Oxfam: Israeli blockades deprive Gaza of most basic humanitarian aid to save people's lives

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00:00We're going to go even deeper now because Ruth James who is a regional

00:03humanitarian coordinator for the Middle East and North Africa from Oxfam joins

00:08us in the studio. It's good to see you Ruth. So we've just been mentioning

00:12there just how strong the words are from Human Rights Watch talking of ethnic

00:17cleansing in Gaza. What's your reaction to that?

00:20Well Oxfam agrees with the finding from Human Rights Watch actually. We do

00:25believe that ethnic cleansing is taking place in the governorate of northern

00:29Gaza at the moment. And Israel has sought to sort of justify its actions

00:34saying as we've mentioned that it's doing it because it wants to keep

00:38Palestinians safe. This you know repeated evacuation order that it's putting out.

00:42Do you believe that? Is there a better way of going about hunting down these

00:47Hamas militants as they say they're doing? Well I mean I'm not a

00:51military expert. I'm a humanitarian worker. I recently returned from

00:55Gaza last month. I stayed in Al Mawassi which is the place that Andrew was

01:00speaking about. That's the place where Palestinians were told to move. Israel

01:05said it would be quote-unquote safe. They were told to move there last October.

01:09Just in the few weeks that I was there there were multiple airstrikes in that

01:14place. I saw them in front of my eyes. It's very clear to me having spent time

01:19in Gaza that there is no safe place for Palestinians in Gaza today. And I just

01:24want to add to that that the reason I'm able to to come here and talk to you

01:28guys is because I was able to leave Gaza. 2.1 Palestinians have absolutely no way

01:34of leaving Gaza at the moment. Their only possible exit route which was via Rafah

01:39and they had to pay for closed in May of this year and since then there's

01:43absolutely no way for them to leave. And this report put out by Human Rights

01:47Watch comes just a few months after your organization Oxfam also published its

01:51own report where it spoke of Israel using water as a weapon of war. Tell us

01:57about what that report had to say. Well one of the key focus areas for Oxfam in

02:03any humanitarian response is on water and sanitation. It's one of our areas of

02:06expertise. We've been delivering water and sanitation services in Gaza for

02:11decades actually. Long before the 7th of October and during that time we

02:15installed a lot of kind of permanent infrastructures up and down the Gaza

02:19Strip to provide water to that population in an area that is

02:22fundamentally desert. Part of that process was sharing the coordinates of

02:28all of those water infrastructures with the Israeli military and the Israeli

02:33authorities via the UN. The report finds and the report was published in July

02:38that almost over 60% of the water infrastructure in Gaza was destroyed.

02:43Actually now it's over 80% because a few months have passed. Having

02:48been there and seeing the situation on the ground honestly it looks like a

02:51hundred percent is destroyed. There are barely any standing buildings left in

02:56Gaza. The other key finding of the report which was produced in

03:02consultation with some academics I think in Harvard University is that there's a

03:06less than 1% chance that that level of destruction is by accident. It's simply

03:11not believable that the kind of the comprehensive destruction of the water

03:16network has been somehow accidental while Israel was trying to hit other

03:20targets. Many of them have been direct hits, many of them have been repeated

03:24direct hits. And have you seen any, I mean you mentioned that you were just in

03:29Gaza, have you seen any sort of improvement on the water situation? It's

03:34still dire and it's even worse as you said. No, from my perspective

03:39covering this this crisis from the 7th of October the only trend is that

03:44everything is getting worse and worse every day. Let's talk about the

03:48international community now and what they could be doing. We've had this 30

03:51day deadline put out by Washington come and go this week. That deadline was of

03:57course asking for Israel to improve aid access in Gaza and Washington has said

04:03that Israel has taken steps to address the demand now in Gaza. The UN

04:09disagrees and says it's actually gotten worse as you've just been mentioning.

04:12Could the international community be doing more? What could the US for example

04:16be doing as the biggest backer of Israel at the moment? It's simply unacceptable

04:22that we as humanitarians cannot bring in as much humanitarian aid as we need to

04:26provide people with food, water, medical support and shelter. These aren't big

04:32asks, these are the basics that human beings need to stay alive. Just to give

04:37you an example, Oxfam has been trying to bring in items to repair water

04:41infrastructure since December of 2023. It took us about eight months to bring

04:48in some basic water items like water tanks and things to build latrines with.

04:52We were finally able to bring in some supplies last week, however water testing

04:58kits, which is what we use to make sure drinking water is safe to drink, despite

05:02receiving pre-approval from COGAT, were subsequently denied as they reached the

05:06Kerem Abu Salem crossing point to enter Gaza and they've had to go back to

05:11Al Arish. There is simply no reason for us not to be able to bring in

05:16enough humanitarian aid into Gaza that we need, other than the blockades that

05:21are put in place by Israel. It's not far, it's a short geographical distance

05:26between Egypt and Jordan to reach Gaza. We just need to be able to bring in the

05:31aid to save people's lives. I really hope that the situation there improves.

05:35Ruth, thanks so much for coming in and giving us your perspective there.

05:38That's Ruth James, who is Regional Humanitarian Coordinator for the Middle

05:41East and North Africa at Oxfam International. Thanks so much for coming in.

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