'It's simply horrific that a family would risk their life to find food and water for their beloved'

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00:00Well, for more on the humanitarian crisis, we're joined now by Tommaso Della Longa,

00:04spokesperson for the International Federation of the Red Cross and the Red Crescent Societies.

00:10Tommaso, thanks so much for being with us again on the programme this evening.

00:14We saw more horrific images from Gaza there in that report,

00:18more attempts to get aid into the territory by means of this latest attempt by aid flotilla.

00:25But what is the actual situation on the ground there in terms of humanitarian needs?

00:31Well, first of all, thanks, Sharon, for having me again tonight.

00:35The humanitarian situation is just deteriorating and getting worse by the minute.

00:42Sadly, there is no positive news when we're talking about Gaza in the last 21 months,

00:48if you take away the few weeks or a month of this last ceasefire.

00:52At the moment, there is an enormous shortage of everything.

00:59Palace, Syracuse and colleagues just closed another clinic the last 8th of July in Gaza City.

01:06And now more than half of the health posts and clinics are closed, ceased operation,

01:10because they don't have fuel, they don't have medicine, they don't have any more medical equipment.

01:18And the situation is worse, not only for health, but also for access to food, water.

01:25There is no water sanitation.

01:26And on top of everything, to add another layer of suffering, there is the heat of summer.

01:33And heat of summer, when you're living under a plastic makeshift tent, plastic tent,

01:38and you don't know how to bring water to your kids, it just makes everything a nightmare.

01:43And Tom, so sadly, you've lost another volunteer in Gaza today, being International Volunteer Day also.

01:51Talk to us a little bit about how difficult it is for people who are volunteering to work in Gaza.

01:56It's almost impossible, and I think that this is the icon of the resilience and the strength of the women and men,

02:05nurses, doctors, ambulance drivers, humanitarian colleagues,

02:11who really, after almost two years of conflict, are still doing their utmost to serve their communities.

02:18They are embedding their communities.

02:20They are suffering exactly the same equally as their communities.

02:24I mean, we were talking with colleagues who don't have where to take a shower or to wash their vest before starting a shift in their ambulance.

02:34And I cannot forget the words of one of the volunteers that were killed in the famous incident,

02:42I mean, famous, sadly, famous incident of the 15 humanitarian workers killed and then buried in a mass grave.

02:48And his last words recorded on a video were,

02:51forgive me, mom, I just choose to save and help the others.

02:56And no one should risk his or her life to save the other lives.

03:03And this is sadly the daily life of humanitarian workers in Gaza.

03:07Yeah, and we heard again from Antonio Guterres, again, calling for ceasefire.

03:12Efforts to reach one have stalled again, warning that the humanitarian crisis has reached horrific proportions,

03:18as he put it, and calling for the world not to let what's happening to Palestinians be overshadowed.

03:24What is your message to the world?

03:26Because these people, this conflict is being overshadowed right now.

03:30As we saw in that report, people in Gaza feeling that they're simply being ignored.

03:36Well, I cannot blame the people in Gaza to say this,

03:40because actually the feeling of being ignored and what we hear from Palestine request and colleagues

03:45has been the same for solid two years now, almost two years now.

03:50The difference is that it's not anymore an headline as it was.

03:54But still, in the last months, nothing has changed.

03:59Humanitarian aid is not entering.

04:01There is no safety for civilians, no safety for humanitarian workers,

04:04and there is not really a proper humanitarian operation.

04:07The only change is the system has collapsed.

04:10Finding a kilo of flour could cost almost 25 euro in a situation that it's very difficult,

04:16and even water is almost impossible to find.

04:18So the message, sadly, is still the same.

04:22It's not changing, and it's the biggest frustration for all the humanitarian sector.

04:27We need the conflict to stop.

04:30We need to have humanitarian safe and humanitarian access all across Gaza Strip.

04:35We need to put in place the entrance of humanitarian aid at scale.

04:40We need to immediately release all the hostages.

04:45And, of course, we need the protection of civilians.

04:47It's simply incredible and horrific that a family needs risk to lose, lost their lives

04:57just to find some food and water for their beloved.

05:00This is no human being should risk this life to find food and water for their beloved.

05:06And, Thomas, so in the last week or so, we've been hearing about these Israeli proposals

05:10to set up a so-called humanitarian city on the ruins of what once was Rafa in southern Gaza.

05:16What kind of ethical concerns and legal concerns would your organization have about that?

05:23Well, you know, we have been listening a lot of different reports about, I mean,

05:29as we know, the new humanitarian mechanism of entrance of aid.

05:33And now this thing that you just mentioned is very difficult to comment on something that we didn't see.

05:41The basic line is that people need to be protected and respected wherever they are.

05:48If they move, if they decide not to move, maybe they also cannot move.

05:53If you think about people with disability, elderly people or people that simply don't want

05:58to leave their own community and houses if they are in, even if they are in a ruin.

06:02So there is no possibility to force people in a place.

06:07This is simply not acceptable.

06:10And then we will see what will happen in the next coming weeks.

06:13But first and foremost, humanitarian aid needs to enter.

06:18Humanitarian operation needs to be able to be done at scale.

06:22And humanitarians and civilians must be protected.

06:25This is the basic for any kind of discussion.

06:28Tommaso, thanks for being with us.

06:29We'll have to leave it there for now.

06:30That is Tommaso Della Longa, spokesperson for the International Federation of the Red Cross

06:34and Red Crescent Societies.

06:36Thank you for being with.

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