The fighting in Gaza has stopped. But dire conditions persist

0:00A new and beautiful day is rising. That is what President Trump told a gathering of world leaders this week. He was speaking of the ceasefire between Israel and Hamas, a ceasefire meant to pave the way to a permanent end to the war that has left much of the Gaza Strip in rubble. Now, Trump said, the rebuilding begins. The rebuilding is maybe going to be the easiest part. I think we've done a lot of the hardest part. Mahemar Abusada has a different view. He's a political science professor in Gaza who has been living in Cairo. I guess it seems to me that the easy part has been done. The most complicated issues will be in the second stage of this Trump proposal, meaning the governance of Gaza, the demilitarization of Gaza, and also rebuilding and reconstruction of Gaza.

0:55There are huge questions about what comes after the ceasefire. Who will govern Gaza? Will Hamas disarm? When will Israeli troops fully withdraw? And before any of that, there's a more urgent challenge, getting food and medicine to the people in Gaza. There is some aid going in, but clearly the amount is falling far, far short of what is necessary for the survival of the population. That's Jonathan Fowler with the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees. He says his organization has tons of food staged in Egypt and Jordan, achingly close to the Gaza Strip. The ceasefire agreement calls for Israel to let 600 trucks a day into Gaza.

1:43As of Wednesday, just about half that number is getting in. Israel says that's in response to delays by Hamas in the handover of the bodies of hostages. What's coming in now is it's, I mean, something is better than nothing, but it's close to nothing. Consider this. The fighting in Gaza has stopped, but dire conditions persist for the two million-odd people who live there. What will it take to get enough aid into Gaza?

2:16From NPR, I'm Mary Louise Kelly. Akilah Shurils remembers the day in 1992 when the Bloods and Crips gangs in his Watts neighborhood agreed to a ceasefire. We had a barbecue. It was like it became a family reunion. I mean, we had a three-decade war, you know, so the release was just extraordinary. Listen to the TED Radio Hour on the NPR app or wherever you get your podcasts.

2:50It's Consider This from NPR. What's it been like to live through these last two years of war in Gaza? Here is how Palestinian journalist Shruk Ayla explained it to my colleague Leila Fadal this week. And she added that these two years of war have coincided with the first years of her daughter's life. Daniel spent more than half of her age with no drinkable water, with no medical supplies for her illness. with no milk, with no divers. And because of the famine, she grows up on canned food. She doesn't recognize the apples, the banana, and all the other kind of fruit. Isla and her daughter are like many thousands of Palestinians in that they've been hungry through much of the war.

3:40The International Rescue Committee is one of the organizations that's trying to help, trying to address the humanitarian crisis in Gaza. David Miliband is the IRC's president and CEO. He's in our studios to talk about what comes next. David Miliband, welcome. Thanks very much. So you've got the challenge of trying to get aid to people who are moving, who may not have a place to sleep, forget the food, forget all of the other challenges they're facing. What about just the starting challenge of getting food into Gaza? There are all these questions about the border crossings, what's open, what isn't at the hour that you and I are speaking here on Wednesday.

4:19The Rafah crossing, the main crossing between Gaza and Egypt is not open. Can you begin to get remotely enough aid in? We can begin, but we're measuring it in hours, not yet in weeks. Monday was a good day. Tuesday was a worse day. Wednesday, I'm waiting to hear the news. Monday was a good day because 600 trucks of food and medicine got in. And one piece of good news is that there is a coordinated plan for what the humanitarian agencies led by the UN want to do. We know we've got to sort out the nutritional supplies. We know we've got emergency health care. We know that if you don't get the water and sanitation done, then you're courting even worse disaster.

5:03Those are the top priorities. But we also know winter's coming, so shelter is very important. We also know that the commercial traffic is key because that drives down the prices if you can get a surge of commercial traffic as well as humanitarian aid. You said Monday was a good day because 600 trucks of aid got through. We are being told by a spokesperson for the UN office for the coordination of humanitarian affairs in Gaza that Israel has told them they'll only allow 300 aid trucks. 600, that was a good day. That is also the bare minimum to avert further famine, further starvation. Just for the benefit of your listeners, before October the 7th, 2023, there were about 500 trucks a day going in in steady state.

5:50We've got an enormous amount of ground to make up because of the restrictions. Sometimes no trucks over the last six months, sometimes only 50. We've got ground to make up. So we need many weeks of 600 trucks plus the commercial traffic. The UN figure for Tuesday was a bad figure, down to 150 or 200, I think. And so we are desperate that the feeding and treatment of people is not turned into a victim of the political struggle. From our point of view, feeding people is never a danger. It's always the right thing to do. And that's an absolute priority. And I was in touch with the head of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs today.

6:29And I know he's working to get those numbers back up. Have you heard any hopeful news yet? A story of a person who is eating today who didn't have food last week? Well, the hope comes from the fact that the conflict seems to be over. There's a hope of life, if you like. Now, the hope of livelihood has yet to follow. But prices in the markets went down on Monday because the commercial traffic started to flow. So, yes, we can say that there are flickerings of hope. But we have to be ultra realistic about this. This is an enormous, maybe even a multi-generational challenge to get enduring, sustained, sustainable change.

7:12And we are absolutely clear that the humanitarian aid is the first step on the road to development. But if it becomes just the last step, then we're going to lose the hope that's been created. You sound hopeful that the ceasefire is holding, that the ceasefire will hold. is that just hope or is there something grounding that optimism? Why would this ceasefire hold when the last two have not? Well, the answer to that is very direct. There's more political commitment than there was before. This is a commitment that has the United States fully behind it. It has all the region behind it. Israel and Hamas have both signed up to this.

7:51So we have more political support for more stability than ever before. It's obviously enormous that the hostages have been released. It's big that the people of Gaza have the chance to hope that they've got some kind of future. And it's incumbent on all of us, I think, to play our role, whether humanitarian or political, in trying to make that happen. I would also say, as a note of realism, journalists haven't been allowed in. And I'm not just saying this because I'm on your show. International journalists for the whole war have not been. My absolute fear is that actually we're going to find things are worse than people realize.

8:25Because Because what our staff say to me is you have no idea. I mean the numbers dead, the numbers injured are the bare minimum. And the danger that there are still bodies to be found, there's still destruction to be uncovered, I really worry about that. Because the challenges we haven't even become aware of yet. The educated, humane, engaged staff that we have that I speak to, they've got fear in their eyes about the future as well as hope. Let me push you, David Miliband, on how hard you will be pushing the United States. President Trump has been widely credited, has been praised for his personal involvement in getting this first phase of a peace deal over the line.

9:05How confident are you that the U.S. will stay the course and be a reliable partner for foreign aid? Well, the president deserves the credit for getting this, getting over the mountain and for ensuring that a ceasefire was declared. It's now his plan. And when something is his, he's really committed to it. So I'm hopeful that notwithstanding the skepticism that the administration has about foreign aid in this case. The same president presides over an administration that has eliminated more than 80 percent of its international aid programs. Yeah. Since January. That's why I say that. Two million clients of the International Rescue Committee have lost services that were previously being paid for.

9:50This is kids getting education in Afghanistan, refugees in South Sudan from Sudan. So we know the cost of the aid cuts. But this is a plan the president has put his own name on. And when he puts his name on something, there's a determination and a commitment. He doesn't do it lightly, clearly. He's got a lot invested in this now. And what we want to say to him is that we're there with him to make sure on the ground the aid reaches the people who needs it. He's got massive challenges to help navigate on the security front, on the economic front. But when I heard him speaking on Monday, he wants to get it done and we want to get it done too.

10:24So to the question, how confident are you that the U.S. will be a reliable partner for a long-term peace in Gaza? I think it's massively in the U.S. interests that this is not a running sore. I think it's massively in the U.S. interest that the political horizon is reinforced. And the only solution that anyone has ever found to this conflict has been for there to be a secure Israel that can live alongside a Palestinian state. In the end, our job as humanitarians is to say, if you don't address the humanitarian side of the equation, you're courting disaster. You're courting political instability, not just loss of life.

11:01And so we feel we're in desperate times called for desperate measures. And this is a real Hail Mary pass that's been thrown for this region of the world that so many people care so much about. And we've got to get the real human values up front and center to see this through. David Miliband, president and CEO of the International Rescue Committee. Thank you. Thank you very much.

11:28This episode was produced by Erica Ryan and Connor Donovan with audio engineering by Tiffany Vera Castro and David Greenberg. It was edited by Courtney Dorning. And you heard reporting at the top of this episode from NPR's Greg Myrie. Our executive producer is Sammy Yenigan. It's Consider This from NPR. I'm Mary Louise Kelly.

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