The conditions in Gaza are 'incredibly desperate and they're getting worse by the day'
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00:00 all the while the humanitarian catastrophe worsens
00:02 across the enclave, particularly for young people
00:05 caught in the crossfire.
00:07 To expand on this, let's turn to the thoughts of Rob Williams.
00:10 He's the CEO of War Child UK, an organization
00:13 aimed at helping children in war zones.
00:17 Rob, obviously, it's a devastating situation
00:20 unfolding for children specifically in Gaza.
00:24 It has been called the most difficult place
00:26 to be a child in the world.
00:29 What has your organization found managing the crisis that's
00:33 unfolding there?
00:35 It's very challenging.
00:37 The situation of people in Gaza is increasingly desperate.
00:41 So right now, our job is to make sure
00:44 that if people have been displaced,
00:46 and 1.9 million people have been,
00:49 that we support them to get access to the basics
00:51 that they're going to need to survive.
00:53 So we've been distributing blankets and mattresses
00:58 and cooking sets to as many families as we can.
01:01 But the reality is the supplies inside Gaza are running out.
01:05 We have very, very small numbers of trucks coming in every day.
01:09 So if you're a family and you've been moved south down
01:12 to near the border crossing at Rafa,
01:15 you might have access to some aid distribution.
01:17 But what that actually means is you
01:20 will spend six hours a day queuing
01:22 for a distribution of bread.
01:24 And you will probably get about half as much bread
01:27 as your family needs to survive.
01:29 And so you will be seeing your family losing weight.
01:33 You'll be seeing your family becoming increasingly stressed.
01:36 And because you're crammed in a shelter
01:38 with thousands of other people, you
01:41 will probably be suffering from skin complaints.
01:46 There's an increasing rise in infectious diseases
01:49 like diarrhea because the sanitation system has
01:52 collapsed.
01:53 And people are literally using the open street
01:56 as a toilet because there is no other place to go.
02:00 So the conditions are incredibly desperate.
02:03 And they are getting worse by the day
02:04 because there is less food coming in than Gaza
02:08 needs to feed itself.
02:09 So gradually, the population is becoming weaker and more
02:13 hungry and sicker.
02:16 Now, you've obviously worked in places like Sudan, Syria,
02:20 the Rwandan genocide.
02:22 You also were familiar with what happened there.
02:25 What makes Gaza unique in terms of providing
02:29 that aid distribution?
02:30 Is it the fact that it is so closed off?
02:33 What can you attest to in terms of some anecdotes?
02:38 What's unique, I think, most obviously,
02:40 is that this is an enclosed space.
02:42 So in a normal conflict situation,
02:46 people have the choice to move.
02:48 And as you see every day in your reports,
02:50 people are saying there is no safe place to move.
02:53 And they can't actually exit Gaza because they're
02:55 surrounded by a wall.
02:57 So that makes the fact that the bombardment is continuing,
03:02 even though we know that civilians are
03:04 dying in very large numbers, that
03:06 is incredibly, incredibly difficult for civilians
03:10 living in this space.
03:13 That level of civilian damage is really, really so unusual.
03:19 Not entirely unprecedented, but this level
03:22 of casualties compared to the objective, which
03:26 is military objective, which is very hard to achieve,
03:31 is out of proportion to what you would normally
03:34 expect to see if you're within international humanitarian law.
03:38 So this crisis, I think, if anyone's watching this
03:43 and thinking this is normal, absolutely not normal.
03:46 This is the worst thing I have seen in over 20 years.
03:50 Responding to conflict-based emergencies.
03:53 Very strong statement there, Rob Williams.
03:57 I'm sorry we're going to have to leave it there.
03:59 Wish we could dive more into this.
04:01 But that's Rob Williams coming to us from the United Kingdom,
04:05 where he is the CEO of War Child,
04:08 and just talking about the humanitarian situation
04:11 there in Gaza.