00:00 We are extremely concerned about the hunger that is being experienced by people across the whole of the Gaza Strip.
00:07 Depending on where you are, it ranges from emergency levels, but it goes all the way up to catastrophic levels.
00:15 You find that there are people who have missed meals for a day or two days or three days.
00:22 They have severe hunger.
00:24 But you also have people who have acute hunger, that is, they are not eating for a week.
00:30 Families are suffering, health is deteriorating, and they are weakening because of it.
00:36 And it's incredibly worrisome for the World Food Programme.
00:40 So right now, very importantly, this is a temporary pause.
00:45 We are making sure that we negotiate with all the parties, with the Israelis,
00:49 and also the communities in the areas, to try and ensure that when we bring assistance in,
00:56 it gets there safely and it protects the people we are there to serve.
01:00 So having areas that are further away from the checkpoints, where we can safely drop assistance to people,
01:07 where they know that they can receive it in safety and not put their lives at risk.
01:14 That is the first key component that we need to resolve in order to restart.
01:19 And the second is we are doing a lot of engagement with communities to ensure that the assistance is protected as it moves on,
01:27 and that we give people confidence.
01:29 These things are happening in terms of law and order because people are desperately in need of assistance.
01:34 And when they see assistance going past their village, they think they should get it for themselves,
01:39 because their village is in trouble too.
01:41 Now what's important is the pause right now is to Gaza City and beyond.
01:46 We are still serving the rest of the Gaza Strip, from Rafa up to, and right up to, the last checkpoint before Gaza City.
01:57 And we will continue to do that.
01:58 But over the coming days, if we can resolve these issues, then we can restart.
02:03 We also want to find other means to get assistance into the north of Gaza.
02:07 We have to flood the area with assistance if we are going to mitigate and stop a famine which is happening today.
02:15 So if we can get additional entry points into the Gaza Strip, then we believe those volumes will go up,
02:22 and we can actually start to rest assure that we are going to mitigate this catastrophic crisis that people are facing today.
