Front Burner - Desperation in Gaza amid winter, war and hunger

Episode Date: December 15, 2023

As fighting in Gaza continues, civilian deaths are rising and those that remain face worsening conditions that include a severe lack of food and clean water, overcrowded shelters, floods and disease. As Canada and other Western nations show their support for a ceasefire, Bushra Khalidi, a policy lead with Oxfam, paints a vivid picture of what she’s hearing from family and colleagues on the ground in Gaza. For transcripts of Front Burner, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday.

In the Dragon's Den, a simple pitch can lead to a life-changing connection. Watch new episodes of Dragon's Den free on CBC Gem. Brought to you in part by National Angel Capital Organization, empowering Canada's entrepreneurs through angel investment and industry connections. This is a CBC Podcast. Hi, I'm Damon Fairless. I'm Damon Fairless. This week, there was a major shift in international support for the Israel-Hamas war. On Tuesday, U.S. President Joe Biden publicly warned Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that he was losing backing over, quote,

indiscriminate bombing and the growing number of civilian casualties in Gaza. I think that we have made it clear to the Israelis and are aware quote, indiscriminate bombing and the growing number of civilian casualties in Gaza. I think that we have made it clear to the Israelis and are aware that the safety of innocent Palestinians is still of great concern. By the end of the day, and by a large majority, the UN General Assembly voted in favor of an immediate ceasefire. 153 member states backed the resolution, 23 abstained, and only 10 voted against it. That included the US and Israel, whose foreign minister said a ceasefire at this point would be a mistake, and that Israel would continue the war against

Hamas with or without global support. It's a non-binding, largely symbolic resolution, but it was the first time Canada and several other countries switched their positions on the ceasefire. This morning, Canada put out a strong and clear and comprehensive statement on our perspective and positioning towards the Middle East conflict. And along with the vote, Canada released a joint statement with Australia and New Zealand, which called for Hamas to release the Israeli hostages and for Israel to abide by humanitarian law. Foreign Affairs Minister Melanie Jolie said the change in policy was linked to the breakdown in the humanitarian pause. Jolie also said that Israel's retaliation for the brutal October 7th attack would, quote, not lead to the durable defeat of Hamas. attack would, quote, not lead to the durable defeat of Hamas.

Meanwhile, in Gaza, heavy rains and colder temperatures haven't subdued the fighting. If anything, it's intensified, with Israeli forces bombing northern and southern Gaza, and with tanks moving into the city of Khan Yunus. Palestinian militants continue to fire rockets at Israel, and Hamas has threatened the lives of the remaining hostages, demanding further prisoner exchanges. Since the fighting has resumed, the death toll has gone up considerably. The Hamas-run Gaza Health Ministry says that more than 18,000 people have been killed in Gaza since the war began, and more than 50,000 have been wounded. And this week, the Israeli military reported one of its biggest losses of the war

after a Hamas ambush in Gaza City killed 10 soldiers. What we see on the ground is that the fighting continues as if there's no bad weather, as if there's no hunger, and as if there's no problem delivering humanitarian aid. Civilians in Gaza are desperate. There are new urgent warnings from the UN and NGOs about the escalating state of the humanitarian crisis. The health care system is or has collapsed. We've got a textbook formula for epidemics and a public health disaster.

This is in part, of course, because the shelters have long ago exceeded their full capacity. Today we'll be talking about the situation on the ground. With me is Bushra Khalidi so much for coming on. Hi. Thanks for having me. So you've been following the situation in Gaza closely, I imagine, especially since the ceasefire collapsed. How would you describe the situation on the ground for a civilian, sir? To paint a picture in the space of 68 days, and this is from a personal account of my sister-in-law who was there. It's, she used to be a teacher.

She worked in a school that she was in for 15 years and she was a working woman uh head of her household with a supportive husband taking care of her parents um and managing an entire estate with four different families and now is founding herself heating water all day long to make showers for 10 people in her family on scraps of garbage, wood if they can find it on that day, trying to heat up enough water because it's winter now in Gaza and it's cold and it's rainy. And it's near the sea, so it's very humid. and it's rainy and it's near the sea so it's very humid um and she has no electricity and she has not had any flower since saturday and um there's no there's now a blackout for the last couple hours i tried to call her before i spoke to you um this evening um another comms blackout and there's she has water but she's not receiving aid and she doesn't have and and three and a half liters of oil cost her three hundred dollars

and there's no salt on the market and they have to queue twice a day to charge their phones. So that is the daily life of her making bread, washing the clothes because she only has two different sets of clothes for her kids because they were displaced twice. And so she just keeps doing, you know, washing and cooking on fire and trying to find bread, trying to find water, trying to find gas. And that is, in 68 days, what her daily life has become. Let's talk more about the kids, because we've got half of the population is under 18. Can you give me a sense of what we know about the latest number of dead and injured children there? what we know about the latest number of dead and injured children there? Since the, I think, end of, beginning of December, we have very little understanding of actual, the real amount of fatalities, which is now at least at 18,000, but 70% of which are women and children, about 7,500 children. And this is not talking about the children that are severely wounded with severe

amputations and disabled for life. This is not to talk about the 25,000 kids who have lost either one or two of their parents. There's another problem too. One of the Doctors Without Borders has said is now so frequent that medics in Gaza have an acronym for it and that's the WCNSF. So Wounded Child, No Surviving Family. How are orphans in Gaza being cared for? These children, there's no formal orphanages or care right now. I mean, we're talking about schools or shelters. So that's the level of, you know, infrastructure that is available at the very best. But I am sure that families, you know, people will have taken this child in. And I don't believe that there are children roaming the streets on their own in Gaza, but there are many children that, you know, will have lost their parents killed in, in airstrikes in Gaza, um, in these last two months. But it's, it's the long-term

impact on these children that, and, and I used to work for Save the Children before being at Oxfam and we commissioned a report after the 2021 war and surveyed over a thousand children. and surveyed over a thousand children. And 90% of those children that we interviewed had lost hope in the world and felt abandoned by the world. And so for a child, and I have a child, and for my child to not believe at a four-year-old or five-years-old or six-years-old or even 10-years-old or 11-years-old, you know, to not believe that he could be anything he wanted in the world. I mean, I think that's crushing for any parent. Boucher, you talked about your family not having flour for the past few days,

paying $300 for a few liters of oil. So I wanted to ask about the issue of food. The UN World Food Program says that half the population is starving now. Do you have a sense of what that looks like day to day? It's very difficult for me to imagine that we're in a place where my sister-in-law, for the first time, you know, I really heard her voice break. Um, she has been really holding, uh, this entire family and, and, uh, together for the last two months. But when she said to me that, that, um, that she is not eating because her father, who was elderly and sick, and her kids need to eat.

I mean, and I can't do anything, you know? I'm sorry. We feel completely powerless. powerless. And, you know, to think that when I went to visit them a few months ago, they invited me to the most lavish buffet that I had ever seen in my entire life. And to think that they're not even able to find flour to make bread, not even, you know, canned food, or there's no fresh food. They've not had fresh food. They've not had fresh meat in over two weeks since the truce. They're eating either soup, if they have, some lentils with contaminated water. I mean, it's just, I don't have any words to explain how painful and stripped of our dignity that makes us feel.

Hunger is stalking Gaza. The UN says Palestinians on average are living on two pieces of bread a day. My children are dehydrated. There's no food. We were displaced by war and came here and if we were to stay in Gaza and die, that would be better because there is no food here. Everyone lined up outside the bakery is treated badly. It's utter humiliation to get pushed and shoved before you get your hands on a loaf of bread for your child. Better to die trying to get some flour than be humiliated outside a bakery. Let's talk about the current flow of aid into Gaza. You're talking about people not getting enough food and no access to clean water. What are the major challenges now for aid organizations to get food and supplies into Gaza since the ceasefire broke down? I mean, the short answer to this question is the Israeli siege on Gaza is the major challenge

for full access of aid into Gaza. We have extremely limited restricted access into Gaza and entering any aid or humanitarian workers or medical teams or, you know, materials that we need to repair specific infrastructure, wash and water, wastewater infrastructure. Of course, Gaza was already a situation on the brink. And now it's a completely apocalyptic humanitarian situation. situation. But there's also entrepreneurs and there's, you know, supermarkets and there's malls and there's, you know, and there's imports of goods and exports of goods and, and that's gone. So there's no more economy in Gaza. There's no more working economy. So those are the challenges. The challenges is that we are only able to get a very limited number of trucks in. Those trucks need to go through Israeli verification.

And Rafah is not designed, is designed actually as a pedestrian, originally a pedestrian crossing. It's not designed to sustain a humanitarian response of this scale. We're talking about 2.2 million people. We're not talking about a few hundred thousands. We're talking about an entire city that is completely dependent on aid, is destitute, is homeless. And it's not just the water and flour and lentils. It's materials. Like I mentioned, we work in wash infrastructure at Oxfam. We actually just found out that one of the desalination plants that we supported in financing in Gaza was hit by an Israeli airstrike.

And so how do we repair that? Because many of the materials are also restricted in their entry. So these are the challenges. When we talk about infrastructure, too, I mean, one of the major things is shelter, right? The bombing has been severe. The UN says nearly 2 million people have been displaced since the beginning of the war. So that's about 85% of Gaza's population. So you've told me about your family. I'm just wondering more broadly what the access to shelters like there, how are people living? So we're, like you say, we're talking about, you know, the mass destruction and systematic destruction really of essential civilian infrastructure, including hospitals, including mosques, including churches, including schools, including universities, bakeries, including mosques, including churches, including schools, including universities, bakeries, warehouses.

So, you know, the level of destruction is just immense. Israel's military is battling with Hamas militants in two of Gaza's largest cities. The fighting is forcing civilians to find shelter along the front lines. The IDF has accused Hamas of preventing civilians from receiving the humanitarian aid. So shelter is, there's no shelter. I mean, we're talking about 600 people per toilet. Women giving birth in shelters with no healthcare, you know, with no privacy, no dignity, really. The situation in shelters is harrowing, but people have nowhere else to go to the point that now even shelters are overflowing. If you leave your shelter, the shelter, you lose your space. So you can't even leave the shelter because you might risk

losing your space. And now we're seeing people building makeshift tents in the middle of the streets because that's where there's kind of space to put a makeshift tent and it's not even you know it's it's with plastic and and internet cables you know like that is what we're our colleagues are describing to us and it's raining and in Gaza it's a city yes but it doesn't have strong kind of ground infrastructure to sustain floods. You know, floods are known in Gaza to happen. Now with the sewage, with people in the street, with the rubble, I mean, it's just, I can't even imagine it. The World Health Organization has warned that disrupted healthcare facilities, poor water supplies and sanitation have created fertile conditions for the rapid spreading of infectious diseases. Cases of chickenpox, scabies, diarrhea and respiratory infections are rapidly increasing,

especially among young children. Starvation and illness is spreading, and the World Health Organization says more people will eventually be killed by disease than by Israel's bombardment. In the Dragon's Den, a simple pitch can lead to a life-changing connection. In the Dragon's Den, a simple pitch can lead to a life-changing connection. Watch new episodes of Dragon's Den free on CBC Gem. Brought to you in part by National Angel Capital Organization,

empowering Canada's entrepreneurs through angel investment and industry connections. Hi, it's Ramit Sethi here. You may have seen my money show on Netflix. I've been talking about money for 20 years. I've talked to millions of people and I have some startling numbers to share with you. Did you know that of the people I speak to, 50% of them do not know their own household income? That's not a typo, 50%. That's because money is confusing.

In my new book and podcast, Money for Couples, I help you and your partner create a financial vision together. To listen to this podcast, just search for Money for Couples. I help you and your partner create a financial vision together. To listen to this podcast, just search for Money for Couples. really, really densely overpopulated areas, there's a serious risk of disease. So I guess I'm curious what scenarios the medical community and I guess people in general are worried about. I mean, yeah, this is a great segue into the next looming catastrophe of Gaza, which is, you know, epidemic, you know, full spread epidemics of various different infections i mean where we we started seeing in the second week after the initial evacuation order already there were skin irritations because of the water um so skin irritations and viral kind of gastro infections. And then we started seeing diarrhea in infants. And we know what the consequences of severe diarrhea in infants can be and can lead to.

It can lead to severe dehydration, et cetera, et cetera. And then severe dehydration without clean water. I mean, it's just this vicious circle that people are trapped in with nowhere to go, no safe place to go, no health care. We have already reported cases in shelters of hepatitis A, but again, we're not able to properly understand what extent of this is because, first of all, health healthcare facilities are at a brink. They're just, they just have the capacity to basically treat the wounded. They don't have the capacity to treat anything else but that. And on top of that, humanitarian workers are not allowed in, I'm not allowed into Gaza, our colleagues, you know, colleagues from, it's extremely difficult, basically, to get, you know, those teams in to conduct those assessments to get to those real time numbers as well, to be able to really give you a picture of like, how many people are potentially dying of hunger, how many people are potentially going to die of disease because

of no healthcare and because of the system, you know, preventable diseases. because of no health care and because of the system of preventable diseases. Boucher, there's a growing concern from the international community now about the war. And I mentioned at the beginning of the episode in the introduction that the UN General Assembly overwhelmingly voted in favor of an immediate ceasefire this week. And Canada, along with Australia and New Zealand, has now said they support international efforts towards a sustainable ceasefire. In the face of an unfolding humanitarian catastrophe, we are going to keep participating in urgent international efforts towards a sustainable ceasefire, but it cannot be one-sided. We need to see Hamas lay down its arms.

We need to see it release... So there is a shift in rhetoric. I guess what I'm wondering is, given everything we've talked about, what responsibility do you feel the international community has here? It's honestly, I mean, the only avenue that Palestinians have had and have is the international community and they put all their trust in the international community, you know, by trying to access all of these different, you know, mechanisms at the UN, you know, for years. This is not anything new. There are hundreds of resolutions and dozens from the United Nations Security Council that, you know, on the question of Palestine.

So it has always been an avenue for Palestinians to use to advocate for, you know, equal rights, basically, I mean, that for their fundamental, you know, basic rights. And I am, I think, I think it's too late, you know, I mean, that that's my, my, my answer is, the damage has been done, you know, when a my answer is the damage has been done. You know, when a health care system is collapsed in a city, I mean, I don't know if, you know, people really understand what that means. If there's no, you know, and how do we return? How do we get this system back on its feet when the actual infrastructure has been damaged? You know, I mean, this is years of, you know, this has taken Gaza years back.

So it's very welcomed. And I think that the work that we have been doing as our international organization has been critical, I think, in shifting the narrative and pushing against, you know, talking about this protracted crisis. This is a protracted crisis. This is a crisis that has root causes that have not been dealt with for years. So it's welcomed, but there's way more that we need to be doing because today there's still bombings in Khan Yunis and the ceasefire has still not happened.

So, you know, it's a bittersweet kind of response, I guess. Pusha, thanks so much for speaking with me. I really appreciate it. Thank you for having me on your podcast. That's all for today. FrontBurner was produced this week by Rafferty Baker, Shannon Higgins, Jorita Shingupta, Lauren Donnelly, and Derek VanderWijk. The sound design was by Mackenzie Cameron and Sam McNulty.

Music is by Joseph Chabison. Our senior producer is Elaine Chow. Our executive producer is Nick McCabe-Locos. And I'm Damon Fairless. Thanks for listening. FrontBurner will be back on Monday.