UN Geneva - Multimedia Newsroom : OCHA - Press Conference: Jamie McGoldrick on the humanitarian situation in OPT

Alessandra. And welcome to this press briefing with

Jamie McGoldrick, who's with us online now,

from

opt,

Jamie wraps up his three month mission

as human

co ordinator as interim

there. And also just been to Gaza. I know.

So I will give him the floor for his introductory remarks,

and then we'll take your questions in the room and online.

Martin,

over to you.

Yeah. Thanks, Jen. I hope you can hear me. OK,

we can. OK,

right. Thanks a lot.

I mean, I was in Gaza a few days ago just to my last time,

and it was quite a sad thing for me to leave after.

Only been here for a short period of time

and obviously not getting all that I wanted done,

done.

But, um, I think that some of the things are still going on.

I'd like to mention the fact that what what we see in Gaza right

now in Rafah in particular was two things that I think is predominant.

One was the fact that people themselves, the citizens there, the civilians

are very worried about the potential of a Rafah incursion.

I think that's the first thing.

Uh,

and because of that you see some of the previously congested areas of Rafah being,

you know, more crowds moving away, going to Alma

Wassa and other places on the coast fearing the possibility of an incursion.

I think the other thing I would note is the fact that, um,

you know the fact that what recently happened

in terms of that tragic event where seven

humanitarian workers for war Central

Ken died and given the fact that they were

quite well placed vis a vis the Israeli government

and and a much more a privileged position

than maybe some of the other organisations,

I think the the humanitarian workers there then fear for their own safety.

And, um, as as we know, the deconfliction and notification system has got flaws.

And I think these flaws appeared quite starkly in that incident regarding the

the world central kitchen and something we are trying to.

We've been constantly trying to remind the Israelis that

this is not a one off incident.

Uh, we've had many incidents of that kind, and tragically, as you saw yesterday,

there was another bullet shot at UNICEF

car, and so clearly the system that we have in terms of how Deconfliction works,

how we work with the interact with the

There's really a defence force and the way we notify and communicate is challenged.

We don't have communications equipment inside Gaza to operate properly,

as you wouldn't have any other situation.

And secondly,

um, you know,

we don't have a hotline or an emergency number to

call in the case of an emergency incident that arrives.

And so it's important that we get that addressed. I met a few days ago with the

the head of Southern command of ID F and laid out some

of the the issues that we face regarding our interaction with the

with the ID F and operating generally inside the Gaza context.

Maybe just saw some of the details on the ground.

As you know, Israel pulled out of Hays a

few days ago.

Um, but they've also moved into some of the central area camps around Nusra

and an NRA

school was hit twice, actually, a shelter.

Um, we had not missions planned for the North today.

They've all been cancelled, including a rei

that was actually going to go to S

as part of this announcement by Israel that we were going to open up

more corridors and more possibilities of bringing

food in and other goods and from ashor

through areas.

Um however, the Jerusalem side,

the the actual on the Israeli side there was a mission.

They went in today to look at the areas and a place called West Areas, or Z,

which is on the coastline down south from Ashdod

Port.

Um, there was the interagency mission took place also Tahan

yis

recently following the withdrawal of Israeli troops and and

then they examined the status of the infrastructure,

health facilities, water points and storage facilities.

Uh, WO

reported extensive destruction of the infrastructure

and they actually talked about,

you know, some intentional destruction of medical equipment as well.

There's a high presence of unexploded ordinance on

the route and even inside the area itself.

And there was reports of 100 KG bombs being left on the roadside.

This is going to be a real challenge for two things.

One for obviously people returning

to where these places which people will leave from

Rafa desperately to get away from any incursion.

And secondly,

it will make our challenges of supplying material into

those areas difficult because of the threat to that,

so we would have to start looking at that in a different way anyway.

I would also say that

and the conditions on the ground haven't improved any in any meaningful way.

You know that. I

think there's going to be the immediate thing,

which is obviously what we face just now.

The challenge of water.

This is becoming very hot there now. The water supply system People have been very

much less water than they need,

and as a result of that waterborne diseases due to the lack of safe and clean water

and the destruction of the sanitation systems,

you know they're all bringing about problems for the population living there.

As a result of that,

there's been a lot of illnesses that have arisen which are waterborne disease,

illnesses.

And so we have to find a way in the months ahead of how we can

have a better supply of water into the

areas where people are currently crowded at the moment

and as we know the hospital system there. Shifa

and NASA, the two big hospitals, have been badly damaged and in fact destroyed

and what we have now is three quarters of

the hospitals and most of the primary health care clinics

are shutting down, leaving only 10 of 36 hospitals functioning.

We hear of amputations being carried out with anaesthesia.

You know, miscarriages have increased by a massive number,

and I think all of those systems which are not in place,

the soaring rates of infectious diseases, you know, um, hepatitis, a

migrations,

respiratory infections and diarrhoea.

And obviously, given the fact that our supply chain is so weak,

we haven't been able to deliver enough assistance into the north part of Gaza

we've had in the last since since the road opened.

On the military side, we've had eight convoys,

and that's not every day. The other roads the Saladin

Road in the South,

the middle road is not working because it's inoperable because it's destroyed

and the coast road hasn't been open for almost a month.

So we have a very limited supply into the north. I was up there a couple of weeks ago.

I went to Kamal

a

Juan hospital and saw myself inside the actual hospital, the Children's ward.

Every single patient there was facing really serious food insecurity issues,

dehydration and Emaciation

and we heard from Dr

Osman, who was there that the child had died the day before. One who was in that ward.

So a very precarious situation.

WHO and UNICEF

are trying their best to get more material in

there in order to try and satisfy that need

and also the fact that

you know, we have to get nutritional not just general food,

but specialised nutritional products for Children.

I then visited the neonatal ward and, uh, there's lack of incubators.

Children doubled up in the incubators.

And then, uh, the last child I saw was in an incubator who was 22 days old, a boy

but who wasn't prematurely born, born in nine months. But he was 1.2 kg.

So low, low weight birth is going to be a real problem.

I think for, um for Children of that kind, people who are not getting nutritional,

there's going to be long term consequences

which will be felt and the development possibility of that child.

And those Children are going to be quite limited. I would say,

we've heard from Israel a lot of announcements of them over

the last days of the fact that they want to,

um, open up and be much more supportive of that.

One of the claims, they also say, is that they put

in 1000 trucks over the last few days, entered into Gaza

and only around 800 have been collected by the Palestinian side.

There are challenges in that regard because,

the number scanned by Israel doesn't correlate with the

number of trucks being collected and dispatched inside Gaza.

There's many reasons for that. We have to.

We have to load and offload the trucks that come from, uh, Israel.

Israel believes that their responsibility ends when they deliver

trucks from Karem Shalom into the Palestinian side,

and and I would say that that's certainly not the case. Their response ends.

And when we aid reaches the civilians in Gaza and we have to

have them supportive of that and that

means allowing more facilitation allows more,

more routes in and and obviously to provide security for us as we move at

the moment, we don't have security.

The blue policemen who were there before are no longer able to do the job of

securing convoys of, um,

crowd control, et cetera. We don't have that anymore.

And so what we have instead is, um,

the possibilities of getting ransacked and looted,

which is a common occurrence in a place where people are very desperate

and it's a common occurrence where places are very congested,

the roads are in bad shape

and we use very predictable roads to move goods around.

So we face real law and order problems,

and there's a security vacuum there that's been filled by various groups.

Some of them we don't know who they are,

but they are there because of organising traffic control.

You see some guns, AK-47s and pistols around,

so there's clearly groups that

are there. And there have been incidents recently when we're coming out of the Rafa

Blue Gate,

when you have, um,

smugglers who are there waiting to get the

cigarettes that have been brought in from Egypt.

There's always a squabbling over who gets them because it's a very high value, uh,

commodity.

And most recently,

there was a couple of gunfights outside the gate where we

normally go and a couple of people were shot and killed.

And so that's the environment we're working in, and it's it's very easy for

Israel to say we've sent you 1000 trucks, so please deliver them inside. Gaza.

Uh,

I say it goes on much more than that.

Well, last, for example.

We are trying to move goods around and move goods to the north. And

there's only the three roads there. We've mentioned the middle road, which is

slain

road,

the coastal road, which is Al

Rashid Road.

And then there's a military road on the east side. At

no point in time in the last month and more have we had

three or even two of those roads working at the same time simultaneously.

And the roads themselves are in very poor condition.

And also, when we do use the one road, which is

a Slade

road where yesterday where UNICEF

was was shot.

Uh, what happened there was that,

um we were held that there's a holding area at the checkpoint

and we were held there for hours, and so far this month,

we've wasted 60 hours of trucks going up there down time on on dead time on convoys.

And this means that that those trucks, those people are locked into that place

for a long time.

And then what happens sometimes it's too late in the day because it's we can only

travel in daylight hours to go north and

therefore the sometimes the mission is cancelled.

And then we get blamed by Israel for, uh,

cancelling the convoy or cancelling the mission to the north.

And we need to get a better, um,

a better understanding from them of what that looks like.

Um, I had a meeting this week with Major General Finkelman.

Um, he's the head of the Southern command of the IDF,

and, uh, we talked very openly about some of the things that are missing.

This came as a result of the world central kitchen issue

and the complaints we made about the

Deconfliction and notification system being wrong.

Not being working, not predictable, not protecting humanitarian workers.

We talked about the

communications challenges.

We are working in a very hostile area as humanitarians,

without the possibility of contacting each other.

We don't have radios, we don't have mobile networks that work.

And so what we then do is we have to find ways of passing messages back to

OA and other organisations in Rafa

and then relaying it out.

And if we have a serious security incident. We don't have a hotline.

We don't have any way of communicating the IDF if we're

facing problems at a checkpoint or facing problems en route.

And I think that another thing.

I would say that there's a real challenge of weapons,

discipline and a challenge of the behaviour of soldiers at checkpoints

and we've tried time and time again to bring to their attention. Whereas

I think one of the things that we that we should we

should understand that the ID have

never worked with humanitarian organisations in

this type of environment.

They don't understand how we function, they don't understand our language,

what our purpose is and we don't understand their expectations

and there's a degree of mistrust and misunderstanding that we have to

address in this meeting with Major General Finkelman of the the IDF.

I think hopefully helps that because he said,

you know, he told us that he sees us as we're not against them.

You're working and serving for a good goal and it's a challenging environment,

so you know we want to work with them differently. We want to,

um find ways how we can get.

We speak to soldiers in a way at the

checkpoint that that's more respectful and more trustful.

And that's something he said he would take forward

and help move that he talked about markings on vehicles

that have to be much more clearer in terms of

showing the the UN or the NGOs working there.

And we need to have much more regular engagement with the IDF right now.

That's the first time I've met them since I've been here.

And we have to find ways of having a joint operation cell,

which we can then discuss some of these challenges

and then also to have this hotline or this

number that we can call in the event of a crisis.

But more importantly for ourselves, we need communications equipment.

We need to get mobile phones, we

three

G. We have to get VHF repeaters. We have to get SAT

phones, all of the things we need, as we have in any other operation.

This is an operation.

I've never seen the lack of, um,

communications equipment in a very hostile environment.

Um and then we've also had discussions this week on the the

pier,

um, this new temporary peer, the floating peers that talked about,

Um, we've been discussing about how that's set up, how it looks like

and then, ultimately, how we would operate and interact with it.

There's still work to be done on that in terms of what it is we

had a we we'd hoped that the peer would be in the north of Gaza

to address the the the the imminent

famine famine challenges in the North,

and we would hope that's where we could actually do. Do the work.

Um, however, it's been decided that we come out

and it would be where the where the ID F have a

base or have a A compound and have a military road,

and that's where we will that will now be there.

We have still some concerns over the perception and the neutrality of the project,

and, uh,

because in many ways the the plan or the operation that's been

set up actually embeds us in an ID F Surround the perimeter,

and I think that's difficult for us.

And

we've had conversations with U Centcom.

We've had a conversation with the US government and obviously with

the Israelis as well to try and come up with this

solution to that. So it remains

to something. Martin Griffiths.

The EC put out a statement today on or yesterday on, uh,

the neutrality and perception issue,

and we're trying to develop a paper which will try to

give us operational clarity on how we need to work.

Um, we've had a lot of, uh, new developments from Israel, have made, um,

a number of announcements

in terms of how they how they wish to, um, how they wish to open up things differently.

Different types of commitments.

Um, we are at the UN,

committed to using all possible routes to

scale up humanitarian assistance throughout Gaza.

But right now,

we see that there have been a number of

commitments made by Israel and a number of concessions.

We would say things that we've been pushing for for

months to try and get a better way into that.

Um, we think it's,

uh it needs to be done in a way so we can

get safely and timely assistance into the people that need it,

and we've we've repeated the request for more openings.

So what they've said is they're going to give us

a coordinations

which will be established with humanitarian directly,

including the ID F Southern Command

and then also, um, the plans to open up areas as I mentioned the assessment today

and have selected materials coming from Ashdod

which would be a simpler delivery from

Ashdod

directly into north of Gaza.

And the idea would be to try and increase the number

of trucks coming from Jordan through the Allenby Bridge towards Gaza.

And the idea is to try and open up the two,

the two areas where the scanning is done,

the

Karem Shalom

and that

Sana

to have much more operating hours to have extended operating hours.

We don't at the moment it's not open on a Saturday

and also the daylight hours are much longer now.

So we should try and capitalise on those.

And then there's also um, commitment to actually approve the NA

Oz water line into North Gaza to get that restarted again from Israel.

So these are the commitments out there and we are working with

the Israelis now to see if we can get that moved on

so we can actually have a better performance and

a better response to the crisis in Gaza.

I'll stop there, if that's OK, Jen.

Thank you very much,

Jamie, for this very comprehensive overview and just on a question that was raised.

Mr. McGoldrick is speaking from Jerusalem,

and we are looking at providing you with a transcript. When that is available,

I want to go to questions. Now, I want to see if there is in the room.

And I have Nina Larson

first from

AFP, and then Gabrielle from Reuters. And then

I have a few online Nina

first, Thank you very much for taking the question. And for this briefing,

I was wondering if you could say a little bit more about, um,

specific commitments you may have received from the res.

Uh, the Israelis, when it comes to resolving the difficulties,

uh, that the many difficulties that you mentioned around the deconfliction and,

around, uh, getting getting aid through. Um

And

I was, um

I was wondering, in particular if, um sorry. Just a second.

yeah. Sorry. That's it. That's it.

If you could just say a little bit more about that thing.

Sorry. Could you say that specific?

I didn't hear the the specific issue you asked for there.

Sorry. Yeah, It was about

a

Actually, it was about the the communications I was wondering about,

um your the issue you mentioned about communications equipment lacking.

Why? Why is that specifically that, uh, that you don't have that equipment?

And, uh, what is it? You need to get it. Thank you.

OK,

no problem. Should we take the Reuters one as well? First, and then I'll do that.

Normally we take them one at a time.

No,

thank

you.

Yeah. I mean,

we've been

asking for a couple of things since day one of the Israelis.

One has been the fact that the DECONFLICTION

system we have is not directly with the ID F.

We go through CL A which is a coordinations

on administration office, and then we we deal with KG.

We don't deal directly with ID F.

We need to be speaking to people who are firing guns who control weaponry,

and we have to build up an understanding from them and ourselves of how we work.

The deconfliction system has been consistently, um,

inaccurate and it hasn't worked in our favour.

To be honest with you,

there have been so many incidents and we've

been saying for a long time to the Israelis

warning them that there's there's likely to be an incident that will come up,

which is going to be quite a tragic one.

And it happened two weeks ago with the world central kitchens.

We've said to them that

the the DECONFLICTION system and the notification system are not fit for purpose.

We have to find a way of reviewing revising those,

and that's one thing. And then as part of that,

in order for us to interface with military and when it's an emergency is underway,

we have to have a hotline and ability to speak to them.

And in the case of any incidents we have, we cannot.

If you're sitting in a car and you've been caught up

in a firefight or there's bullets or something happening there,

you have to relay that message back through your, uh,

the office and then to CL a and then to ID F.

And this is a long way around in the middle of a very, very hot emergency.

That's the last thing you need is delays.

And that communication problem was highlighted in the

readout from the world central kitchens issue.

So we've asked for communications equipment.

From the very beginning, we've given pages and pages to Koga

on the specifications on the needs we have in

terms of we need to have mobile networks.

So with three G, we have to have, um you know, we have to have

began SAT

systems.

We have to have handheld radios, VHF, radios,

all the things you'd have in any normal issue.

Normal crisis. We don't have them. This

the reason why uh,

Israel give us is the fact they say to us that

those communications equipment might fall into the hands of Hamas.

And and as far as I'm concerned,

we we have the ability to switch those off at a

central source so that that's not an excuse for me.

Thank you very much.

Uh, thank you very much for the briefing. Um, just a quick question regarding,

uh, Cogat

figures about the number of trucks I know there has

been some disagreement in terms of how to count.

Um, what aid is actually going through the crossings? Um, and Cogat

is called the way of the UN has counted as flawed.

what is your view on how, um

on how the supplies a RE,

uh, a RE counted because, according to what Koga

says, it's almost pre war levels, which is not, in fact, the case. Thank you.

Maybe just to say that pre-war levels were 506

100 a day that were processed but not scanned.

They're now being scanned. It's a much slower process.

Um, I would say we used to get, like, 600 trucks in a day,

but you should also remember in those days, probably

about one third of those trucks even less were humanitarian.

The rest were private sector.

And so when they say there's more trucks now humanitarian than before

um, October the seventh, that's true.

But we were not the bulk of the food and the bulk of the supplies that were coming in

so that side of the argument is is, is questionable.

The second thing I would say is that the numbers I mean, they're using, for example,

smaller trucks than we do,

and then we bring the trucks into our side and we load them onto bigger trucks,

trailer trucks and stuff like that.

So we have less numbers of trucks going out.

We also get trucks at the wrong time of the day for us to be able to offload the put

on warehouses, reload and get out to Rafa

because of the the security and the timelines.

And also I would I would reply to you that

all the trucks that come in and they mention the

numbers that all also includes large numbers of private sector.

These are not all humanitarian,

but we are responsible in their eyes for taking the the the human

that taking the private sector

trucks and the cargo into Gaza.

So I would say that, uh,

there's there's obviously we have problems in terms of our ability

to move stuff through quickly and offload and reload again.

It's a hostile environment. And as I said earlier,

I don't think that, um that that

you know Israel can say that

they give large numbers of trucks from Karem

Shalom and the Israel side into Gaza when it actually goes into the holding area,

where we have to process them, reload them and offload them and back again.

And so I think that their responsibility as well

ends once it reaches the civilians of Gaza.

So we should count the number of trucks we get to the north,

the number of trucks we get out.

And the reason why we we don't get them out is because of the insecurity.

The reason why we don't get

out to the North is because they don't approve the the convoys that go north.

There were, uh, again two convoys set for this morning that were cancelled.

There was a mission. Another mission set for this morning is

cancelled. So while the trucks come out in big numbers from Kem

Shalom

and Israel's praising itself,

all that you also have to remember there are

complications for us to logistically deal with it.

But then, more importantly, to actually secure our way out and then, lastly,

to get permission to go out with those trucks to the north.

Thank you, JB. We have one question from Japanese press.

And then we will go to, uh, Isabel Saku

from FA Online.

Yes, thank you very much for doing it.

Um, I have a question about the, uh, coordinating unit.

the, uh when actually will the coordinating unit as a direct contact with the, um the

the with the southern commander will be established? Uh, if

ID F indicated the timing of it.

And then also, you succeeded Miss Lynn Hasting, who

who was denied a renewal of her business in Israel.

And I'm wondering, and and now you are, uh, completing your, uh, three month mission

and IW. I was wondering if

this three months period is already agreed before beforehand or

you This is, uh, sort of three months period is unexpected, unexpectedly complete.

And, uh, who will be the,

uh, the successor

of your post? Thank you.

Yeah, maybe I'll take the last question first.

I mean, I was only ever meant to be here for a bridging period.

Um, and that was to be around three months.

It's almost four months since I've been here,

and in that time, the UN system has been recruiting a replacement,

the permanent replacement.

That's done as far as I know.

And I hear that the secretary general will make an announcement shortly.

I don't know when that would be, but I know it's imminent.

Um, in terms of your question on the when this ID F sort of coordinations

will be established,

um, we have a sale already right now, which includes CL, a coa

and ourselves. The humanitarians.

The missing part of it, as I as I mentioned, is the IDF.

We were told that by, uh, by the general, the major general during the week,

he will put one of his IDF members in there.

I think that helps with the operational level of things,

but I think we also have to have a higher level

discussion on a regular basis with Major General Finkelman and my success

to make sure that some of the operational issues that are being addressed

in the cell will also carry out and be come to fruition.

So

I think what we're looking for is a two level of that.

And that's not something that, uh, we've worked out yet.

But we we we've seen and heard the commitment from the major General,

and we're going to keep them to that commitment

and make sure we get that set up and running as soon as possible.

And with that to complement the use of a hotline

and also to have better communications equipment inside Gaza.

Thank you, Jamie. Now, Isabel from, uh, Spanish FA.

And after that, uh, Nick comming Bruce from New York Times

over to you. Isabel.

Yes. Hello. Good morning. Thank you very much.

Isabel

Saco

for, uh, the Spanish news agency.

Um, my question is, um,

I. I have the impression, uh, from what you have said,

um, during your remarks that the situation for the humanitarian has not improved.

Uh

uh, in any terms,

after the incident of the of with the humanitarian of the World Central kitchen,

so

could you

echo feel this? Uh, even if you have had this meeting with this general

that the situation remains the same.

You mentioned a bullet, uh, into a car, uh, of UNICEF yesterday.

But you give some details.

And if the situation doesn't really improve for the humanitarian,

uh, aid coming into Gaza and being distributed to the civilians,

what do you foresee Will be the situation in the next

weeks in in

inside the territory. Thank you.

Thanks.

I don't think there's been any notable improvement

in terms of our ability to move around.

Certainly not our approval to get convoys going to the north.

They've been blocked again today. As I said,

um, the incident you mentioned, uh, UNICEF.

What happened was the mission had gone and was held at this at the checkpoint,

and at the checkpoint, the salade

road

there was There's a holding area where the trucks and cars

waiting until they give the green light to cross over.

And in that time I heard there was, um, a shooting incident that took place.

And as a result of that, um, there's a bit of a firefight between, um

between the Israeli forces and another person.

I don't know who the other person was, but as a result of that,

three bullets hit the UNICEF

car, and luckily, no one was hit.

Earlier in the week, there was also an incident with a WFP car as well,

which our vehicle, which was caught up in a firefight as well.

So, um,

while the World Central kitchen issue has has happened and it's a tragic incident

and there's been a lot of, um, you know,

a lot of reports back from the Israelis about miscalculations, about mistakes,

about these things,

I think it just brings into start focus how unpredictable the system

that we use for our own protection and safety is not working.

And I think it's something we have to continue to ask for improvements

and that meeting this week with the major General Finkelman at

the idea of Southern Command was exactly for that purpose.

And along with the

ICRC and the US humanitarian envoy,

we pressed the point that we have to have a system that allows us to be to be safe

and to be protected.

And that's the responsibility of Israel as we

operate in the territory that they occupy.

Thank you over to, uh, Nick New York Times.

Thank you. Thank you. Actually, um,

it was about pretty much asked the question I was going to ask.

But, I mean, it seems to me that

in the last two weeks, net net,

nothing has significantly changed,

and there may be a little bit more supplies coming in,

but the system is still the same and that the

none of the concessions that seem to have been mooted, uh, after the world

kitchen,

uh, crisis, um, seem to have been operationalized.

Uh, I Do you have any timeline for getting,

uh,

supplies in from Ashdod Port and opening the areas crossing?

Thank you.

Yeah, thanks a lot. Yeah.

No, to be honest with you,

we see the big numbers that Israel announced are coming out of

Kong.

But that doesn't mean it didn't get delivered inside.

As I mentioned earlier, some of the complications that we have to face

and the fact that we don't get convoys to the north on

a regular enough basis those are the working environment that we're in.

Uh, the concessions we made were very welcome.

I think there's something we've been asking for a long time.

from from the Israelis and the after the tragic incident of world central kitchens

have taken upon themselves to make the announcements.

All we can do is keep pressing them for that. I mean, we were supposed to do,

uh, we're supposed to do a Rey

this morning to the

es crossing and to the Ashdod and

Zem crossing. But that mission was cancelled because of insecurity.

So we will continue to remind,

um, the the Israelis of what we want from them, what we need from them

in order for us to make the humanitarian situation better,

and that means complicity with them.

It means working with them to open up the Ashdod,

to open up the areas or whatever crossing in the

north to hopefully get Carney back on as well,

and at the same time have the three routes which are

in the south to the north are opened up and functioning.

That's not the case at the moment,

Uh,

so all we can do is keep reminding them and

using the pressure from key member states to to remind

Israel of the commitments they've made

and the commitments that we've been asking for for such a long time.

It's not something that has come as a surprise to us.

It's something we've been pushing for from day one,

and they've now seen it's necessary to start considering those.

I would also caution the fact that, um when they talk about

Ashdod to

eras,

they've also used the word temporarily.

And there's a worry is that it's only for a short

period of time and then they'll close it down again.

That would be an essential lifeline into the North,

because that's where the population,

according to the I PC, the recent Famine Committee report.

That is where the bulk of people who are the most danger of slipping into famine

and that's why we wanted the the

Ashdod port opened up into Gaza directly,

and that's why we were hoping for the floating

pier that would have been more northerly based in order

to address the issues in Gaza City and the

north part where the bulk of the population are.

Thank you, Jamie. Um, I have Isabel

Sako from FA. Uh, with the hand up again, Uh, so back to you, Isabel.

Yes, thank you very much.

Um, I was, uh I had a second part of most of my question that, uh,

you you you didn't understand.

It was about, uh,

what do you foresee as the situation in the next weeks if the if the

access of the humanitarian aid, um, doesn't improve, uh,

given the situation of of famine in the north And,

uh, the situation also in in the south of Gaza.

And I could, um maybe, uh, take the opportunity also to ask, uh uh,

Did

did you have any, um, exchange with the this mayor General about

the the plans of

that has made public to make an incursion into Rafa?

Uh,

and, uh, did, uh did you discuss this with with him?

Thank you.

Um, on the the weeks ahead, if we don't,

it's not so much what they've told us in terms of concessions

in the weeks ahead.

If we don't have the chance to expand the delivery of aid

into all parts of Gaza but in particular to the North,

then we're going to face a catastrophe.

the people up there are living such a

FRA fragile and precarious existence We've had very

We've had eight convoys to the north using the military road over the last month.

There's been very intermittent Commercial traffic has gone up the coast road.

It's not enough to satisfy the needs which are there, and they're massive.

And we can see by the the health situation we can see by the the sort of,

uh the nutritional the the way that Children

are starting to show real serious signs of malnutrition

and the fact that the I PC Famine Committee report highlighted that 70 70%

of the population up there were in real danger of slipping into famine.

So we we need to see a change in that.

But we haven't seen that happening and we hope that the announcements are made.

We can hold them to those words,

and we can open up more pipelines and more entry

points to the north and elsewhere to get more roads

operational to get more supplies in.

It remains to be seen,

but right now there's been no visible difference

in the changes we've seen on the ground,

and I think Israel knows that we're in a

very precarious position and the Israel knows that they

have to be seen to be much more permissive

towards what we're trying to achieve as a humanitarian,

Um, in terms of, uh, the the Rafa

planning, Uh, it came up in the meeting in the sense that we we flagged it.

I flagged it as an issue that we were concerned about,

but clearly we we're not going to get into

discussion on the actual military aspect of it.

We know politically we've heard people saying it's

imminent and others saying it's not imminent.

We saw that there was AAA differentiation of of words from, for example,

Prime Minister Netanyahu versus what, uh,

what? Defence Minister Gallant said.

So I don't think there's really a clear way forward.

We have been insisting since day one,

though a couple of things one we would we

would require time to be able to prepare and pre

pre locate

or have

in place where people might move to supplies.

We can't do that right now because we don't

have enough supplies coming in on a regular basis.

We're barely able to feed the people and support the people currently.

And if we were to add on another

dimension of that contingency planning process for a Rafa

incursion, we are nowhere near ready for that

if we cannot preposition material we don't have.

And if people are looking for water and sanitation at a time of real,

real problems in terms of weather and the shelter issue,

as well as our food supply issue

and then the health system is no longer functioning

as part of our own planning. We've set up emergency medical

um

hospitals all the way up the north at the middle part of Gaza,

and that would be then to try and accommodate.

If the Gaza if the Rafah Gaza gets locked into some

sort of military incursion and we can't operate from there,

the health system itself is in really bad shape.

As you know, there's only 10 out of the 35 hospitals that are working and barely

two thirds of the primary healthcare centres are no longer working either.

So we face a real dramatic situation ahead of us. And if there was to be a Rafa

incursion,

I know the figures that the the mentioning of evacuating some 800,000 from Rafa

there is no space and as we see it right now in Alma was

or anywhere else on the coast where you can accommodate

that number because there's 400,000 plus people already there.

So we are in, you know, an advocacy mode to say this shouldn't happen

and we're also at the same time ringing the

alarm bells that we are nowhere near ready.

If we had to address the needs, we will not be part of any.

Um, helping the people move will not be part of any evacuation,

but we have to stand ready if we can to

support them when they do arrive at another destination.

Some people having been displaced for five or six times already.

Thank you so much, Jamie,

just looking in the room and online and I don't see any more questions,

so I think we can wrap it up here.

But as this is probably the last time we see you in this capacity.

I just want to thank you very much, Jamie,

for your transparency and your availability for

the press and this very important job,

and then perhaps give you the last word

that

I want to tell the media on this occasion

over to

you. Thanks a lot. Thanks for that.

Thanks for the opportunity of telling people what the situation

is.

We know that the international media is not present inside Gaza and

it's important that we as humanitarians bring the stories and the issues out

so that people can see for themselves and hear for themselves.

Um, sadly, that's not easy. Um,

we face a lot of challenges on the ground to serve the population there.

I think we have to flag the fact that you

know national staff are working for organisations like UN,

R a and other

high NGO.

They they are really struggling in the sense that

they they've been affected themselves by the crisis.

They've lost loved ones, their family, their livelihoods have gone and past them.

And now yet they come up to work every

single day working hard to support other fellow Gazans

and I think we have to admire that approach, that resilience.

And that's where the hope is. I mean, Gaza has been through a lot of crisis in the past.

Nothing anywhere close to this one

on its massive. And so we we then have to

We have to find a way to be better able to support them,

better able to give them a chance and give them some positivity.

And I would also just to thank all of the the

humanity workers currently under real serious challenges in the Gaza context.

And they come to work every day and they put their head down and just go on with it.

And to me, it was a real honour to be part of that. So thank you.

Thank you very much, Jamie, for those words,

I'm sure they are appreciated in Gaza and elsewhere.

So with that, we will end this press conference. Thank you for your participation.

Thank you.

Thanks a lot. Thank you. Bye.

OCHA - Press Conference: Jamie McGoldrick on the humanitarian situation in OPT - 12 April 2024