'History will record this: These atrocities must stop now'

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00:00In other news, the U.N. General Assembly this Thursday is set to vote on a resolution demanding

00:04an immediate ceasefire in Gaza, the opening of all Israeli border crossings for aid, and the

00:09release of all remaining hostages held by Hamas. Drafted by Spain, it also strongly condemned the

00:14use of the starvation of civilians as a method of warfare. Now, it's worth mentioning that last

00:20week, the U.N. Security Council, for its part, failed to pass a similar resolution that demanded

00:24a truce and urged Israel to lift all restrictions on aid. The U.S. was the only one of the 15

00:29members to veto the text, and this because it was not linked to the release of hostages.

00:35While there are no vetoes in the 193-member General Assembly, the measure is expected to pass,

00:41though the body's resolutions are, of course, not legally binding. For more on the latest

00:46situation that we're seeing play out in the Gaza Strip in the meantime, Jorge Morera da

00:50Silva joins me on set. He is the executive director of the United Nations Office for Project Services,

00:56also known by its acronym UNOPS. Thank you very much for joining us today, sir. So, the main aid

01:03organization functioning in the Gaza Strip right now is currently the opaque, if not controversial,

01:09Gaza Humanitarian Foundation. Can you remind us about the context that kind of led up to the creation

01:14of this very specific group and talk about why it is controversial?

01:17Thank you. Indeed, we are dealing with a new mechanism, the Israeli mechanism, that tried to

01:23replace the United Nations mechanism. There was a mechanism called the 2720 mechanism, approved by

01:29the Security Council, that was managed by UNOPS, that was basically approving all aid entering into

01:34Gaza, ensuring that there was accountability, transparency, monitoring of the aid. And it was

01:40functioning that it showed during the ceasefire that it allowed massive deployment of aid. And suddenly,

01:46this mechanism, the United Nations mechanism was stopped and replaced by this Israeli mechanism.

01:53This mechanism from Israel doesn't respect the international humanitarian law. It's militarized,

01:59it's privatized, it forces displacement. We have been seeing your footage showing massive displacement of

02:06people just to have some access to food. High concentration of people, 144 people killed in the last two days,

02:14trying to get the food. So we need to bring the UN back. We need to bring the United Nations mechanism back.

02:21This is the best way to ensure unimpedded access to food. But even before that, not just food, but all elements.

02:31But even before that, we need to ensure that even the fuel that is inside Gaza can be exceeded.

02:38Is your organization, the United Nations Office for Project Services, able to carry out any meaningful

02:44operations at this stage in the Gaza Strip now?

02:46Very limited operations. The two areas where we've been working are highly restricted. One was the monitoring

02:54of all eight. And now we have managed only to enter once in one of the crossings. So all monitoring of eight

03:01is stopped. And the other area is the fuel. This is particularly serious because fuel means water.

03:08Fuel means ambulances. Fuel means bread. Fuel means hospitals functioning. And without fuel, none of those things will function.

03:15We have 2.7 million liters of fuel inside Gaza. UNOPS procured and storage, 2.7 million liters.

03:24We can't exceed that storage. We've been trying. All access has been denied. And only the small part of that fuel,

03:31150,000 liters, it will disappear in two days. I've just been told by my team that when they were trying to get to those storage facilities,

03:43that were caught into shelling, strikes, and they have to return. So we really need, and I call on Israel,

03:49to ensure that UNOPS can get into the storage facilities, bring the fuel to the bakeries, to the hospitals, to the water facilities.

03:58This is life saving and there is no reason, no reason, this is not acceptable. Even wars, even wars have rules.

04:06The rules are not being respected. We need a full implementation of international military law,

04:12release of the hostages, cease fire. But I think that it's fundamental to take quick decisions.

04:18I really hope that the discussions in New York in a few days on the two-state solution will give a boost on diplomacy.

04:25It's what we need as well.

04:26You recently wrote a piece about the importance of trust and transparency in the aid distribution process, specifically.

04:32Can you talk more about how these mechanisms are supposed to work,

04:36and where trust and transparency appear to be lacking on both sides of the Israel-Hamas war, visibly?

04:43I've been sharing this with several governments. If they ask today how many consignments have been brought into Gaza,

04:52how much food is being distributed, they don't know. With our mechanism, everything was online.

04:58All approvals of aid were centralized. We knew what was rejected and why.

05:04When Israel rejected the consignment, the entire world was aware of the reasons and what has been rejected.

05:11We were aware of the final use of the aid. So this kind of transparency means trust.

05:19And that trust is fundamental in an operation like this.

05:24I was quite happy to hear when I visited Gaza, and I visited Gaza twice, that the mechanism was seen as an enabler for aid.

05:33So that enabler disappeared. So we need to bring the mechanism back because the mechanism,

05:38it's what helps the other UN agencies to operate in a transparent, accountable and predictable manner. It stopped.

05:45Be it the conflict in Gaza or Ukraine or Sudan or all the many conflicts that we see in the Sahel region as well, to list just a few.

05:56It's very difficult to reach any conclusion other than the relative failure of the international system to impose and enforce international law.

06:03In what state do you expect to see this system in the coming months ahead, if it is unable to enforce its own mechanisms?

06:10United Nations, it's the United Nations. It's not the Secretary of the United Nations. So we need political will.

06:17There is no problem with the logistics. I always said that in the last two years, the problem was never related with logistics.

06:24It was always related with political will. We need political will to ensure that all the pallets of food, of water,

06:33medicines that we have outside Gaza can be brought to Gaza.

06:37So we need to ensure that political pressure will provide the results.

06:44I call on all parties to stop the war, to get the ceasefire, to release of the hostages.

06:50But I also call on all United Nations to mobilize themselves, to call for action.

06:57Because what we are seeing in your footage is unacceptable.

07:00In the 21st century, seeing children amputated, children fighting to get a dish of a small portion of food,

07:09people starving, being forced displaced, without any kind of hope in the future, is unacceptable.

07:17I think that one day we will be telling about this. History will record this.

07:22But rather than waiting for the history to tell us what happened, we need to stop it now.

07:27This atrocity must stop now.

07:30Jorge Moriartasilva of the United Nations Office for Project Services, thank you very much for joining us on set today.

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