CINDY MCCAIN (Executive Director, World Food Programme): Well, thank you for having me.
First of all, the - the bottom line here is that we need to get more aid in, as – as has been said. We are looking at possible – possibly being on the brink of famine in this region. This is something that's not only terrific, but it will spread. And - and with that comes disease and - and everything else that you can imagine.
Bottom line, we need more trucks in, we need more aid in, we need to be able to have more access to be able to distribute the aid. And - and, you know, hopefully maybe a longer time to do that, not just four days. We look forward to - to making sure that we can work with all of our partners on the ground and in the area to make sure that this can happen. And I want to thank the Egyptians for being so helpful in all of this.
MARGARET BRENNAN: UNICEF also said approximately 30,000 children under the age of five in Gaza had stunted growth. And this was even before the war began.
CINDY MCCAIN: Right.
MARGARET BRENNAN: Why?
CINDY MCCAIN: Well, I – the access for aid, again, prior to the war and then, of course, since the war has been an issue all along. And the ability to make sure that these children get the proper nutrients, not just food, but the proper nutrients in this. It's a terrific situation. It's a - it's - it is - it is a massive, catastrophic event that is occurring, and it will cross regions as it happens. We have got to be able to get in there. And not only that, we have to make sure that we can safely have access to be able to feed the people that we need to feed. So far we've fed about 110,000 since the - since the ceasefire, but we need to do a lot more than that.
MARGARET BRENNAN: For the next generations, no doubt.
I know you are looking at the entire globe here, and there is a lot of need right now. I read that the World Food Programme had to cut off 10 million people in Afghanistan. In Africa you've announced you'll have to end food aid for more than a million people in Chad, suspend aid in Nigeria, in Carr (ph) and Cameroon. How do you possibly prioritize need and how do you decide who to cut off?
CINDY MCCAIN: Oh, it's - it – Margaret, it's something that keeps me awake at night. And I - I - that - that's the honest truth. It's very difficult to do. But the - the problem is - is - is not - is not just the ability to not be able to feed, but it's – the problem is the world needs to step up and help us. We – cutting off 10 million people, primarily women and children, in Afghanistan is – it's deadly. It will - it will kill the country. So, we've got to be able to make sure that we can get aid in. And, more importantly, we need our countries around the world, not just the United States, but every country in the world to step up and help us, to feed people who cannot feed themselves.
MARGARET BRENNAN: The last time we spoke you emphasized that some countries could provide technology, advice on how to do it if they don't want to kick in money. China, of course, is one of those countries that's been pressed to do more here. Are you seeing anything more?
CINDY MCCAIN: Well, I'm seeing other countries, yes, step up and offer things and begin to work with us on a daily basis to see how we can better improve. Not just - not just what we - we give, but how it's grown and - and can be grown with less water, more technology. It's a - it's a series of things to try to combat not only climate change but the effects of Covid as well as conflict. It's a long-range prospect, but we do need the technology.
To narrow the above down, let's note that Olafimihan Oshin (THE HILL) reports:
Cindy McCain, director of the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP), said Sunday that Gaza, a strip controlled by the militant group Hamas, is “on the brink of famine” amid the militant group’s war with Israel.
During an appearance on CBS’s “Face the Nation,” moderator Margaret Brennan mentioned recent information published by UNICEF, the U.N. children agency, that a life-threatening form of malnutrition in children could increase by nearly 30 percent in the territory.
“First of all, the — the bottom line here is that we need to get more aid in as — as has been said, we’re looking at … possibly being on the brink of famine in this region,” McCain told Brennan. “This is something that … will spread. And with that comes disease and — and everything else that you can imagine.”
McCain, who is the widow of the late Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), also said that her agency needs more humanitarian aid trucks entering Gaza. She noted that children in Gaza receiving access to proper aid has been an issue for years prior to the war.
“It’s … a massive, catastrophic event that is — is occurring, and it will cross regions as it happens. We have got to be able to get in there. And not only that, we have to make sure that we can safely have access to be able to feed the people that we need to feed,” McCain added. “So far, we’ve fed about 110,000 since the — since the cease-fire, but we need to do a lot more than that.”
Also appearing on FACE THE NATION was the the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees Phillippe Lazzrini.
MARGARET BRENNAN: We go now to the commissioner-general of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees, Philippe Lazzarini.
Welcome back to Face the Nation.
PHILIPPE LAZZARINI (Commissioner-General, United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East): Good morning, Margaret.
MARGARET BRENNAN: I understand you're joining us from Amman, Jordan, this morning.
Roughly 108 of your staff members in Gaza have been killed, according to your reports. That's the highest number of U.N. workers killed in the history of the United Nations. We are very sorry for your loss.
I'm wondering, given that you are sharing your location coordinates with both parties, why is there still such a high death toll?
PHILIPPE LAZZARINI: Yes, Margaret, this is definitely devastating news. And the United Nations never, ever lost as many staff in such a short period in the conflict.
Now, it is also true, Margaret, that about 70 of our location sheltering more than one million people have been hit since the beginning of the conflict. And we had about 200 people who have been killed, plus 100 injured, and this despite the fact that we are constantly deconflicting and notifying the Israeli authorities, but also the de facto government of Hamas about our location.
MARGARET BRENNAN: So, who is hitting these locations?
I have seen your own U.N. reports that say you discovered some UNRWA schools have been used for military purposes, Israeli tanks nearby. You have also seen weapons storage in some of these facilities. Is that Hamas?
PHILIPPE LAZZARINI: We will definitely need to have investigation about all these allegations.
For the time being, we are in no position to determine who has been behind each of the incidents we have reported until now. But, clearly, here, this has been a blatant disregard of international humanitarian law, a blatant disregard of the U.N. premises, and a blatant disregard of a civilian population.
MARGARET BRENNAN: The White House says Israel's combat operations in South Gaza should not happen until there are assurances about protecting civilians in the south of Gaza.
Have you given – been given any kind of assurances here? Are you confident you can operate there safely?
PHILIPPE LAZZARINI: Well, therefore, we are not confident, because there haven't been any safe place until now in the Gaza Strip.
But people were initially asked to move from the north to the south. And we have seen that a number of people have been killed in the south. So there haven't been. any safe place yet.
That – having said that, we have this week reached more than one million people, more than half of the displaced people in the Gaza Strip being sheltered in U.N. premises. And we will continue to ask that the Israeli authorities and the warring parties to make sure that these places be respected in line with their obligation with international humanitarian law.
MARGARET BRENNAN: How dire is the humanitarian situation?
PHILIPPE LAZZARINI: Listen, I went back last week to Gaza for the second time.
The situation is much worse than what I saw the first time. Just to give you an example, I visited the vocational training center of UNRWA. We are sheltering 35,000 people there. I met a father with his five children. They live in a four-square-meter makeshift – basically sleeping on the floor, no mattress, no blanket.
Winter is coming. And, all of a – suddenly, he's bursting into tears and saying: "Well, my dignity has been stripped."
The pause, such as it is, continues as long as you don't look too closely. REUTERS notes, "A Palestinian farmer was killed and another injured on Sunday after they were targeted by Israeli forces in the Maghazi refugee camp in the centre of Gaza, the Palestinan Red Crescent said. The incident occurred on the third day of a four-day truce between Israel and the Palestinian militant faction Hamas."
CNN explains, "The Gaza Strip is 'the most dangerous place' in the world to be a child, according to the executive director of the United Nations Children's Fund." NBC NEWS notes, "Strong majorities of all voters in the U.S. disapprove of President Joe Biden’s handling of foreign policy and the Israel-Hamas war, according to the latest national NBC News poll. The erosion is most pronounced among Democrats, a majority of whom believe Israel has gone too far in its military action in Gaza." The slaughter continues. It has displaced over 1 million people per the US Congressional Research Service. Jessica Corbett (COMMON DREAMS) points out, "Academics and legal experts around the world, including Holocaust scholars, have condemned the six-week Israeli assault of Gaza as genocide." ABC NEWS notes, "In the neighboring Gaza Strip, at least 14,854 people have been killed and 36,000 have been injured, according to the Hamas-run Gaza Health Ministry." In addition to the dead and the injured, there are the missing. AP notes, "About 4,000 people are reported missing." And the area itself? Isabele Debre (AP) reveals, "Israel’s military offensive has turned much of northern Gaza into an uninhabitable moonscape. Whole neighborhoods have been erased. Homes, schools and hospitals have been blasted by airstrikes and scorched by tank fire. Some buildings are still standing, but most are battered shells." Kieron Monks (I NEWS) reports, "More than 40 per cent of the buildings in northern Gaza have been damaged or destroyed, according to a new study of satellite imagery by US researchers Jamon Van Den Hoek from Oregon State University and Corey Scher at the City University of New York. The UN gave a figure of 45 per cent of housing destroyed or damaged across the strip in less than six weeks. The rate of destruction is among the highest of any conflict since the Second World War."
The pause has only paused attacks in some places. CNN notes, "Eight Palestinians were killed by Israeli gunfire in the occupied West Bank over the course of 24 hours, the Palestinian Ministry of Health said in a statement Sunday. CNN has asked the Israel Defense Forces for comment about the killings." ALJAZEERA reports:
Several videos posted on social media and verified by Al Jazeera’s Sanad news agency showed Israeli forces carrying out more nightly raids across the occupied West Bank, even as the exchanges of Hamas captives and Palestinian detainees in Israeli prisons continue.
We have received reports that an ambulance was prevented by Israeli forces from reaching the Aqbat Jabr refugee camp in Jericho to help injured Palestinians.
There was no other immediate information about the injured inside the refugee camp.
Israeli forces also reportedly stormed the village of Jaba in Jenin located in the northern part of the occupied territory.
NBC NEWS notes, "The Israeli military has urged civilians who fled to southern Gaza not to return home and warned that it is preparing for the next phase of the war once the pause ends."
CNN's Kareem Khadder, Abeer Salman and Eyad Kourdi report:
A bus carrying Palestinian teenagers released from Israeli prisons arrived in the center of the West Bank city of Ramallah on Sunday evening local time.
Earlier, Israel’s Prison Service confirmed it had released 39 prisoners and detainees from a total of seven Israeli prisons (six in Israel and one in the occupied West Bank), as part of a deal between Israel and Hamas that also saw the militant group release hostages today.
The group released Sunday included boys aged 18 and younger; two are 15 years old, and one, the youngest released, is 14.
They were welcomed in Ramallah by hundreds of well-wishers, some waving Palestinian flags, others carrying the flag of Hamas.
Some were detained without knowing their charge: Sixteen of those released were serving sentences, mostly for attacks on Israelis, according to information drawn from the Israeli Prison Service and the Palestinian Prisoners’ Society, a non-governmental organization advocating for prisoners’ rights.
The remaining 23 released had been held under administrative detention, a widely criticized practice in which a detainee is unaware of any charges against them, and their case is not subject to any legal process.
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