00:00 We'll talk more about that with our Delano D'Souza, who joins me now on the set.
00:03 Delano, what more can you tell us?
00:05 That's right, Jeannie.
00:06 What we saw over the weekend and on Tuesday was Israel's biggest backer on the global
00:11 stage, beginning airdrops into Gaza.
00:14 Now, this is something that is unprecedented.
00:16 I checked with the contact at the World Food Program, and they told me that airdrops are
00:20 a measure of last resort.
00:21 You do that when you don't have access to roads.
00:24 They are seven times more expensive because you need planes, you need fuel, and you can
00:29 only deliver limited quantities compared to a convoy of trucks, which would typically
00:34 go in.
00:35 So why is the U.S. doing what countries like France and Egypt, Jordan, have been doing
00:39 for weeks?
00:40 Well, the honest truth is American officials are growing increasingly frustrated with their
00:45 Israeli counterparts.
00:46 For months, there have been repeated calls to increase the flow of aid into the Gaza
00:50 Strip, and this has simply not happened.
00:53 Israel knows full well what it's doing.
00:55 Two days after Hamas conducted those attacks on the 7th of October, we had Israel's defense
01:02 minister who came out and said, "No electricity, no food, no fuel, no water.
01:08 Everything is closed.
01:09 We are fighting human animals, and we are acting accordingly."
01:12 Of course, this was a very controversial statement from Israel's defense minister.
01:16 Then we had the U.S. who lobbied Israel for two weeks to let in aid convoys.
01:22 But the truth of the matter is we've never seen the amount of aid going in as we did
01:26 before the 7th of October, where we used to have 500 trucks going in per day.
01:31 According to the United Nations, we're seeing in the month of January, we saw 170 trucks
01:37 go in per day.
01:39 That figure dropped in the month of February to just 98.
01:43 Some days last month, we only had trucks going in in the single digits.
01:46 Now, this has created this level of desperation in Gaza, particularly in the north of the
01:52 enclave where some families have resorted to eating grass and animal feed just to eat.
01:58 This is something that's got American officials taking notice.
02:00 Take a listen.
02:01 I'm working with them very hard.
02:03 We're going to get more.
02:04 We must get more aid into Gaza.
02:05 There's no excuses.
02:06 None.
02:07 And the Israeli government must do more to significantly increase the flow of aid.
02:16 No excuses.
02:18 They must open new border crossings.
02:22 They must not impose any unnecessary restrictions on the delivery of aid.
02:28 So there you heard from the U.S. president and vice president, both repeating this new
02:32 statement, "No excuses."
02:35 That speech from the vice president, Kamala Harris, in Selma, Alabama on Sunday was the
02:40 sharpest rebuke of Israel's handling of this conflict and the humanitarian crisis in the
02:45 Gaza Strip to date.
02:46 Delano, how does the little aid that actually gets into Gaza get in, and what aid is turned
02:52 away?
02:53 Well, firstly, it's important to notice that aid has been in focus since this conflict
02:57 broke out.
02:58 But it really came into the spotlight last week when we had that convoy that was fired
03:03 upon which killed some over 100 people.
03:05 Now, Israel was in charge of this aid convoy, and Israeli officials admitted that desperate
03:11 Gazans rushed towards this aid convoy, and they were forced to fire on people that they
03:16 considered a threat.
03:18 Now, according to the World Food Program, we are seeing this level of desperation, particularly
03:22 in northern Gaza, because so little aid has been let in.
03:25 Just yesterday, the World Food Program said it tried to resume aid deliveries into northern
03:29 Gaza.
03:30 They were stopped at one checkpoint for three hours.
03:33 They were turned around, and when they were turned around, desperate Gazans rushed towards
03:37 their convoy and looted this 200 tons of food which they had in these trucks.
03:43 Now, according to the World Health Organization, there are severe levels of malnutrition in
03:48 Gaza.
03:49 Palestinian officials say in one hospital in northern Gaza, 15 children have died of
03:53 starvation and dehydration.
03:55 Now, from what I was able to find out, the process of Israeli checks on aid getting into
04:01 Gaza is not only cumbersome, it's erratic.
04:03 And it changes whether it's approved or rejected on a case-by-case basis.
04:08 For instance, a truck of sleeping bags was turned around because the sleeping bags were
04:12 the color green, and green can be used for military camouflage purposes.
04:17 A shipment of dates were rejected because the seeds were picked up as a suspicious object
04:24 in the X-ray imaging process.
04:26 So some aid workers have now started taking out the seeds of dates before letting them
04:30 in.
04:31 Now, according to humanitarian organizations, the most frequently rejected items, believe
04:35 it or not, are medical supplies, things like anesthesia, crutches, generators, ventilators,
04:41 X-ray machines, and even oxygen cylinders.
04:44 And there are also reports that wheelchairs and baby wipes are not passing Israeli inspections.
04:50 Delano, thank you for that.
04:52 That's France 24's Delano D'Souza.
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