IFRC: During truce, 'more must be done to offer dignified answer to immense needs of people in Gaza'
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00:00 And as we wait to see if the truce will be extended, I'm pleased to welcome to the programme
00:05 now Tomasso Dallalonga. He's a spokesperson for the International Federation of the Red
00:10 Cross and Red Crescent Societies. Welcome to the programme, sir. Thank you for joining
00:14 us.
00:15 Thanks a lot for having me today.
00:18 After three and a half days of truce, first of all, what is your understanding now of
00:23 what life is like for civilians in Gaza?
00:26 Well, of course, life is still complicated, but way better in the last three and a half
00:32 days, simply because there are not any more, because fighting is still not going on, which
00:37 is of course is a positive news for the people in Gaza. And also for the first time in some
00:42 weeks we were able, thanks to the Palestine Red Crescent colleagues, to reach the north
00:47 with 150 trucks of humanitarian aid. And of course, this is very good news because we
00:52 are talking about thousands of people that were simply unreachable during the heavy shelling
00:57 and the fighting. So this, of course, is positive news. Now, is this enough? No. And more must
01:04 be done to bring a proper, dignified answer to the immense needs of the people in Gaza.
01:11 Well, let's talk a bit more about that then. And let's start with humanitarian aid. As
01:15 you say, more of it has got in thanks to this truce. But is it enough in any sense? Do people,
01:23 for example, have enough food in Gaza?
01:26 No, not really. It's not enough. And we acknowledge that. I mean, we knew that since the beginning.
01:31 Then, of course, we cannot underestimate the positive step of having four days of pause
01:36 to the fighting. And we are doing really our utmost together with all the other humanitarian
01:41 agencies, as a team effort, I would say, to bring as much as possible humanitarian aid.
01:45 But the reality is that we are talking about all the population in Gaza, or mostly all
01:50 the population in Gaza with immense humanitarian needs, 1.7 million or even more displaced,
01:56 and half of the health facilities not working anymore. And this is really the one, the part
02:01 that is concerning us the most, because, of course, we need to break this vicious cycle
02:05 where if you don't have access to the facilities, mainly your health issue will become even
02:10 bigger. So then the needs will grow.
02:14 Well, let's talk about hospitals then, because, of course, they've come under attack extensively
02:20 during the war. Do you have an understanding of how many are operational at the moment?
02:27 I would say less than a half of all the health facilities in the Gaza Strip. Now we do hope
02:32 and we are doing our utmost to refurnish and bring back, I don't want to say if not totally
02:36 up and running, but really at least trying to bring back medicine and medical equipments
02:41 to health facilities. But the reality here is that for this it's not enough. And again,
02:47 the needs are growing minute by minute and are still growing minute by minute if we are
02:52 not able to give a proper humanitarian answer to the people in Gaza. So just to give you
02:57 an example, the Palestinian Crescent used to have, and used to have, it's sad already,
03:03 two hospitals. One was closed in Gaza City because it was cut off for seven days, heavy
03:08 shelling, no medicine, no electricity and so on. The second one is in the south, which
03:12 now is refurnished with electricity and medicine, but still one on two is not working and we
03:19 really need to do our utmost to bring back health facilities up and running in the north
03:23 where needs are really great.
03:25 How important is getting more fuel into Gaza for you in order to get those hospitals running
03:32 in the longer term?
03:34 Really critical. I mean, fuel, we have been saying this since the beginning, fuel in Gaza
03:39 is a life saving item. It's life saving because without fuel there is no electricity in the
03:44 hospital, but also because there are no water pumps, no desalinization, no warm, I mean,
03:50 also the part of winter that is coming with the cold. So fuel is really critical. And
03:55 of course fuel is critical for trucks and ambulances. So again, positive news that finally
04:00 fuel entered in Gaza, but then we need to see what will happen from tomorrow on.
04:05 And finally, I presume then the Red Cross and the Red Crescent are pushing really hard
04:10 now for this truce to be extended.
04:12 Well, I mean, again, this is something that we have been advocating and seeing since the
04:17 beginning. The more the fighting will go on, the more the needs will grow. So we do hope
04:23 that we will be able to have some more pause to the fighting because the more fighting
04:26 will go ahead, the more it will be very difficult in terms of safety to reach the people, the
04:32 more vulnerable people in the Gaza Strip.
04:34 Tommaso Della Longa from the International Federation of the Red Cross and the Red Crescent
04:38 Societies. Thanks very much indeed.
04:41 Thank you very much.