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00:00First, the Israeli army has today announced the opening of an additional aid crossing
00:10into the Gaza Strip, ahead of an American deadline that could see some military assistance
00:16to Israel cut. Hours before the deadline, though, eight international organisations
00:22issued a statement saying Israel had failed to meet the US target, adding that conditions
00:28are worse than at any point during the 13-month war. Last week, a UN-backed assessment concluded
00:36that famine is imminent in parts of northern Gaza, where Israel has imposed a siege.
00:43Karis Garland has our first report.
00:48Crowding around a food distribution site in Deir al-Bala, scores of Palestinians seek
00:54to stave off the hunger that's become so widespread. Humanitarian conditions in the Gaza Strip
01:00remain dire, and on Tuesday, eight international aid organisations said that Israel had missed
01:06a US deadline to reduce human suffering in the territory. The US sent Israel a letter
01:12on October 13, warning it had 30 days to take a list of steps to improve the situation or
01:19risk losing American military support. On Monday, Israel's new foreign minister appeared
01:24to downplay the deadline.
01:27We see how we can respond in difficult circumstances to the humanitarian demands. I'm sure that
01:37we can also reach understanding with our American friends.
01:43According to the aid organisations, Israel showed partial or inconsistent implementation
01:48on four of the American demands, and non-compliance, delays or backtracking on 15 of them. One
01:56key demand was to increase the amount of aid trucks entering Gaza. The UN said an average
02:01of 37 trucks passed into the Strip per day in October. That's compared to roughly 200
02:08per day in the two previous months. But barely any of this made it to northern Gaza, where
02:14Israel launched a major offensive weeks ago.
02:17The Israeli military says it's fighting Hamas militants who have regrouped in the north.
02:22Rights groups and observers have accused Israel of trying to implement a plan in which the
02:27army forcibly displaces the population from the area. In its letter to Israel, the US
02:33had asked for written commitment that the military was not seeking to isolate northern
02:38Gaza.
02:39Well, a bit earlier on today, I spoke to Noh Gerd Tarnopolski. She's our correspondent
02:45in Jerusalem. And I asked her to tell me a bit more about Israel's perspective on aid
02:51access to Gaza. Here's what she told me.
02:55The latest statements are not really denying the suffering of Gazans, but they do dispute
03:01the claim of starvation. So the Israeli army said in the last hour in a statement that
03:08125 humanitarian trucks entered Gaza today from two previously opened border crossings.
03:17So that's not counting the new border crossing that was opened today, where I think they
03:22said another 39 trucks came in. And the Israeli army also says that of all of those trucks,
03:28only the UN and other agencies only came to pick up 26 of them. And they say that 900,
03:36the contents of 900 trucks are stockpiled on the Gazan side of the border. There's no
03:43explanation as to why this might be, but the army does seem to be blaming the international
03:50agencies for not properly distributing all of this aid.
03:54Well, I'm very pleased to welcome live to the programme now Louise Wateridge from the
04:00UN Palestinian agency UNRWA. She's live for us in Nusrat in the centre of Gaza. Louise,
04:07first of all, thank you very much indeed for finding the time to talk to us today.
04:14First of all, I'd like to put to you a little bit of what our Jerusalem correspondent just
04:18recounted that the Israeli army is saying today, that some aid is getting into Gaza,
04:25Israel says, specifically 125 trucks have crossed today. But only Israel is saying the
04:32contents of a few of them have been picked up. Israel claiming hundreds of trucks are
04:37stuck on the Gazan side of the border. Is that true?
04:41I mean, we certainly welcome this amount of aid, any amount of aid reaching the borders
04:47of the Gaza Strip. This is something that has not been reliable and not been consistent
04:52for the last 13 months. But it's not just the aid getting to the border. That's not
04:58where the operation stops. The aid needs to reach the people in need. And in order to
05:03do that, we simply cannot always access and facilitate the aid at the borders if we don't
05:09have safe passage. What I mean by safe passage is we cannot go to a border and collect aid
05:15if we're being bombed, if we're being shot at, if there's strikes, and also if our missions
05:20are denied. Since September, we've had over 100% increase in our missions on the ground,
05:27our movements on the ground denied. So if we're not permitted to move, if we're not
05:31permitted to go and collect the aid, and if we don't have insured safety for our personnel,
05:37no, we cannot collect it. But I will remind you, you know, October, we saw an average
05:44of 37 trucks a day. So as I say, I welcome any increase, we welcome any increase to these
05:50supplies. But this is not the reality that we have seen throughout this war that there
05:54has been enough aid reaching people in the Gaza Strip.
05:58And we will talk about what you're seeing in just a moment. But just to clarify what
06:01it is that you are saying, your understanding is that there is some aid on the Gazan side
06:07of the frontier at the moment, but really, it is too dangerous or Israel has made it
06:12too logistically difficult for your staff to go and get it.
06:16Firstly, I have no knowledge, we do not have access to the border to see this aid. This
06:22is something that you're telling me is there, but we don't have access to go and collect
06:27the aid. And sometimes on occasion when we do, it is too dangerous for the movements
06:32to be permitted. We have had multiple incidences where the convoys carrying the aid that we
06:38have been in have been shot at, have been fired upon. I have been in one of these convoys
06:43myself, and it's simply not possible to distribute aid to the population when we ourselves are
06:49under fire. So it's, as I say, we welcome the aid to the border, but we need the safe
06:56facilitation from the border to the people who need the aid. Otherwise, no, it simply
07:03cannot be distributed.
07:05And help us, Louise, get a picture of what's happening a little further north from where
07:10you are, places like Jabalia, places like Beit Lahia. We've been reporting that they
07:16are effectively under Israeli siege for weeks now, that a trickle of aid is getting in.
07:23Although, as I say, Israel says some of it is getting in today. What's your best understanding
07:27of what is happening right now in places like that?
07:31For an entire month, the humanitarians have been denied entry by Israeli authorities to
07:37these besieged areas. Only recently, in the last week, have we had very limited access
07:42on the ground. Journalists are also denied entry from this area. So the information we
07:48receive is very limited. But what I can tell you from our colleagues on the ground, from
07:53displaced people we're communicating with, is people are trapped. People are trapped
07:57in residential buildings. They're hiding from the ongoing military operations around them.
08:03They're running out of food. The water wells, UNRWA has eight water wells in Jabalia. They
08:08have all been destroyed. So people do not have access to water. It's a horror show.
08:14It's an absolute horror show. The stories that we are hearing from people, I spoke to
08:19some people in Gaza City last week who had fled Jabalia. They were telling us of bodies
08:24on the street. Hospitals do not have ambulances functioning. People are not able to get to
08:30hospital. People are injured. The only method to get to a hospital there is by donkey cart.
08:35One surgeon is remaining in the besieged north. It's just endless. I don't have enough time
08:41to tell you the horrors that are going on in the besieged areas of the Gaza Strip in
08:46the north.
08:47And in terms of food, Louise, there was this UN-backed assessment last week saying famine
08:55is now imminent in parts of northern Gaza. I wonder if that tallies with your experience
09:01and the experience of your colleagues who you are able to speak to who are a little
09:04further north.
09:07Across the Gaza Strip, everybody right now is hungry. We're seeing even in the middle
09:12and southern areas that are distribution centres, people are fighting over bags of flour. It's
09:19just appalling the conditions people are living in. And as I said, the besieged north, there
09:24has been cut off from humanitarian aid for a month. No food has reached an entire month.
09:31People are starving. And when we have access, we will know more about these horrors. But
09:37yes, this IPC report is based on the lack of access, the lack of aid, the lack of supplies
09:44able to reach people, the lack of absolutely everything.
09:46People have been malnourished here for the best part of 13 months. This isn't something
09:50that's happened over the last days, even the last siege since October. It's been 13 months
09:56that people have not had access to nourishment, to food, to consistent shelter, to water.
10:04And it's had a huge effect on the population here.
10:07And look, you are now in Nusrat, in the centre of Gaza. Yesterday, we were reporting that
10:12Palestinians in Nusrat were saying that Israeli tanks had entered a part of the refugee camp
10:19there. Given that you're in Nusrat yourself, I mean, what can you just tell us about what
10:23the situation is like there in terms of security, if nothing else?
10:29Ten minutes didn't pass yesterday without a bomb, a strike or shelling. It was, when
10:35I say relentless, I mean, every 10 minutes, we were hearing bombing and strikes in the
10:40surrounding areas. It's terrifying. People around us here, everybody that we can see
10:46is in makeshift shelters. They're not even in structures. They're sheltering behind fabric.
10:54There's nowhere to run. There's nowhere to hide. When these bombardments start, when
10:58these military operations start, where do they go? There's nowhere to flee. We've been
11:02saying again for 13 months, nowhere is safe in the Gaza Strip. And that is the case yesterday.
11:08Many people lost their lives. Many civilians lost their lives. And this is the daily occurrence
11:13here. It's not just yesterday. Every day we wake up in this war, we check to see if
11:18our colleagues and our friends are alive. That's the first thing everybody here does.
11:22It just never ends.
11:24And look, you've already reminded us that you've travelled to Gaza already during this
11:28war. You said that you were in a convoy that was shot at previously. I just wonder, you
11:34know, you can give us such a human face to a story that can be so hard to tell sometimes.
11:39Is it your impression that what you're seeing now in Gaza is worse somehow, more dangerous
11:46than what you've seen previously?
11:49Since I've been in the Gaza Strip from April, it has gotten worse every day. Some days it
11:55gets worse every hour. It's never improved. The situation is not improving. The bombing
12:00is more ferocious. The food is more scarce. The weather is getting worse and there's no
12:07shelter. We have trucks of mattresses and blankets waiting and tarps for people to
12:13shelter in, waiting to enter the Gaza Strip that have been sat there for six months. It's
12:19impossible. It's absolutely impossible. It is a population of 2.2 million people who
12:24need everything. It's logistically not the most difficult operation the United Nations
12:29has faced. But the political will involved is what's preventing the people getting everything
12:35that they need. And we see it here. It's unbearable. The suffering that people are
12:40forced to go through on a daily basis. They've lost everything. They've lost their homes.
12:44They've lost their families. They've lost siblings, children. It is just unbearable
12:50and it never ends. The suffering is not ending. It's not getting easier. And we're very scared
12:57for what is to come with the winter months, with disease spreading, with the ongoing bombardments.
13:02We need a ceasefire now. We need the hostages to go home to their families. And we really
13:08need people in Gaza Strip, all civilians, to have respite from this significantly brutal
13:14and unprecedented war.
13:16Well, Louise Wateridge, thank you very much indeed for taking a little bit of time to
13:20tell us what you've seen in Gaza. We really appreciate it. That's Louise Wateridge talking
13:25to us from UNRWA, the UN Palestinian Agency. She was live for us in Nusrat, in the centre
13:30of Gaza.