Joaquin Castro Raises Concern About Threat Of Famine In Gaza

5 months ago

At Wednesday's House Foreign Relations Committee, Rep. Joaquin Castro (D-TX) questioned USAID Admin. Samantha Power about the threat of famine in Gaza.

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Transcript

00:00I recognize the gentleman from Texas, Mr. Castro.

00:04Thank you, Administrator Power.

00:06Thank you for joining us today.

00:08Of course, I'd normally ask you about locally led development and some of your great work

00:12there at USAID, but I want to ask you, obviously, about the very urgent humanitarian situation

00:18in Gaza.

00:19In your testimony, you said that the entire population of Gaza is living under the threat

00:23of famine.

00:25News reports came out recently that certain USAID officials sent a cable to the National

00:30Security Council warning that famine is already likely occurring in parts of the Gaza Strip.

00:36According to the report, quote, famine conditions are most severe and widespread in northern

00:43Gaza, which is under Israeli control.

00:46Do you think that it's plausible or likely that parts of Gaza, and particularly northern

00:51Gaza, are already experiencing famine?

00:56Well, the methodology that the IPC used is one that we had our experts scrub.

01:06It's one that's relied upon in other settings, and that is their assessment, and we believe

01:11that assessment is credible.

01:13So famine is already occurring there?

01:16That is, yes.

01:18Okay.

01:19More than half of the population of Gaza is under the age of 18, as you know, and are

01:24seriously affected by the lack of access to food and nutrition.

01:27And various organizations, including the United Nations, have warned that hundreds of thousands

01:32of Palestinian children may die if they don't get necessary food and nutrition assistance

01:37in just the next two to three weeks.

01:40Has USAID made such an assessment itself, and do you have a sense of how many such children

01:46might be at risk of dying if they don't get access to food and nutrition that's currently

01:51unavailable?

01:55I do not have those assessments on hand, but I will say that in northern Gaza, the rate

02:02of malnutrition prior to October 7th was almost zero, and it is now one in three kids.

02:11But extrapolating out is hard, and I will say, just with some humility, because it is

02:18so hard to move around in Gaza, because the access challenges that give rise, in part,

02:23to the malnutrition are so severe, it is also hard to do the kind of scaled assessments

02:31that we would wish to do.

02:33But in terms of actual severe acute malnutrition for under fives, that rate was 16 percent

02:41in January, and became 30 percent in February, and we're awaiting the March numbers, but

02:46we expect it to continue.

02:47So it got markedly worse.

02:49Yeah, markedly worse, but extrapolating and giving you the overall numbers.

02:52And just to be clear, I realize you're not part of the DOD or, you know, the State Department

02:57in working on these issues diplomatically, but is it your understanding that humanitarian

03:05assistance and food assistance is not supposed to be denied even when countries are at war

03:09with each other?

03:11Because there is this argument that, well, if Hamas would release the hostages, if they

03:16would surrender, that this would stop, but there's certain laws of war and certain conduct

03:21that nations are supposed to follow, and that includes allowing for humanitarian assistance.

03:27Correct.

03:28I mean, I will say, of course, and we all agree, the hostages should be released.

03:33Absolutely.

03:34It's an absolute outrage that they have been kept this long, and the horror and terror

03:37for the families of those individuals, I can't even contemplate, but yes, food must

03:43flow.

03:44But kids can't be starved because you have two groups that are at war with each other?

03:48Food must flow, and food has not flowed in sufficient quantities to avoid this imminent

03:58famine in the South, and these conditions that are giving rise already to child deaths

04:03in the North.

04:04And I'm down to one minute, so part of this maybe we'll ask for the record, but in response

04:09to questions from my colleague, Representative Wild of Pennsylvania, you said that there

04:13have been restrictions on U.S. humanitarian assistance.

04:16You also referenced the National Security Memorandum 20 as taking into account future

04:21restrictions, and you said that that was a process that Secretary Blinken was leading.

04:27Given USAID's expertise on these issues, was USAID, and in particular the Bureau of Humanitarian

04:33Assistance, provided an opportunity to weigh in to the State Department's determination

04:37under NSM-20 that Israel's assurances that it's following U.S. and international law

04:43are, quote, credible and reliable?

04:45Absolutely.

04:46Well, thank you.

04:48Thank you for your work, and I yield back.

Joaquin Castro Raises Concern About Threat Of Famine In Gaza

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