A former U.K. diplomat in Jerusalem, Richard Makepeace, on Monday described the situation in the Gaza Strip as a "humanitarian disaster in the making."
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00:00 As far as I know, they still have diesel for their generators.
00:06 But the moment they run out and there's reliable information that they've only got something like 24 hours fuel supplies.
00:14 That's what I was told earlier this morning. Then, you know, that is a death sentence for huge numbers of patients in the hospital.
00:22 At the best of times, life is precarious in Gaza. And you have to remember that the world should know that many of those in Gaza are, of course, refugees themselves.
00:35 They were told 75 years ago to leave their homes for places of safety. And 75 years later, they're still living in refugee camps in places like Gaza.
00:46 So when you pile on top of that cuts in cutting electricity, cutting water, cutting off food supplies, you have a huge humanitarian disaster in the making.
00:58 Well, I think governments are beginning to wake up to the enormity of of all this.
01:05 The casualty figures speak for themselves. The vast majority of these casualties are noncombatants, women and children, a disproportionate number of children.
01:18 Gaza is a very youthful population. And this really cannot be allowed to go on.
01:27 There needs to be a restoration of water. There needs to be a restoration of power.
01:33 The power station needs to be allowed to import the diesel it needs and hospitals need to be able to import the diesel they need.
01:40 And also ordinary families who need to be able to cook for that cook for their for that for their children.
01:47 They need energy for that. Food supplies are running very, very short.
01:53 Medicines also relief supplies generally. I mean, there are people in large numbers in the south of Gaza with no shelter, quite apart from not having any water, very little food and not much opportunity to even prepare food for their families.
02:09 So there needs to be an absolutely immediate resumption of these vital supplies.
02:15 And there needs to be safe passage for medicines, food and so on.
02:22 If the Israelis refuse to allow it through their crossings, then one would hope that something can be arranged through Rafa.
02:30 But also we would expect that the Israelis declare a ceasefire in areas where relief is taking place.
02:37 I mean, obviously, Israel has the right to to defend itself. And equally, obviously, Israel has the duty not to target civilians and to be proportionate in any military action it takes.
02:56 There hasn't been a great deal of of sign of that, frankly, in what we've seen over the last few days.
03:05 It is arguably against international law, international humanitarian law to coerce an entire population to move.
03:15 And it's clearly not a well-considered policy if there are no facilities available for those people when they do move.
03:24 And as I understand it, some desperate families are returning to the north because they find the south even worse, at least in the north.
03:34 Maybe they might die with their families in their own home, which they would find preferable to dying on the streets of southern Gaza of starvation or whatever.
03:44 So there is a there is a big need for the international community to stick up for humanitarian principles, to work with the UN and other international bodies, the WHO and so on, to raise the siege and make sure that the civilian population are protected to a reasonable degree.
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