During a press briefing on Tuesday, State Department spokesperson Tammy Bruce was asked about replacing the IDF with "neutral" security forces at Gaza aid sites.
00:00Correct. Going to the region. Well, let me just say, this is a very quick conversation. It was on the telephone.
00:06He said the area. He said Gaza, the area. Now, of course, it could be, we have many, many partners there, many allies.
00:13So keep that in mind when it comes to the specific location of the envoy.
00:18I do not have that, but it's in a dynamic to where we're looking to finalize this arrangement.
00:25Yes, Andrea Mitchell. Hi there.
00:26Thank you very much. Recognizing that, as you've stated many times, as we know, Hamas started this and can finish this.
00:35Yes, ma'am. I just want to take it from there, from where you just left.
00:37Of course, yes.
00:39Is there recognition now that it is important to establish aid outside of that southern area in Raqqa so that it is more accessible to people who don't have to travel these distances
00:52and deal with the IDF confrontations that inevitably have occurred?
00:59And I'd just like to follow up on that as well.
01:02Right. It's been always the intention, obviously, to have as many sites as possible.
01:08And again, it's been the difficulty of being in a war zone and what you can do and what you can arrange.
01:14The fact that we've had three sites up, and I think now it is nearly 85 million meals to date at the distribution centers that do exist.
01:25Clearly, it's not just a dynamic of wanting more distribution centers in a war zone.
01:32Our goal is to have not a war zone and the aid corridor that the Secretary mentioned to me so that multiple entities can deliver aid
01:43and whatever is needed in that region without being looted and hijacked by Hamas.
01:50Yes. Now, the initial plan, as it had been described to us, was that the so-called Gaza Humanitarian Foundation would have...
01:58Well, it really is called that. It's really called the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, but go ahead.
02:02They call themselves the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation.
02:05Yes, ma'am.
02:06That they would be using American contractors or other contractors for security.
02:11As it's turned out, it seems to be more IDF, and that's been possibly one of the causes of the problem.
02:19But as I just mentioned, there's been a thousand deaths.
02:23There's a lot of...
02:24Doctors have pointed out that people are coming in with, you know, heavy wounds from heavy artillery.
02:30Is the possibility of having some sort of neutral contractors as the security force rather than the IDF?
02:43Well, that, of course, presupposes that IDF soldiers who are in a mode of defense of their country
02:50are deliberately shooting civilians and children.
02:54I didn't suggest that.
02:55Well, that is, the implication that you need someone who's, you know, not involved implies that it would be better.
03:02It is a dynamic where, and I think even the horrible situation over this weekend regarding a UN convoy in Zikkim at a crossing,
03:13that more than 30 people were killed in that dynamic trying to access food,
03:16because that is the focus of every human being.
03:20This has got to end.
03:21Well, not every human being, but certainly Hamas is preferring the way things have been.
03:26This was at a crossing in northern Gaza, and there are, certainly, Hamas is injured by the inability to hijack this food and to hijack trucks.
03:37And they are injured by the success of GHF and what it's been doing because they have not just looted these trucks,
03:47but they've weaponized the money that they make from this food, and then they control the population with it.
03:52It is, the success of GHF has removed, by getting meals in, and that number is a tremendous success,
03:59but it's removed the power and the influence of Hamas financially and with using aid and food as a weapon itself to control people.
04:09So it is, I think that the UN knows this, everyone else has seen this, that it's not a dynamic,
04:17and I've got the GHF statement here as well for you, but I think no matter who has been trying to deliver food,
04:23they've known historically and recently that there's going to be, and as long as Hamas still has its weapons,
04:30and is still a player in that region, there's still going to be problems.
04:33The GHF statement regarding this last massacre, if you will,
04:40we're deeply saddened by reports that more than 30 people were killed while trying to access food from a UN convoy
04:45at the Zikkim Crossing in northern Gaza as humanitarian efforts face escalating violence.
04:51Like most incidents, this incident is not linked to GHF, despite what was falsely implied by various newspapers.
04:58These tragedies deserve visibility.
05:00The entire aid system is under immense strain.
05:04We hope reporters will cover these incidents with the same scrutiny GHF receives,
05:09because understanding the full picture is essential to protecting civilians and improving aid.
