This time, going into Gaza, I brought earplugs and a face mask.

When I last visited northern Gaza, including Shifa Hospital, I learned the hard way how thunderingly loud it was inside a “Namer” armored personnel carrier (APC) and decided that on the trip to Khan Yunis, being able to hear myself think was a priority.

Likewise, the dust that I inhaled on my last trip to Gaza – the area is so destroyed that both open and mostly closed vehicles get covered in dust – convinced me to pull out the “rainy-day” coronavirus masks that I still had lying around so I could breathe normally.

The Namer soldiers all had earphones, and many of the soldiers had their faces completely covered with thicker material than a cloth mask.