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OCHA - Press Conference: Humanitarian situation in the occupied Palestinian territory - 18 March 2024
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Press Conferences , Edited News | OCHA
OCHA - Press Conference: Humanitarian situation in the occupied Palestinian territory - 18 March 2024
STORY: Humanitarian Coordinator OPT
TRT: 2:54”
SOURCE: UNTV CH
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH / NATS
ASPECT RATIO: 16:9
DATELINE: 18 March 2024 GENEVA, SWITZERLAND
- Exterior medium shot: UN flag alley
- Wide shot: speaker at the press conference
- SOUNDBITE (English) – Jamie McGoldrick, Humanitarian Coordinator a.i. for the oPt (speaking from Jerusalem): “The IPC mentions that famine is imminent if the steps are not taken. But I would also say that for a lot of young children there, especially the under two year olds, who have shown some serious signs of malnutrition, dehydration and anemia and pregnant mothers and new mothers, I think that the damage to the development potential of a lot of these young people has probably been affected in something they might never ever recover from and reach their full potential.”
- Medium shot: moderator at the podium during the press conference
- SOUNDBITE (English) – Jamie McGoldrick, Humanitarian Coordinator a.i. for the oPt (speaking from Jerusalem): “This one IPC records the highest number of people facing catastrophic hunger ever recorded by an IPC anywhere at any time in the world. So, it shows the severity of that, especially in the north part of the country, where over 70 per cent of the people are in real difficult circumstances there.”
- Wide shot: Journalists in press room
- SOUNDBITE (English) – Jamie McGoldrick, Humanitarian Coordinator a.i. for the oPt (speaking from Jerusalem): “The environment we're working is very, very uncertain, unstable. We're not sure how to plan for more than 48 hours, 72 hours because of the uncertainties there. And with the fear of a Rafah incursion, it makes it all the more difficult. If there is a some sort of humanitarian pause or some sort of ceasefire in the future, obviously, we'd like to exploit that.”
- Medium shot: Camera woman filming
- SOUNDBITE (English) – Jamie McGoldrick, Humanitarian Coordinator a.i. for the oPt (speaking from Jerusalem): “The very low number of trucks that we get in, the 200 trucks, is far smaller than the 500 before October seven, and with very little in the way of private sector it will be very difficult for us to actually do anything meaningful unless we can scale up very, very quickly. And that means opening up as many borders as we possibly can.”
- Medium shot: journalists in the press room
- SOUNDBITE (English) - Jamie McGoldrick, Humanitarian Coordinator a.i. for the oPt (speaking from Jerusalem): “We would rather spend time getting the roads opened, get the roads graded because they've been heavily destroyed by the military activity and by the weather. And we'd also have to look at the unexploded ordnance to be removed as well. And having all roads and all entry points to the north and elsewhere open, that is the best way to address the humanitarian crisis, the famine that you mentioned is imminent, as the report indicates.”
- Close up, journalist in press briefing room
- Jamie McGoldrick, Humanitarian Coordinator a.i. for the oPt (speaking from Jerusalem): “We haven't been allowed by Israel to bring in sufficient ability for us to communicate with each other. And we are sending people on convoys to the north into quite hostile areas, and we have no means of tracking them, no means of talking to them if something untoward was to happen. So, while Israel talks about enabling environment, I just have to point out some of those facts.”
- Medium shot, technical staff monitoring briefing
- Medium shot, journalists listening
STORYLINE
GAZA: Famine is imminent as half of Gaza experience catastrophic food insecurity, warn UN humanitarians.
The latest food security report from the Integrated Phase Classification (IPC) on war-ravaged Gaza published on Monday indicates that more than half of all Palestinians in Gaza –1.1 million people– have completely exhausted their food supplies and are facing catastrophic hunger.
“The IPC mentions that famine is imminent if the steps are not taken. But I would also say that for a lot of young children there, especially the under two year olds, who have shown some serious signs of malnutrition, dehydration and anemia and pregnant mothers and new mothers, I think that the damage to the development potential of a lot of these young people has probably been affected in something they might never ever recover from and reach their full potential,” said Jamie McGoldrick, U.N. aid coordinator for the Occupied Palestinian Territory, speaking from Jerusalem to journalists at the United Nations in Geneva.
He added that “this one IPC records the highest number of people facing catastrophic hunger ever recorded by an IPC anywhere at any time in the world. So, it shows the severity of that, especially in the north part of the country, where over 70 per cent of the people are in real difficult circumstances there.”
Palestinians in Gaza are enduring horrifying levels of hunger and suffering. The IPC report noted that virtually all households now skip meals every day in Gaza. Adults have reduced their meals so that children can eat.
The IPC acute food insecurity analysis conducted in December 2023 warned of a risk that Famine may occur by the end of May 2024 if an immediate cessation of hostilities and sustained access for the provision of essential supplies and services to the population did not take place. Since then, the conditions necessary to prevent famine have not been met and the latest evidence confirms that Famine is imminent in the northern governorates and projected to occur anytime between mid-March and May 2024.
“The environment we're working is very, very uncertain, unstable. We're not sure how to plan for more than 48 hours, 72 hours because of the uncertainties there. And with the fear of a Rafah incursion, it makes it all the more difficult. If there is some sort of humanitarian pause or some sort of ceasefire in the future, obviously, we'd like to exploit that,” said the UN’s aid coordinator.
Particularly concerning is “the very low number of trucks that we get in, the 200 trucks, is far smaller than the 500 before October seven, and with very little in the way of private sector it will be very difficult for us to actually do anything meaningful unless we can scale up very, very quickly. And that means opening up as many borders as we possibly can,” Mr. McGoldrick emphasized.
In reply to a journalist question about aid deliveries via airdrops and maritime as alternatives to the limited road access, Mr. McGoldrick said that “we would rather spend time getting the roads opened, get the roads graded because they've been heavily destroyed by the military activity and by the weather. And we'd also have to look at the unexploded ordnance to be removed as well. And having all roads and all entry points to the north and elsewhere open, that is the best way to address the humanitarian crisis, the famine that you mentioned is imminent, as the report indicates.”
The only real way to get heavy loads of material, food and others into all parts of Gaza would only be by road, Mr. McGoldrick emphasized.
To allow more aid deliveries by trucks, as many borders as possible would need to be open, and there’s also a need for additional crossing points towards the north.
“We haven't been allowed by Israel to bring in sufficient ability for us to communicate with each other. And we are sending people on convoys to the north into quite hostile areas, and we have no means of tracking them, no means of talking to them if something untoward was to happen. So, while Israel talks about enabling environment, I just have to point out some of those facts.”
-ends-
Teleprompter
Good afternoon, everyone, and welcome to this press briefing, which is hosted out of the UN Headquarters in Geneva.
We have with us today Jamie McGoldrick, who is with us in his capacity as Humanitarian Coordinator at the Interim for the Occupied Palestinian Territory.
He joins us from Jerusalem and I can see Jamie on the screen there.
We have half an hour, after which he has another commitment.
So we will stick to that.
Mister McGoldrick will set us off with some introductory remarks and then we'll take your questions, either those who are in the room or online, just raise your hand and we'll get to you in the order that you raise your hand.
So with that, I will hand over to Mr McGoldrick in Jerusalem.
Yeah, thanks a lot, Jens.
I was in Rafa, Gaza last week.
I went there my usually week weekly visit for two days.
I spent some time in Rafa before heading to Gaza to the north Gaza City.
I hadn't been in Gaza City since 2019 and I went back this time to have a look at the conditions they are to go to Shifa Hospital, etcetera.
I was shocked by the the state of the buildings and the conditions of the roads and the infrastructure.
I didn't recognise any landmark since and I was like their regular up until 2019-2020.
So it was incredible the amount of this industrial skill destruction of that place.
I, we spoke to a lot of people there regarding how to get more aid into Gaza because it's been without aid for such a long time has been very, very little in the way of convoys or food aid and other medical supplies or fuel into Gaza.
And I wanted to hear from some of the, the community leaders and some of the NGOs there to find out how the situation was for them.
And we came up with hopefully some way forward how to improve the security and the distribution of goods inside the Gaza.
As you know, there have been a lot of looting and self distribution has been taking place at Kuwaiti Junction and elsewhere by young men in particular and a lot of the ages not getting through to the most vulnerable.
So that was one thing we, I think we're, we're making some headway on how we can make that happen.
The second thing I did was when I was there, I went to Shiva Hospital.
I used to go there regular, especially during the great March of Return and I met with Doctor Marwan and his colleagues there and saw myself first hand.
The conditions inside the hospital, the hospital has been badly affected by the hostilities and we're here today again.
There is more hostilities in and around the hospital as well.
There was quite a lot of displaced people there, a lot, although a lot less than I expected.
I visited the operational parts of the hospital which there are not many because they are running on very little fuel and the generators, they used to conserve energy use only sparingly in some parts of the hospital.
But the places that I went to where the obviously the emergency room and places where people are recovering and the operation rooms, that's three areas that were the mostly functioning.
While I was in the Shiva hospital, there was a young man lying on the floor who just been shot in both legs.
He was lying on the floor.
There were no bed space for him.
He was then later carried in a blanket to the operating theatre where he was operated on.
I then went around some of the other hospital areas to see people who had recovered from injuries and who had been affected by the hostilities.
There's a young girl there who you couldn't recognise her face she was so badly burned.
She had been caught up in a, an air strike and burned the the building she was in and she and her siblings were injured and some of them died.
I then went next to another young girl who was she was Down syndrome and she was on the bed with her mother and she had a, an infection, her lungs, which her lungs were basically filling up with fluid and the fact she was drowning in her own her own body.
And there was no way the doctors were there trying to find a way of addressing her issues, but they couldn't.
The only way it could be done is to be transferred to another hospital.
And because the mother was on her own and she had her own children, other children, she couldn't understand or couldn't work out a way of taking that child to another place.
So bottom line is that child will will not survive much longer.
And Rafa itself, every time I go there, you normally see it getting more and more congested in the urban area.
But surprisingly now you see the numbers going down because people are fearing the possibility of a Rafa incursion and that will be a real worry for them obviously, who are moving away to Ambawasi and other areas.
Ambawasi currently has about 400,000 ID PS displaced people.
So it's not an area that can can accommodate many more people who'll come there.
And the other thing is the fact that this is the entry point for all of our assistance into Gaza.
And if there was to be an encouraging, that would be that system we have, which is already precarious and intermittent would then be broken.
And the fact that we don't have much in the way of a lot of stocks inside Gaza because the supply chain is so weak that for us to build up stocks is virtually impossible.
As soon as the goods come in the 200 trucks a day or whatever the case may be, it's not enough to satisfy the, the, the numbers that we have to address.
And so as soon as goods come in, they don't get stored anywhere very for very long, the two or three days stock at any point in time.
And we then distribute them either in the southern part of Gaza or to the north.
And so it would be a really difficult scenario for us to envisage the possibility of hundreds of thousands of people being forced from Rafa because of the incursion to go to other areas.
We are not in a position to contingency plan that we're not in a position to pre position shelter, material, food, medical supplies and and especially water during this very, very hot.
So it will be a real problem for us.
And we've had, you know, lots of stories in the press.
Now, these are the coalition humanitarian islands.
And that's meant to be some sort of plan that the Israeli authorities have to move people from Rafa for the incursion and move to these areas.
Well, for us, that's not something the UN will participate in because we're not part of any forced displacement.
However, we know that if people do move, we'll have to follow them and bring as much attention and support as we can all over, however difficult that will be.
The, the environment we're working is very, very uncertain.
It's unstable.
We're not sure how to plan for more than 40 hours, 72 hours because of the uncertainties there.
And with the fear of a Rafa incursion, it makes it all the more difficult.
If there is a, some sort of humanitarian pause or some sort of ceasefire in the future, obviously we'd like to exploit that.
But again, because of the very low number of trucks that we get in the 200 trucks is far smaller than the 500 before October 7.
And with very little in the way of private sector, it'll be very difficult for us to actually do anything meaningful unless we can scale up very, very quickly.
And that means opening up as many borders as we possibly can.
It means getting the the fence Rd, the military Rd that to be more operational than it is.
It's already started to have the beach roads and also the middle Rd, which is Sacred Dean Rd to be fully to be fully working.
And then Keram Shalom itself would have to be increased in capacity as limited because of the scanning possibilities they have there.
They can scan about 200 and 5300 trucks a day.
We would have to, to get them work more hours in the day and allow us to bring more trucks in there.
And so and not at the same time.
There's there's a need for more additional crossing points.
Ashdod in the north coming directly into the north would be a real help because you can scan and an Ashdod and allow the stuff to come in and inspection taking place there.
And equally, if we could get the the Jordan pipeline opened in a much bigger way than it is at the moment, we're roughly about 50 trucks a week and we need about 20 or 30 trucks a day.
Those trucks can be scanned directly in in a man or in Allenby and then can come directly by road and use the Military Rd without coming through Kerim Shalom.
And that way I think it would help us greatly in in the sense of that would help us bring more in and without clogging or log jamming.
What's happening in care of Shalom?
We hear and we see a lot of news about air drops and we see the this idea of maritime as possibilities.
We would have to say that, you know, the only real way to get heavy loads of material, food and others into all parts of Gaza was only by Rd Air and maritime are not alternatives.
They're they're probably a meant additions to the roads, but they can't be seen as alternatives to.
So we have to put that in perspective.
We were lucky yesterday that the the road, the military Rd on the east side of Gaza was open for us to have 18 trucks from WFP and others to deliver assistance into the north.
And that was very helpful.
But it's not consistent because like on Thursday last week, we had 16 trucks lined up and they were then postponed and that road wasn't to be able to use until the Sunday.
So we have to get all roads open and get all opportunities open for us to to actually do more into current situation, but at the same time to to do it in a way that actually exploits the possibility of a humanitarian pause or best places in a way that we can deal with any rough incursion that takes place.
We know that the IPC report is coming out and we see that that report shows quite clearly that more than half the population of a 1.1 million people have exist exhausted all of their food supplies.
And we also see that the this a case where the IPC methodology and the science and the used in that is, has been used in so many places in other parts of the world.
And it's been seen as a well tested and well used and very reliable way of measuring what's happening in terms of food insecurity of populations in difficult circumstances.
And this one actually records the highest number of people facing catastrophic hunger ever recorded by an IPC anywhere, anytime in the world.
So it shows you the severity of that, especially in the north part of the country where over 70% of the people are in real difficult circumstances there.
And then it should also be noted that there's no surprise because we haven't had any great deal of sufficient stable food supplies and other supplies into the North for months.
And that on top of living extremely squalid, unsanitary conditions with hospitals partly functioning with people relying on less than one litre per person of clean water a day, it's no surprises that those numbers are there.
And the numbers they're saying is that if we don't address these problems, don't address them properly, that famine is imminent by some time in May and it can be halted.
And we have to use all best methods we have at our disposal, which is all the trucks that we can get in there, all openings that need to be there.
And that's hopefully that will be the case.
We also need a significant supplies of fuel for water and sanitation for insurance.
The hospitals can continue to function a way that's better than is the case at the moment.
And we also have to have the UN in order for us and our partners to do or what we have to have, create an enabling environment for us to operate.
And that's with their safety and with deconfliction and with the ability for us to deliver assistance quickly and clearly into the area itself.
We have to get more food in there and prevent desperation from creating insecurity and self distribution and looting.
So that's what's the thing we have to do.
So I think I'll stop there and take questions if that's OK.
Thank you so much Jamie.
I have 3 on on my list, but first we go to the room for a question here.
Please over to you.
Thank you very much.
Yeah, My name is Satoko Adachi.
I work for Yamiri syndrome.
I want to ask about the the deconfliction, especially the the northern Gaza.
I understand that the the Palestinian police forces in Gaza have stepped down because the they are being targeted by the Israelis.
So who is actually escorting the humanitarian aid convoy that you're actually going into the north?
And how is the aid distribution actually working in the north?
Thank you.
So take them one by one or.
Yes, please.
Jamie, OK then yeah, on on the question regarding deconfliction, Yeah, we've been trying to, we've been trying to get the the blue police back on track again.
As you know, there have been a number of incidents where the blue, blue the blue police have been targeted by Israel because they regard them as part of the Hamas infrastructure.
So we are trying to find the best way suitable to have delivery of assistance into the North and other parts of Gaza Strip that's a combination of using community groups etcetera and where we can use the police in a discreet manner as well.
In terms of escorting aid into the north, we used the military Rd yesterday and that's on the Israeli side and we used the the IDF up to the point we came to Gaza and then we can connected.
We continued ourselves independently and then deliver the the the actual aid up through Sacledine Rd to where we offloaded it to various groups.
The distribution right now is it takes a number of different things.
There's ongoing self distribution as you know in some of these places like Kuwaiti Junction, but in this case here we were able to bring the rest of the trucks to Gaza City and to to Jovalia.
We are working with the community leaders, we're working with local NGOs and local groups to set up distribution systems so that we can make sure that we reach all the families concerned.
Thank you.
Then we'll go online, first to Jamie Keating from Associated Press and after that to Nick from The New York Times.
But first, over to you, Jamie.
Thank you, Yens and thank you, Mr McGoldrick for for coming to see us.
I just wanted to, I, I kind of came in and out, but I just wanted to obviously you've seen the IPC.
Findings today in the.
World Food Food Programme comments about famine being imminent, and I just wanted to try to find out specifically what can be done to avert that eventuality.
I know that you kind of touched upon this, but if that was your priority number one for North Gaza?
What?
Can be done.
To, to, to, to.
To avert that eventuality and if I could just add in.
What could you describe a little?
Bit about how it it works with the Israeli authorities.
I mean, are they?
Changing.
The goal posts are they giving you like extremely difficult criteria to be able to ship food in from from?
Israel proper, just can you kind of give us a?
Description as to what they're telling you is is preventing the shipment of of of food in particular and water into into N Gaza.
Thank you so much.
Yeah, thanks a lot.
The the the well actually the IPC is it mentions the famine is imminent if the steps are not taken.
But I would also say that for a lot of young children there, especially the under twos who have shown some serious signs of malnutrition, dehydration and anaemia and pregnant mothers and new new mothers.
I I think that the the damage to the development potential of a lot of these young people has probably been affected and something they might never ever recover from and reach the full potential.
But I think that what what can be done is what should be done is that we have to open up the gates of all roads and all possibilities to get food in from Ashdod into the north, to use the Military Rd, the Middle Rd and to use the the the coast road to expand the possibilities of private sector in as well.
So that we can get back to close to the 500 trucks a day we need rather than the 200 or so we have at the moment.
Unless we can put significant supply increases into those areas, those people who are catastrophic levels of malnutrition or food insecurity will face real serious problems and imminent death.
If that's not the case, we have to have, and it's not just food, it's health support, it's water, it's nutritional targeting, especially of vulnerable groups like some young children.
In terms of the Israeli authorities, we've started to work with them to, as you can see, we've got one Rd new road open up, the Military Rd.
And we're trying to encourage them to allow us to get the Middle, Middle Rd, the sacred Dean Rd.
And it's only through those discussions that we can assure ourselves of getting more food into the North.
And then at the same time, we have to find ways of expanding the entry point of goods into Kerum Shalom.
Kerum Shalom is the only Ave we have right now.
We're bringing food directly in from the outside, from Rafa, from elsewhere, Amman into Gaza.
And there's significantly not enough.
The scanning capacity is only up to 202 hundred 300 trucks a day.
So we have to find ways of expanding.
They are getting alternatives.
The alternatives are Ashdod and an Allenby and Jordan where you can use this really scanners can use those to inspect the trucks and then send them in directly without having to come round through Karen Shalom again.
And that's the way we have to move.
Thank you very much, Nick.
Coming, Bruce, and after that MFRS from Reuters.
Yeah.
Thank you for taking the question.
I wondered first if you could just say a little bit about what you have heard from Israeli authorities about the you mentioned islands where people could move from Rafa.
What are the Israeli authorities telling you about that and how do you have any sense of a plan on that part to to get people to move to these islands and when that's likely to be implemented?
Secondly, you know, people have been talking about the need to open all these roads and access points for weeks now.
Why is Ashdod not open?
Why is the military Rd not being used consistently?
And what is holding up the delivery of aid from from Allenby at this point?
Thank you.
Yeah, thanks very much.
Yeah, I mean, the humanitarian islands we haven't heard too much about other than what we've seen in the media.
We haven't had a briefing on these yet.
We've had in the talk before on some other possibilities.
There was humanitarian tented villages.
I know this is the new humanity and islands.
I honestly don't know where they are supposedly being established for who they'll be established.
Is it north of the Wadi Gaza or South of the Wadi Gaza?
And how will they move people from wherever they are now to these villages?
Will be pushed, forced, encouraged, or will it just because of evacuation, if the evacuation of the incursion takes place in, in Rafa?
I, I, to be honest with you, I don't know that there's enough tents in this, in the worldwide market to accommodate people.
And I don't know if there's enough space being created for anything to accommodate a number that we might see coming out of Rafa.
So we're hoping to get more information on what those plans are for the Rafa incursion.
And she said there's any possibility of us being better prepared in order for us to pre position material in areas.
But I would say it's, it's a big ask from that side.
We've been calling, as you said, opening for all the roads and including all the entry points around and into Gaza.
Ashdod, I think is partly because of, you know, there's a sort of an optic of scene that goods come in from Israel, from Ashdod.
But it's a well functioning port.
It's, we've used it in the past for decades when we use it for supply material into Gaza.
And I hope it's something that comes back on stream again because it would be a massive improvement to the numbers of trucks that we get in at this point in time.
And geographically in proximity wise, it's so close to Gaza.
That would make perfect sense.
On the military Rd, I said we've just started using that road and it is as you know, a military Rd.
So it's been used for other purposes other than a humanitarian, and so IDF has to accommodate us to use that road.
So it's going to be something we will work slowly with, but hopefully we can get a chance to use that in a way that will help benefit the UN and other partners to deliver systems quicker into Gaza.
Because that military Rd is not doesn't suffer the same congestion and insecurity as you go through the coast road or the sacred Dean Rd inside Gaza itself.
And hopefully a man, Jordan and the Allenby could be something again that gets ramped up.
And we're looking forward to Sigrid CAG, maybe her efforts to try and get that unlocked at some point in the near future as well.
Thank you, Jamie.
Over to Emma Farge from Reuters and Imogen after that.
Yeah, Thank you.
First of all, a clarification please on what you mentioned about security and community groups.
We're hearing about new popular committees, which is sort of Palestinian clans and factions.
Often wearing masks.
Taking it upon themselves to secure aid to the North.
Are we talking about the same thing?
And, and if not, could you just clarify a bit?
And secondly, I'm wondering about rejected aid building up in warehouses in Al Arish.
Just wondering, is this a growing problem?
And, you know, how many tonnes are there?
And are you raising this with Israeli authorities?
Thanks a lot.
Yeah, maybe just on that.
We raise it every single minute of every day.
We get a chance to.
We have a focal point in our office who takes it up all the time with the Israeli authorities.
You're right in Ala Rich, there is a critical humanity and items that are there and we we've been finding quite difficult to get some key issues or key commodities in.
And sometimes these include medical equipment, sometimes include water and sanitation, spare parts and chemicals to treat water for the distribution.
And then one of the bigger areas is the power generation, either through, you know, actual generators themselves or solar panels.
We find it very difficult to get those in because they're seen in the eyes of Israel as dual use.
We'll continue to work with them and hopefully we can get that addressed because there's a massive amount of goods in Al Arish warehouse and we are paying storage for it or not as donor funding is paying storage for it.
So we're hopefully going to get a chance to actually get a way of addressing how we can, you know, take the sorry, take all of the items out, which are if they weren't there, we wouldn't be ordering them.
We, we need them because the part and parcel of our operations and our operations are suffering accordingly, especially for powering and water sanitation and the health elements as well.
On, on your question regarding the, the clans of us, we're not working with clans and families in the different parts of, of different parts of Gaza, both North and South.
We're working with local NGOs, but there's a PNGO, it was Pingo, the Palestine national and national NGO body that we work closely with.
We've had partnership with them for a long time and there's about 30 or 40 accredited members that we work with.
And where they are not present in the North, for example, we try to look for people who've worked with NGOs before and we look work with some of the local organisations and the the community based organisations where we can actually use that to be much more getting good proximity to those people who need assistance and we use them directly.
Thank you, Jamie, over to emerging folks from the BPC and after that Musa from Umayyad in.
Hi.
Thanks very much for taking my question.
22 questions, I'm afraid.
You talked about an enabling environment.
Now UNRWA of course, has the biggest infrastructure for humanitarian work in Gaza.
Can it still function?
Because I mean, there's two things I've heard and my colleagues as well from Israeli diplomats is 1, they don't want to work with UNRWA anymore.
And the other is to again, to do with enabling environment.
Israeli diplomats tell us that Israel has no limits on the aid that can go into Gaza.
You've been telling us quite compellingly that that pending is showing us a very different picture.
Maybe you could elaborate on that.
Yeah.
Maybe on the first one on UNRWA, I mean, clearly UNRWA has been there for decades and it is the the backbone of all that we do in terms of infrastructure, delivery, distribution, even down to ID cards and the food supply.
So it's an essential part of any operation we have on the ground.
And to do anything to that, to sort of curtail it or to hobble it would cause us some real serious issues in terms of our ability to serve where we can the populations in need.
So from our point of view, we see UNRA and the systems that UNRA provide both to the UN family and the broader humanity and the community as a critical component for us our ability to address the catastrophe, the tragic humanitarian needs that are there.
On your the the second question, the enabling environment.
You know, if there was, I mean if there was an enabling environment which was complete, why would be discussing the limited Rd connections in there?
At the moment, we've only just been able to get the Military Rd open up.
The Sacred Dean Rd is not open at all and we only have the Coastal Rd which has been opened all this time.
But there is a checkpoint at the Gaza, the Wadi Gaza and we have a holding area where we've been kept many times and has caused this problems and deconfliction.
And, uh, so the supply into the north has not been something that we've been E been able to address properly because of some of these restrictions.
There's also umm, you know, and if there was an enabling environment complete, then why would we have the Ala Rish store, which is full of items which have been prevented from coming in.
And these are medical items, water and sanitation items.
There's nothing in there which is a ******.
And so I would say that and then also say that that we ourselves, we have put staff in situations where we're only now just getting enough armoured vehicles to move around.
And secondly, we haven't been allowed by Israel to bring in sufficient ability for us to communicate with each other.
We are sending people on convoys to the north and to quite hostile areas and we have no means of tracking them, with no means of talking to them if something untoward was to happen.
So while Israel talks about enabling and I just have to point out some of those facts to you.
Thank you very much, Musa and Mayadin.
Maxi, answer my question regarding that delivering aid by sea from Cyprus to Gaza, how do you see this, this process?
There is some difference between before and then concerning the the food situation in Gaza and when you talk about the famine, can you be pleased very clear about the situation which risk we have today with the famine?
We are across the famine or the Gaza, especially in northern of Gaza there is the famine exist.
Thank you.
Yeah, thanks.
On the, the question regarding the, the, the, the maritime issue, there are three maritime elements as the first one which was this weekend, which is the World Central Kitchen, which brought a boat of 200 metric tonnes.
That was 10 truckloads and that went S to Deborah Ballet.
And there is another one that's coming on track in the next couple of weeks, which is the one that President Biden mentioned was called the floating harbour.
And that's something which is meant to allow goods to be brought on shore from some sort of temporary harbour established on the sea and trucks will come in.
And then the third one is the longest standing one, which is the, the Amethyst project is something which Cyprus is currently having meetings this week on to discuss how that can be established.
That will take some months and much longer term.
Um, I don't see the, the maritime as being an alternative to the roads and that's something we have to get away from.
Um, it's, uh, I would say in some cases, maybe it's a bit of a form of a humanitarian public relations and some of these issues, The roads are the only way you can move massive amounts of food, which are needed in the north and elsewhere.
And the roads have to be cleared.
And we ought to use all the roads rather than building a Newport.
If we have Ashdod port in the north is quite close to Gaza.
I don't understand why we need to build another port when that one's there.
And I would say that from our point of view, we, we would rather spend time getting the roads opened, getting the roads graded because they've been heavily destroyed by the military activity and by the weather.
And we'd also have to look at the unexploded ordinance to be removed as well.
And having all roads and all entry points to the north and elsewhere open.
That's the best way to address the humanitarian crisis, the famine that you you mentioned as imminent as the report indicates that will be coming up sometime if conditions exist and continue sometime between now and the middle of May, according to that there.
I think that there are many any border crossings into Gaza and yet we barely see a trickle of aid and that's been interrupted so many times.
The obvious crossings remain largely closed to the humanity and assistance and nothing moves aid faster and in greater volume to a population in need than a fleet of heavy trucks and the use of all the roads that are available to us.
So we would encourage that to be the conversation rather than be distracted by something else.
Thank you Jamie, I hope we can keep you just for a couple of more minutes so we can give the floor to Robbie from AFP.
OK.
Last question, I have to go.
Yes, great.
Thank you very much for your time.
I was hoping that you could describe the sanitation conditions that you observed in Rafa and elsewhere during your recent visit.
What problems is the lack of garbage collection, garbage disposal creating after more than five months now?
And is there any kind of plan or capacity to address it?
Thank you.
Yeah, thanks very much.
I mean, sanitation is one of the key drivers for the nutritional crisis, the health crisis, and I would even say the food insecurity as well.
People are hungry, but they're, they're even more hungry because they're they're not at good conditions.
The immunity immune systems are being affected by the living conditions.
People are living very squalid, overcrowded conditions and with very little in the way of portable water that they can afford to buy or it can be delivered to them, especially in some areas.
And these squalid conditions have turned out where you've got, umm, with surveys we do umm, in families, they see that the, the prevalence of diarrhoea or stomach infections that are happening.
There's also the fact that you get hepatitis A, uh, breakout, which is a clear indication of overcrowded and unsanitary conditions.
And in terms of garbage collection, there is no garbage collection.
The basically at the side of the camps, at the side of the roads, there are piles of, of used, you know, papers, plastic tins, remnants of food, etcetera.
And that lies there.
And it is obviously as it will create worse conditions in terms of sanitation.
We have to find a way.
And I know some of the UN agencies are looking to find a way of taking that the garbage disposal and take it at UNICEF and others UNDP.
And hopefully there'll be a possibility of having a system in place that takes that away because it just adds to the problems of lack of food, lack of access of health, lack of real targeted nutrition for children, therapeutic and supplementary feeding, and ultimately just that the lack of good clean water and sanitation.
And because the the power plants are not working and because of the water and sanitation systems are broken or in need of repair, we don't have the ability to turn that into something which is better than the current situation.
Thank you so much, Jamie, for your time.
We will let you go now.
So thanks to Jerusalem, thank you, and thanks to everyone following online.
And that wraps it up here from Geneva.
Thank you.