on a sign but the school had been destroyed.

"Other than that it was entirely unrecognisable, entirely destroyed."

Ms Allcock said that the conditions in Gaza are much harder than anywhere else she has been.

She said: "It’s not just that you’ve got poor sanitation conditions, it’s also 40 degrees and 90 per cent humidity and there’s no electricity half the time.

"You’re living off food aid like everybody else.

"Conditions are really hard but I think it’s important to highlight that it’s a choice and I can choose to leave.

"I know that in five weeks’ time I can leave and have a proper shower and a nice meal.

"There’s actually a lot of guilt around that – not a single person around me can think like that.

"That’s very hard."

Ms Allcock said that her family are used to her going to conflict zones.

She said: "They know that for me sitting in East Oxford and doing my consultancy from here isn’t what I want to do.

"It’s just what I’m supposed to do and they accept that."