Joaquin Castro Raises Concern About Threat Of Famine In Gaza
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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NewsTranscript
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.