A Nottingham-born aid worker who spent six months leading humanitarian relief in Gaza called the conflict the most challenging crisis he’s ever worked on.
Matthew Hollingworth, 49, has worked in humanitarian aid for 25 years.
He’s spent nearly 24 years with the World Food Programme (WFP) – a charity dedicated to providing food and other key aid to countries dealing with natural disasters or conflict.
But after spending only six months leading the WFP’s response to the unfolding crisis in Palestine, Mr Hollingworth labelled the crisis the most challenging he’s been deployed to.
He said: “There is no crisis in the world like Gaza.
“I still find it hard to comprehend the level of desperation and hunger, fear and isolation that the people were experiencing.
“I’ll never forget asking a child queuing at a WFP bakery what were his dreams for the future.
“You expect a child to say something like ‘I want to be an engineer or a doctor or a footballer’ or ‘I want to go on holiday.’
“But his response was simply ‘I dream of having a chicken sandwich’.
“When I asked when he’d last had a sandwich with any kind of meat, he could not remember.”
When asked why the conflict in Gaza was so challenging, he said: “The awful thing about Gaza is there is nowhere to move to.
“The entirety of that tiny 25-mile strip is a war zone and no man, woman or child can escape its intensity.
“I’ve worked in war zones as aggressive, as violent and as frightening – but the big difference is that when the lead is flying and bombs start dropping, people can usually move away.”
Conflict flared in Gaza after the October 7 attacks in 2023, where Hamas led an offensive against Israel, killing around 1,200 Israelis and taking more than 250 hostages.
This triggered a massive Israeli offensive which, according to the Hamas-run health ministry in Gaza, has killed more than 50,000 Palestinians.
Mr Hollingworth spoke as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu agreed to allow limited deliveries of food to the Gaza Strip after blockading the area for almost three months.
Working for the WFP has taken Mr Hollingworth across the globe, delivering vital aid to people in need in Bosnia, Iraq, Afghanistan, Syria and elsewhere.
After leading the WFP’s response in Gaza for half a year, Mr Hollingworth relocated to Beirut in July 2024, to be the WFP’s country-wide director in Lebanon.
Just two months later Israel launched an incursion in Lebanon to combat Hezbollah, the Lebanese Shia paramilitary group.
Mr Hollingworth and the WFP helped provide assistance to almost one million civilians displaced from southern Lebanon by the conflict.
