Government announces $15m humanitarian assistance package
The Federal government has committed a further 15 million dollars in aid for civilians in Gaza affected by the ongoing conflict. Acting Prime Minister Richard Marles says it boosts the humanitarian funding already announced for civilians in the war zone.
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TVTranscript
00:00 This is in addition to 10 million that we had announced last week, so it takes the total
00:08 to 25 million.
00:10 This will be working through a number of international agencies, the United Nations, the Red Cross,
00:15 to provide humanitarian assistance for those who are obviously caught in the terrible circumstance
00:21 of being in Gaza right now.
00:24 We are particularly concerned for those who are suffering in Gaza.
00:31 Gaza is home to more than 2 million Palestinians, the vast bulk of whom have nothing to do with
00:38 Hamas and who are obviously caught up in this very difficult set of circumstances.
00:45 And so we are committed to providing assistance to them through international agencies such
00:49 as the UN and the Red Cross.
00:51 How quickly could that aid reach the people in Gaza?
00:54 Well look, that's going to be worked through obviously with those agencies, but we'll be
00:57 providing that money as soon as we can.
00:59 Is there any update on the number of Australians in Gaza and any plans to get them out?
01:05 My last advice is that we are working with 79 Australians, permanent residents and their
01:10 immediate family.
01:12 It is obviously a very difficult situation.
01:16 We are working with international partners to establish a humanitarian corridor which
01:20 we hope we can have in place which will allow people such as them to leave Gaza.
01:26 That is not in place yet.
01:27 We have though seen some humanitarian assistance come through the Rafah checkpoint on the border
01:34 with Egypt and so we will continue to work on that.
01:39 We're encouraging those people to move to the southern part of Gaza in accordance with
01:43 the Israeli warnings which will provide, will be a safer place than obviously being in northern
01:50 Gaza.
01:51 But the whole of Gaza is obviously in a very difficult situation and we continue to work
01:56 with those people, those Australians and they are front of mind in terms of our efforts
02:01 right now.
02:01 [BLANK_AUDIO]