UNRWA chief Lazzarini on Gaza humanitarian crisis at Geneva refugee forum
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Transcript
00:00 1 million people who have fled in this governorate, and most of them, as we know, have been moved
00:10 more than once since the beginning of the war.
00:13 Rafa has quadrupled its number of people overnight, and especially when the offensive in the south
00:22 has started.
00:25 It traditionally has been a place where the poorest of the Gaza Strip used to live, and
00:33 basically it's a place which lacks infrastructure and all the basics.
00:39 I'm saying this because it's not a place to host in duration more than 1 million people,
00:46 and certainly not the entire Gaza Strip.
00:50 People are now pushed into this area, which does not represent in terms of superfacy more
00:57 than a quarter of the Gaza Strip.
01:01 One UNRWA warehouse that became a shelter is now home to more than 30,000 people.
01:05 This is a place I visited in our warehouses, and basically families live in tiny spaces
01:12 separated only by blankets or plastic sheeting since the beginning of the war.
01:19 But what has changed compared to my last visit is while before we used to have overcrowded
01:28 shelter, more than 1 million people are living in UN premises, when I visited this warehouse
01:36 we had tens of thousands of people in the outside, which is in fact the extension of
01:43 what happened, the overcrowding taking place in the warehouse.
01:51 Basically the lucky ones are those who have a place inside our premises, and especially
02:00 now that winter has just started.
02:03 But the others have absolutely nowhere to go.
02:08 They live in the open, they live in the cold, in the mud, and under the rain.
02:14 Everywhere you look is congested with makeshift shelters.
02:20 Everywhere you go people are desperate, hungry, and are terrified.
02:27 People – and this is also something completely new – people are stopping at 8 trucks, taking
02:34 the food and eating it right away.
02:37 And this is how desperate and hungry they are.
02:41 And I witnessed this firsthand.
02:44 So just to re-explain what I said here, because it's difficult to comprehend, because of the
02:52 immensity of the needs and because of the little aid trickling into Gaza, it is becoming
03:03 more and more difficult to reach our shelters, which are overcrowded, because outside you
03:11 have tens of thousands of people who are desperately in the same kind of needs.
03:18 And they need also to be supplied and assisted in order to be able to reach the ones who
03:26 are in the warehouses.
03:31 And this has nothing to do with aid diversion.
03:35 This is something which has to do with the total despair the people are expressing in
03:45 the Gaza Strip.
03:47 Hunger is something people in Gaza have never, ever known before.
03:53 But hunger has now emerged over the last few weeks, and we meet more and more people who
04:02 haven't eaten for one, two or three days.
04:07 And this is the reason why we see people stopping sometimes trucks, downloading and eating on
04:15 the spot.
04:19 Now let me just say also a few words regarding the security in Gaza.
04:29 As of today, we have 135 UNRWA staff who have been killed since the beginning of the war.
04:39 And you heard me many times, no place has been spared, not even the places which normally
04:47 should be protected by the law of war.
04:52 I was absolutely horrified yesterday when I saw a video circulating of an UNRWA school
04:59 being blown up in northern Gaza.
05:03 School, medical and UN facilities are not and should never, ever be a target.
05:12 But fortunately, in Gaza, they have quite often become just that.
05:18 We have, since the beginning of the war, recorded when it comes to United Nations premises,
05:25 about 150 situations where our premises have been hit, or directly, or indirectly.
05:35 And this has led to the killing of more than 270 people and the injuries of more than 1,000.
05:45 And some of the survivors in these places have just no choice but to stay in this shelter,
05:52 despite the fact that they have been hit.
05:56 Why?
05:57 Just because, again, there is absolutely nowhere to go in the Gaza Strip.
06:03 And let me also remind that as far as the UN is concerned, we keep sharing the coordinate
06:12 of all the locations with all the parties of the conflict, both the Israeli army, but
06:20 also the de facto in Gaza.
06:25 Now let me also highlight that people there believe that their life are not equal to other
06:38 life and they have the feeling that in reality, human right or international humanitarian
06:45 law does not really apply to them.
06:49 There is a deep, deep sense and feeling of betrayal.
06:55 There is a sense, a feeling that people have been abandoned by the international community.
07:03 But in reality, like anyone else in Gaza, people just long for safety and stability.
07:09 They just long for life.
07:12 They just want to have a normal life.
07:16 But they are very far away right now to this normal life.
07:23 What continues to shock me is the ever increasing level of dehumanization, the lack of empathy
07:33 and humanity, the fact that people can laugh, cheer and mock any type of wrongdoing that
07:43 we observe in this war.
07:46 And in fact, what is happening in Gaza should outrage anyone, should make us all rethink
07:54 our values.
07:56 I think this is also a make or break moment for all of us and for our shared humanity.
08:07 Since we are here with you, our colleagues, members of the media, let me thank you and
08:14 your colleagues in the region and beyond for covering what the people of Gaza are going
08:20 through.
08:21 But not only the people of Gaza, I mean anyone in the region, because it's really impacting
08:28 anyone and beyond.
08:31 As you all know, this war is also fought on TV screen and on social media.
08:38 It's also a media war.
08:42 I'm horrified at the smear campaign that target the Palestinians and those who provide
08:49 aid to them.
08:51 And on that, I'm asking you to help us push back against misinformation and inaccuracies.
09:01 I know that some of you are constantly doing fact checking, but fact checking is absolutely
09:08 key if we want accurate information.
09:13 Just always make sure to verify and debunk repeated and sometimes vulgar accusation.
09:22 And as Commissioner General of UNRWA, I have experienced this more than once since our
09:31 agency is also one of the target of this war.
09:38 Before I close, let me also share the latest on the situation in the West Bank where we
09:43 are also recording, and we should not forget, the highest level of violence in nearly two
09:49 decades since the second intifada, with record high fatalities, injuries, arrests.
09:57 Basically there is no single day without an incursion, a secret operation leading to the
10:05 killing of a Palestinian.
10:09 Fear among the residents in the West Bank is also growing, and we start to observe some
10:15 displacement of Palestinians.
10:19 Significant and increasing set of violence, including the use of firearms, is also spreading.
10:27 We all know that a lot of arms now have been distributed in the West Bank.
10:33 But also, and here we have a perfect storm in the making, economically and financially,
10:41 the economy is collapsing.
10:44 Palestinians are not walking in Israel anymore.
10:49 Israeli-Arab are not doing shopping anymore in the West Bank.
10:53 There is no real movement anymore from one city to the other one out of fear.
11:00 And we also know that the Palestinian authorities have difficulties to pay salary.
11:06 This is economically a perfect storm in the making in the West Bank.
11:12 So maybe let me just end with the three asks I shared also yesterday when I addressed the
11:19 plenary of the Global Refugee Forum.
11:23 First, the humanitarian ceasefire, I welcome the decision or the support of 153 member
11:31 states at the General Assembly.
11:34 It is now time that this call for humanitarian ceasefire be translated into reality.
11:42 The two, the siege of Gaza needs to be lifted and what we need today is not just 100 trucks
11:53 or 200 trucks.
11:55 We need meaningful, at scale, uninterrupted, unconditional flow of basic commodities into
12:05 Gaza Strip.
12:06 This is the only way to reverse the negative impact of the siege.
12:15 We as humanitarian alone will not succeed to cover all the need of a desperate population
12:25 if the crossing are not properly open, if the commercial sector is not properly coming
12:34 back into Gaza.
12:35 They have been denied any access now for 70 days.
12:43 And last, I believe we have to make sure, and I know we say it since day one, and I
12:51 know it is a call for all of us, but international humanitarian law should still have a meaning.
13:00 It needs to have a meaning also in the context of Gaza.
13:04 It cannot be just reinterpreted à la carte.
13:10 This war has also rules and it is time that these rules be properly applied.
13:18 Just to conclude, I think there is no suffering.
13:22 In suffering there is absolutely no competition and I believe that ultimately in this war
13:30 there will be no winner.
13:33 The longer this war goes on, the larger the loss, but beyond that, the deeper the grief.
13:41 So I think, like many of my colleagues, that there is absolutely no alternative to a proper,
13:50 genuine political process to end once for all the longest lasting unresolved conflict,
13:59 75 years without a solution.
14:04 It has not been a priority over the last decade.
14:08 It is time that this becomes a proper priority.
14:14 To end, Israeli and Palestinian deserve statehood, peace and stability.
14:22 Peace and stability, that's what the region deserves also.
14:26 Thank you.