As Israel-Hamas war rages, IFRC calls on all parties to provide civilians & aid workers a safe space

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00:00 Well let's get more now and we can speak to Tommaso Della Longa who is a spokesperson

00:04 for the IFRC, that is the International Federation of the Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies.

00:09 Thank you so much for taking the time to speak to us.

00:12 Just how much aid is managing to get through the rougher crossing to your people on the

00:17 ground?

00:20 Thanks for having me tonight.

00:21 The aid that is arriving at the moment is, sincerely speaking, a drop in the ocean.

00:27 We are talking about, I would say, around 60 trucks since last Saturday.

00:32 Of course we welcome this as a positive sign, a sign of hope, but then compared to the needs

00:38 of more than 2 million civilians, 60 trucks again, it's a drop in the ocean.

00:42 Needs are way bigger than what 60 trucks can bring inside Gaza Strip.

00:47 Sure, and how are your teams managing to operate there on the ground?

00:52 Because I'm assuming the conditions are, for them, extremely dangerous.

00:55 They are extremely dangerous and they are also overwhelmed.

00:58 I mean, I have to say that in the Red Cross and Red Crescent Network, the IFRC is typically

01:03 working throughout the national society.

01:04 So in this case, the Palestine request, we're talking about volunteers, staff from Gaza,

01:10 trained to respond to an emergency.

01:11 Of course, we never thought that it would be such a large-scale emergency, but then

01:16 they are doing their utmost, hospitals, the intersectoral center, with the ambulance service,

01:21 even humanitarian aid, but then after 14 days, what they're telling us is that simply overwhelmed,

01:27 tired, and also affected themselves.

01:30 We're talking about stories where doctors are finding out that their brother or sister,

01:35 or even their son or daughter, I mean, passed away and they found it only when the body

01:41 arrived in the hospital.

01:42 So you can imagine how much the situation can be complex.

01:45 Yeah, and it must be extremely distressing for them.

01:48 And they're doing all of these things without any fuel as well.

01:52 And presumably they've got vehicles to get from A to B. I mean, have they completely

01:55 run out now?

01:56 Well, it's really a matter of hours and this is why we are calling to have an access of

02:02 humanitarian aid, including fuel inside Gaza.

02:05 Fuel inside Gaza means life, means electricity for generators, fuel for generators, then

02:11 electricity for hospitals, fuel for vehicles, fuel for ambulances, and also fuel for water

02:16 and water sanitation.

02:17 So it's really critical to get fuel inside Gaza.

02:21 And I mean, today from Al-Quds Hospital, from the hospital in Canyounis, they were telling

02:25 us it's a matter of hours, probably a couple of days, and then they will not have any more

02:29 electricity, which of course it will impact heavily the people who are in the intensive

02:33 care unit, babies in generators and so on.

02:36 Sure.

02:37 I mean, we saw a report of babies on incubators in a whole lot of different hospitals.

02:43 And without electricity, of course, they will have no more life support and will most likely

02:47 die.

02:48 And we've heard that Gaza's hospitals, you know, you're confirming that really, are on

02:53 the brink of collapse.

02:54 They've got limited supply of everything.

02:57 And at the same time as that, they've got this unprecedented level of demand, haven't

03:02 they?

03:03 Absolutely, yes.

03:04 I mean, the picture that our colleagues are telling us from Gaza are empty shelves, empty

03:10 shelves of medicine or medical supplies, surgeries without painkillers, which of course is awful.

03:17 I cannot even think about that.

03:19 And then hospitals full of internally displaced people.

03:22 I mean, we're talking about only in our hospitals, something around 10 or 12,000 displaced people

03:28 who sought refuge in hospital just because they think it's a safe place.

03:32 But of course, this is not a sustainable situation where people, I mean, patients in the room,

03:38 people sleeping in the middle of the corridors in a situation where food, water, medicine

03:43 are really scarce.

03:44 Now, I know you're not a political person, but I just want to ask you what difference

03:50 it makes if at the UN they're arguing, at the UN Security Council, they're disputing

03:56 a ceasefire versus a humanitarian pause.

03:59 Does one or other of those make a particular difference as far as you're concerned?

04:05 Every effort that can bring some hours of pause in the fighting or every stop of the

04:10 fighting of force would make a great difference on the people of civilians and their coworkers

04:15 in Gaza Strip.

04:17 Then we can have different tools and different political decision.

04:20 And as you said, I'm not the one who needs to take this decision, but we are calling

04:24 on every stakeholder, every partner, every party to really take in account the protection

04:30 of civilians and their coworkers and taking account that we need a safe space to do our

04:34 work.

04:35 We don't need to open a door, a border and bring a couple of trucks or some trucks inside

04:40 the Gaza Strip.

04:41 We need to have a safe place, a safe humanitarian space where humanitarian workers can operate

04:46 and deliver humanitarian aid and civilians can feel safe to take this humanitarian aid.

04:51 So we really hope that every diplomatic effort will bring to this safe space and safe avenues

04:58 and a place where people are in safety to receive humanitarian aid.

05:02 Okay, well thank you very much indeed for taking the time to speak to us.

05:06 Tomaso Della Longa, spokesperson for the IFRC.

05:10 Thank you very much indeed.

05:11 Thanks.

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