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AMY GOODMAN: This is Democracy Now!, democracynow.org, The War and Peace Report. I’m Amy Goodman.
On Monday, the United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres called for an end to Israel’s total blockade of Gaza, which is now in its third month. A new U.N. report warns one of every five people in Gaza is facing starvation as, quote, “goods indispensable for people’s survival are either depleted or expected to run out,” unquote. Save the Children is warning every child in Gaza is now at risk of famine. Earlier this month, the World Central Kitchen announced it can no longer prepare and distribute food in Gaza since they’ve run out of supplies.
This is Amna Rizk, a mother of six in Jabaliya, in Gaza.
AMNA RIZK: [translated] All day on one piece of bread, I swear, one piece. We eat one meal. All of us, the elderly, the young, we’re all living on one piece of bread. We divide it among ourselves. We divide one piece of bread, I swear. What can we do?
AMY GOODMAN: For more, we go to Gaza City, where we’re joined by Mahmoud Alsaqqa, Oxfam’s food security and livelihoods coordinator.
Welcome to Democracy Now! Thank you for joining us from Gaza. Explain the effects of the Israeli blockade on Gaza right now.
MAHMOUD ALSAQQA: Thank you. Thank you for having me.
As you already mentioned, the Israeli authorities now imposing this complete blockade for all the supplies into Gaza since more than 70 days. So we are talking about not any humanitarian or commercial, no food, no medical supplies are entered since the 2nd of March. And also, the nutrient supplements and the therapeutic food for the treatment of malnutrition also is forbidden. Our supplies, as organizations, as humanitarian organizations, and also other like-minded organizations’ supplies, have been depleted. So, the situation on the ground here is becoming unbearable, to be honest. And also, the families have been exhausted, all kinds of coping mechanisms. We are seeing that the stocks are depleted, and also observing this worsening public health situation in the overcrowded makeshift camps and locations where the people are, sites.
Just yesterday, an important report has been issued, which is — it’s measuring the food insecurity of the people and also the malnutrition. This report is also mainly, mainly confirming what we have already repeatedly during the last days, that there is a warning of the situation in the Gaza Strip, where they are saying that the whole population continues to face this critical risk of famine. And also, half a million people are starving in Gaza Strip. When we are talking about starving, we are talking about they are facing a catastrophic food insecurity situation. That means that they have an extreme lack of access for food, and there’s a — malnutrition rates are increasing. And also, we are expecting deaths due to this starvation and diseases outbreaks. So, this is just a glimpse about the current situation on the ground here in Gaza.
AMY GOODMAN: Is there any safe water, drinking water, in Gaza?
MAHMOUD ALSAQQA: Same, you know, that more than 90% of the Gazans are classified as water insecure. And nowadays they are using mostly unsafe water, water sources. So, this is why we are saying that there is a rapid deterioration of the public health. And this deterioration of the public health is also affecting and leading to the outbreaks, to the malnutrition among the children and also the pregnant and lactating women. All these things together, the clean water and also the solid waste system that is almost collapsed, and the overcrowding in the makeshift camps and the displaced locations, are worsening the health conditions and increasing the morbidity among the children and others.
AMY GOODMAN: You’ve said that Oxfam is witnessing scenes that, quote, “defy belief: families wasting away from hunger, malnourished children too weak to cry, and entire communities surviving without food or clean water.” Describe these scenes on the ground.
MAHMOUD ALSAQQA: Yeah. As I’ve said, you know, now the only lifeline for food assistance in Gaza Strip is the community kitchens. And so far, more than 50% of these community kitchens have been shut down because of the lack of supplies. So we are talking about the severe shortages of the food supplies. Nowadays the people didn’t even manage to have one meal per day. So, what we are seeing on the ground here, because of the severity of the crisis, people are enforcing to feed their children with flour that is spoiled or infested, simply because they didn’t have an alternative, you know, that they enforced to do so. And also, in the same times, and also we are seeing the people for many days didn’t even get the chance to get bread. And the people, the adults and the breadwinner of the family are just crying because he cannot feed his children. You can imagine that this is the situation.
And the fundamental question that we are receiving from all those people, to be honest and to be frank in that regards, are even on the same — they are repeating: Are our lives and our children’s lives truly worthless for the world? And are we really mean nothing? Because such scenes, to be honest, and even the situation on the ground, it’s much more than what we are seeing in the pictures or the scenes in the images. The situations, we are not exaggerating when we are talking about catastrophic situations. People are starving to death. And this is not — this is a fact that we are witnessing and experiencing nowadays.
AMY GOODMAN: You’ve said Gaza’s starvation is not incidental. It’s deliberate, entirely engineered, has now created the largest population facing starvation anywhere in the world. Talk about what you’re calling for, what Oxfam is calling for, and also respond to the U.S. confirming that they’re calling for a new system for providing humanitarian aid to Palestinians in Gaza through private companies, even as Israel’s blockade continues.
MAHMOUD ALSAQQA: You know, this proposal and this mechanism that we are talking about contravenes the humanitarian principles. And it’s not practical or feasible, by the way. And they are intending to support or serve about 60% of the population in the Gaza Strip. And they are going to serve them with just talking about food and some other basic items. But the Palestinians in Gaza Strip are need in much more issues.
Also, one of the issues is that — the issue of that they are enforcing civilians to walk for long distances in order to get their supplies from specific locations or hubs. And we have a lot of elderly people and people with disabilities, a lot of wounded people, so they are not — cannot do that.
You are saying that — and I’m insisting that we are — we are in the middle of the starvation, and we are just discussing such mechanisms. And the same times, we have humanitarian aid organizations who have already their systems on place, and for the last more than 16 months, they are supporting the community. So, what is needed is just to open the borders and to allow us to operate freely so we can support those people who are in desperate need. We are discussing this while the people are starving. And there are a lot and hundreds, thousands of trucks are stuck on the borders, just need a green light to enter so we can fulfill our mandate and to support the people who are in need.
To be honest, we, as humanitarian workers and as employees working on that sector, we are feel tired, disappointed and also frustrated that we cannot even support the people. Our supplies in Oxfam has been ended since one month, and we cannot provide any food assistance for any of the people here, because our stocks has been depleted and our warehouses are empty. So we cannot support the people who are starving and who are in a desperate need. All that we need is to get our supplies in, is to have this ceasefire, is to stop these hostilities, to allow us to work freely and to be protected in that regards.
AMY GOODMAN: Do you concur with what Al Jazeera is saying, that authorities in Gaza said that at least 57 people starved to death as a result of the Israeli blockade?
MAHMOUD ALSAQQA: This is, in fact, the accumulative number of the people dead because of malnutrition. During this crisis, after the resumption of the hostilities, we have at least one confirmed cases that have been dead due to the malnutrition. But, you know, the issue of the malnutrition, that it’s now we are expecting the deterioration to become more rapidly, because from our experience, acute malnutrition can worsen rapidly. Now we didn’t have any supplies in the local market, so we are expecting the worst. And the worst is coming day by day, not even through weeks or months. So, we’re expecting critical levels of malnutrition in the coming few days, if not any action is taken in that regards.
AMY GOODMAN: Mahmoud Alsaqqa, I want to thank you for joining us and again say that Israel prevents all international journalists from entering Gaza and that over 200 journalists have been killed in Gaza in the Israeli strikes, not to mention the number of health workers, medical workers. Mahmoud Alsaqqa, I want to thank you for being with us, Oxfam’s food security and livelihoods coordinator, speaking to us from Gaza City.
