00:10NGOs have called on Israel to reconsider, saying affected organizations are essential to humanitarian operations.
00:18Bushra Khalidi is from Oxfam. I asked her about the humanitarian situation in Gaza now.
00:25I think it's important, and thank you for starting by asking that question.
00:29I think it's a very, very well-worded question to start this topic, because we have been obstructed and blocked from operating freely and unobstructedly for the last two years by Israel.
00:43Israel has killed a record number of humanitarian workers in the last two years.
00:47It has bombed our premises. It has bombed our convoys. It has blocked our items.
00:52It has driven famine-like conditions in Gaza because of blocking humanitarian access.
00:57So I think it's really important to set that scene, is that what is happening now is nothing new.
01:03It only continues within the, you know, the kind of campaign that Israel has orchestrated to drive, basically, the population of Gaza into survival.
01:14So, you know, we have not been able to enter any materials in since March, in fact, us and many other organizations.
01:23And, of course, that has, you know, severely restricted our ability to scale up our operations.
01:28So I think what is really important to look at is how we were operating in the first ceasefire in January 2025, when there was a first ceasefire.
01:35You can see the numbers and how we were able to deliver to, you know, hundreds of thousands of people.
01:40You know, unfortunately, that's not the case anymore.
01:42We're unable to scale up in that way.
01:46But we are able to provide, for example, support and funding to the Coastal Municipal Water Authority to carry out rehabilitation of water wells.
01:57We were able to get latrines in to install them and then move them when there were forcible displacement orders.
02:03We were able to provide mental health support to families.
02:06We were able to support families to teach them how to grow their household, little crops in, you know, around their rubble of their own homes and their tents.
02:15We were able to get seeds from a place inside Gaza and distribute them to families.
02:19So we're trying to, you know, find workarounds to work through our local partnerships and local community networks that we have access to to be able to continue and deliver what we can.
02:32If Oxfam International and other organizations are suspended, what will that mean for people in Gaza?
02:42Well, I mean, you know, let's talk about the impact now of the siege.
02:46It is devastating.
02:47We have seen the numbers from the IPC a few weeks ago.
02:51We saw them in the summer.
02:53There's been a slight improvement, but that's not good enough for the time of a ceasefire.
02:58And six months after the famine was declared, we should have seen much more improvement in Gaza.
03:04Of course, like I said, it will severely.
03:06I mean, you know, it's winter here in Palestine.
03:09It was raining.
03:10It rained a record number of rain per millimeter yesterday in Palestine since 1992.
03:17So the impact is devastating by the fact that shelter materials, for example, cannot enter.
03:24For families, this will mean slower repairs.
03:26It will mean fewer supplies.
03:28It will mean longer waits for basic services.
03:30It will directly affect access to clean water, to sanitation, to shelter materials, to public health interventions.
03:37Aid that should be moving predictably remains will remain delayed.
03:41It will remain restricted and it will remain stranded.
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