00:00And it's extraordinary, isn't it? And part of the tragedy is the fact that, you know, as things deteriorate, as you say, and perhaps their worst point so far in these last 20, 21 months, this story is being eclipsed by other events in other parts of the world.
00:15And really, the world news cameras are not really trained on Gaza at this particular moment, are they?
00:21No, they're not, probably less so than at any time. And this is not a quiet moment. As we say, it's exactly that level of criticality because people are on their knees. People's coping capacities have been smashed. We've said that for a while.
00:37Yes, there is something remarkable about Gazans, no doubt, given all they've endured for decades. There is something we saw in the ceasefire, the way they can respond.
00:46But right now, with a nutritional crisis, with a virtual blockade, with a water level where people are already drinking brackish water, salty water, and on top of this, on top of this, of course, we have these militarised aid points where you, every day, eclipses the day before when it comes to mass casualty events of civilians.
01:05It's, they're abhorrent sites. Everything we spoke of, Tom, five weeks before the United Nations on mass, that, you know, humanitarianism at its best is needs-based.
01:16You find out the needs and you go to where people are, and that's what's happened since World War II.
01:19But we don't need to go back 10 years from Ethiopia or Somalia. We go back two months to the ceasefire.
01:24400 distribution points across the Gaza Strip, malnutrition going that way, disease going that way, access to water going that way.
01:32All of a sudden, this attempt to circumvent the world's most efficient aid system, as I say, since it was invented in World War II, for militarised sites where everything we mentioned, what happens to old women?
01:44I've had old women in tears saying, I can't go there. I've had men who've been there seven times and failed every time.
01:51Men stabbed. I met a little boy, 13-year-old boy, Abdul Rahman, who went, trying to be the hero of his family.
01:59Tank shell, shrapnel all through his lower part of his body. Such a brave boy.
02:05Tom checked on him every day, sitting up, getting braver, and the last day I left, he died.
02:12So that is whatever that is, and that's increasing a level of desperation across the Gaza Strip.
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