00:00For more, I'll speak to Shana Lowe from the Norwegian Refugee Council. Hello to you. Shana, that last point that Kedevin was making that Israel suggests that Hamas is drumming up these numbers and the IPC even inflating its own numbers in this report. How would you respond to that?
00:18The images coming out of Gaza do not lie. The doctors in Gaza who are reporting on this, documenting this, do not lie. The starving colleagues of mine who are deprived of regular access to food, despite being humanitarians trying to save lives, are not lying.
00:40Haaretz newspaper, which published a feature where they went on virtual tours of Palestinian hospitals in Gaza, are not lying. This information speaks for itself, and it's a direct consequence, and it's entirely predictable.
00:57This is what the humanitarian sector has been warning about for months. Continuous deprivation is going to lead to starvation and famine.
01:08And now we finally have the data that confirms what we've been seeing with our own eyes, what my colleagues are seeing with their own eyes.
01:15It's not shocking at all to have this news come out. In fact, I think we're surprised that this classification was not made sooner. But as was already stated, that was largely in part to the fact that those who needed to collect the data have been denied access, and it's very difficult with active hostilities ongoing to properly assess what exactly is going on.
01:39But the images do not lie. It is quite clear that this is a man-made starvation crisis, a man-made famine, and the world now, now that it has officially been classified, must do everything in their power to reverse this and save lives.
01:56Any minute lost is minutes that could be used to save precious lives.
02:01Just curious about that. To reverse this and save lives. For the people who are already experiencing famine right now, what can be done?
02:13Well, for many of them, unfortunately, we're going to be too late.
02:18This isn't something that can just be reversed overnight. It's not something that can be stopped or prevented or reversed by airdrops.
02:28What we need is unfettered access. We need the thousands of truckloads of aid that are sitting just miles away from Gaza to be able to enter.
02:38We need humanitarians to be able to reach that aid at the crossing points and deliver it wherever people are in need throughout Gaza, including North Gaza and Gaza City, which has been incredibly difficult to access over the last several months.
02:52Yeah, and that IPC report saying that the situation in North Gaza might even be worse than what we're seeing in the Gaza government.
03:00How bad is it? Any idea how bad is it there?
03:03As has already been noted, it's very difficult to assess and access what is happening.
03:11But I imagine, given the amount of deprivation and what we've seen in Gaza City, what my colleagues in Gaza City are telling me, that it likely is as bad or worse than what we're seeing in Gaza City.
03:23Because aid agencies have largely been denied any access to those areas, and those people are surviving with whatever they can find.
03:32We've seen international and also domestic pressure in Israel over these plans to launch a full-scale assault on Gaza City.
03:40Do you think political will is finally manifesting itself in the international community to maybe pressure Israel to take a course of action and perhaps pursue a ceasefire rather than this full-scale assault?
03:56You know, it's really unclear at this point.
03:59We've seen lots of words of condemnation from the international community, but we also haven't seen what the consequences will be if Israel chooses to move forward.
04:09States need to hold Israel accountable.
04:12It has certain obligations as the occupying power in control of Gaza since 1967 to provide for the basic needs for the population there, to protect the civilians living under its control.
04:25And the world has failed to hold Israel accountable for war crimes, to hold Israel accountable for violations of international law, despite them being well-documented and acknowledged.
04:37And what we need to see is more than just statements of condemnation, but we need to see consequences for failures to abide by international law.
04:46I hope that the IPC classification today of famine will push the world to do more to protect lives, to do more to save Palestinians and do more to put an end to these 22 months of hell, to bring the hostages in Israel home and to let Palestinians in Gaza start to recover and eventually rebuild their lives.
05:09One of the things that came out of this IPC report, and it's things that other aid groups have been saying for weeks, if not months, is that there's these limited nutritious pace, therapeutic milk supplies for malnourished children.
05:25What does the human body go through with a lack of these nutriments that are so important?
05:32Can you talk to us about what the body experiences without those resources?
05:39Well, what we're seeing is that, you know, children have distended bellies, swollen bellies.
05:46They are gaunt.
05:47They are losing muscle.
05:48They are losing fat.
05:50It's hard for people to speak, to move.
05:54There's a lot of fainting happening, including in hospitals.
05:57We're seeing even in hospitals that people are unable to donate blood to help those who are being injured in hostilities because they're too anemic.
06:07Bodies are shutting down.
06:08We're seeing also, of course, other signs of malnutrition, rotting teeth, hair that's turning orange or red due to malnutrition and other things.
06:20But it's a slow, painful death.
06:23I think people in Gaza are now waiting to see what will kill them first, bombs or starvation.
06:30A slow, painful death.
06:31And those deaths sadly look like they're going to accelerate.
06:35In the 22 months since October 7th, 2023, 89 facilities attributed to malnutrition.
06:43In the first 20 days of August, there are 133 deaths alone.
06:48How quick do you think this increase of malnutrition deaths will be?
06:54What will it look like in the coming weeks?
06:56I think we're going to see those numbers continue to rise.
07:00I think that those numbers are likely also an underreporting because those are the numbers of people where there are no comorbidities.
07:08So people who have pre-existing conditions are often the first to die from malnutrition because their bodies are already weakened by other issues.
07:20And so those numbers are not being counted.
07:22So likely we've already seen an undercounting and we'll likely see many, many more to come.
07:28Unfortunately, this was entirely preventable.
07:32This is entirely due to Israel blocking humanitarian access and preventing humanitarians from reaching communities in desperate need.
07:40Shana, thank you very much.
07:41Shana Lowe from the Norwegian Refugee Council joining us from Amman.
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