00:00Well, the recent airdrops do come as Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff, the U.S.'s Middle East envoy, says he's now working on a new Gaza aid plan after visiting a food distribution site operated by an Israeli-backed U.S. contractor Friday.
00:15Let's speak more on this to Scott Lucas. He's a professor of U.S. and international politics at the Clinton Institute at University College Dublin.
00:24Scott, thanks so much for joining us this morning. We're not hearing very much from this visit that Witkoff did in Gaza.
00:32We know he went to this distribution site that's operated by a U.S. contractor, but the facility itself has been the scene of lots of violence and controversy.
00:42Talk to us about what Witkoff would have seen during this visit, obviously bearing in mind that it would have been highly choreographed by Israel.
00:50I think we need to be honest with your viewers and establish what happened with this Witkoff visit yesterday, along with the U.S. ambassador to Israel, Mike Huckabee.
01:01This was a public relations visit to try to show that, yes, look, there's these wonderful aid operations in Gaza,
01:11even as we know that the prevalent story is that of what is effectively now a famine with mass starvation.
01:19What you saw were Witkoff and Huckabee for the cameras showing, oh, look, here's this aid being distributed at certain points,
01:27which, as you noted, have been part of the Gazan Humanitarian Foundation.
01:31This operation set up by the Israelis earlier this year after they cut off all aid into the Strip from the U.N. and other organizations.
01:40And as you mentioned, almost 1,000 Gazans have been killed while trying to collect that aid.
01:46And in fact, only a fraction of what they need is being supplied.
01:50Despite all of this, Huckabee, Ambassador Huckabee, tweeted at one point that Gazans love President Trump.
01:57And then he quickly deleted that message because I think he thought it went too far.
02:02But here's the wider story.
02:04This PR visit is being set up possibly, but I must emphasize possibly, for what is an Israeli plan to establish a long-term occupation of Gaza.
02:13The pretext will be that, oh, yes, we're setting up these aid operations.
02:18We'll take care of the Gazans by moving them into certain zones, what the Israelis will call humanitarian cities.
02:25And meanwhile, the Israelis will try to establish four military zones of occupation in the Strip.
02:32Israeli officials confirmed this week that they are discussing this plan.
02:35It has not been confirmed yet.
02:37But I think what you're seeing is a move by the Trump administration to align with the possibility of that Israeli occupation
02:44and then to try to impose that on Hamas and on the Gazans.
02:48Well, let's talk about what we do know that came out of this visit, this aid plan that Wyckoff is now apparently working on.
02:58What can we expect from that plan?
03:02The plan really isn't a plan in the sense of a fully developed way for Palestinians to securely get food.
03:10It's merely simply a reiteration of what is already in place.
03:14Now, there are two aspects of what is happening at this point.
03:16There are these very limited Israeli operations at certain points in Gaza where people have to make their way there,
03:25where they have to scramble to try to get aid, and where they have to risk being shot while they do so.
03:32Meanwhile, the UN and other organizations have tried to line up trucks on the border to get into Gaza,
03:39but the Israelis are only allowing about half of the trucks to get in after protracted delays and then holding up the others.
03:47And this is only a fraction of what Gazans had received earlier in the conflict.
03:53So there is no new plan to organize aid.
03:56I have to emphasize this.
03:59There is simply the reiteration by the Americans, despite Donald Trump saying earlier this week that he is troubled by the starvation in Gaza,
04:06that the existing arrangements somehow will be adequate.
04:10Well, you did mention that those trucks that are so badly needed, the aid that they are carrying, are being blocked at the border.
04:19Other countries are now resorting to airdrops.
04:22Tell us if you think that will make much of a difference on the ground.
04:25Again, I have to be very honest with your viewers here.
04:29You mentioned, for example, that France is providing 40 tons of assistance in airdrops.
04:34Now, that is needed.
04:35Any bit they can get into Gaza is needed.
04:37But there are two issues here.
04:39The first of all is that for basic food assistance in Gaza, you need 100 trucks per day, the equivalent of that.
04:47Each truck can carry up to 25 tons of assistance.
04:51Now, if my maths are correct on this, that's around about 3,000 tons that you need to, sorry, just get this right.
05:04Yeah, that's about 30,000 tons of assistance, I should say, that you need per day to go into Gaza for the basic needs of people, the basic needs of people.
05:14So, the airdrops can only provide a small fraction of what is needed, even with the goodwill of France, certain countries such as Jordan, who are also providing the assistance.
05:25Airdrops also have another problem, which is you people still have to get to the place where the drops are landing.
05:30And because the areas quite often are not secure, because Israel is still prosecuting a war there, the question of a secure distribution and collection of the aid is still up for grabs, as it were, when it comes to this assistance from the air.
05:44Meanwhile, we've also had a list of countries now proposing to recognise Palestine.
05:52We've had Canada and the UK in recent days saying that they are looking into that.
05:57Will that move the needle when it comes to the suffering that's going on in Gaza?
06:02It is a symbolic move to recognise the state of Palestine while the war continues, while the mass killing continues, but it is a powerful bit of symbolism.
06:13It is not just that the UK, Canada, and France have recognised the state of Palestine, at least provisionally, unless Israel agrees to a ceasefire and to negotiations.
06:29It is that these countries are part of a wider initiative.
06:32Seventeen countries met last month under the umbrella of the UN for a meeting on the two-state solution.
06:38Those countries included Gulf states like Saudi Arabia and Qatar, it included Egypt and Jordan, it included other countries from Europe who have recognised Palestine, such as Ireland, Norway, and Spain, countries from Latin America, from Asia, from Africa.
06:54And they made clear that it is no longer a question of negotiating with the Israelis and then hoping the negotiations will lead to a two-state solution.
07:03Unless you say you are committed to that two-state solution, and therefore a state of Palestine, you're never going to get the Israelis back to the table.
07:12So yes, I think the symbolism is powerful in that it both puts the marker down that there must be a secure state of Palestine, and it further isolates the Israelis if they do not, do not begin to rein in this war and mass killing.
07:26Scott, really good to talk to you. Thank you so much for joining us on Daybreak today.
