Imtiaz Sooliman – Gaza’s Humanitarian Crisis I IsraeliPalestine violence continues

As a counseling facility does, from a counseling looks after

kids. It has a preschool. And of course, we've been supporting

injured people with wheelchairs prosthesis. We do organ

transplantation in the country. We support medical supplies to the

hospitals and whenever, even if you can buy to support them, and

food parcels for the widows, food parcel for the poor, debt relief

does they've got three desalination plants. Now, with

that presence on site in Gaza, it gives us an advantage. First of

all, after this war, is going to be more than 200,000 right now,

children required from our consulate. We have a facility to

assist with that. But I mean, that's long term. Immediately, the

first day, within the first few hours, we bought whatever medical

stops available and took it to the hospitals that required the

medical support. And we're still doing that on an ongoing basis.

Whoever can get stopped, we make it available, we buy it, we get it

to hospitals only. We'll just, you know, immediate support. We do

that. We've already been supplied food to the homes that been

affected. We visited the victims in the hospitals. We provided them

with cash for themselves and for their families and any additional

eight our desalination plants are providing more water. It's not

easy for the trucks to move, because the bombing is continuous,

but when we can and when it's possible and when we can move, our

water plants are more busy to provide more water for more areas.

The hospitals, if they have a shortage of money for fuel, when

they can get it, we can really pay for that. So there's a range of

things that we're doing right now. We try to find buildings safer

from the front lines, where we can put people up for accommodation.

And if we can't find a building, we already look at available

apartments where we will pay the rent for six months or longer for

those displaced to stay in those apartments. Now, in particular,

the Gaza Strip is one of the most densely populated places on Earth,

with about, you know, 1.7 million people in an area only 10

kilometers wide by 40 kilometers long. And it's said to have a

population density twice that of New York City in the United

States. So with the violence that's currently raging on Doctor

Suleiman, I would imagine mobility is restricted. I mean navigating

around these massive groups. So just how difficult is it getting

food aid and other forms of aid to these people?

It's very, very complicated. It's not easy. Sometimes of these

people cannot get any food, but the Palestinians are adapted,

finding ways they look they're not they're not a scared nation.

They're very brave nation, and they will do anything to help each

other. They will risk their lives. They will move around. They'll do

that. You'll see them do the funerals while the bombings taking

place. They're not afraid to do that. You know. They will carry

people from the injured places while the bombs are falling and

take them to hospital. It's been years, and they found a way around

it and to them, it doesn't matter if their lives lost in the process

of saving somebody else's life. Now you have a blood shortage, you

will soon see 1000s of them to provide blood, to give the blood

donations for people they don't even know, you know. So they will

get the food supplies. And even the over the years, the

shopkeepers are very adapt at finding ways of getting food

parcels to an address that you give them. Of course, most of this

is occluded now, with the bombing taking place in certain parts of

the country, but it's a process. It requires patience. It's

sometimes very difficult. By people like yesterday, we lost

continued, complete communication with them. We said there was no

electricity. There was bombing. We couldn't send the images. We

couldn't talk to you. We couldn't get through a motorcycle. Can't

move. A motorcycle is struck. Ambulance are hit, Gaza hit. So

when there's a little there's an opportunity in those shoe minutes,

it's used very effectively to deliver what needs to be

delivered. You know, the flare up could get worse. Suleiman, I mean,

if Israel decides to launch ground offensive into the Gaza Strip, and

I'm told that Israel officials are still reportedly considering this

option, with tanks and heavy artillery close to the territory's

northern perimeter and already involved in the fighting, just how

prepared are humanitarian organizations like yours for the

escalation of violence and the subsequent increase in casualties?

It's not like we haven't been there before. You know it's it's

from 2009 more. The only difference, guys that are not

sending teams in the 2000 and what we are teams there in 2014 we are

teams there, but because of the covid cases, they wanted lockdown.

And of course, more importantly, our teams are required in South

Africa as we enter the third wave. So it's irrational for us to take

our teams across when we need them in our own country. So this time

is remote support, no, for whatever we can do, any

international disaster is remote support. Yes, artillery will cause

more incursion into Gaza will cause more deaths. It's not

something new, so something we haven't seen before, in the 2009

that 1000s of them died, even 2000 14,000

died, and 1000s more were injured, and the hospitals were doctors

were affected right now, even bond hospitals. It's a characteristic

of Israeli army to attack hospitals, civilian sites,

ambulances, doctors, mosques. You know, it's something not new. It's

done for years, and already a few hospitals have been destroyed.

Indonesian Hospital, which I saw personally myself when I was dead,

2014

another hospitals have been hit.

So probably many more hospitals and ambulances will be in the next

coming days. So yes, where when the troops coming? There's only

more casualties, more people are dying. It just means providing

more supplies. The only develop, the biggest challenge is to get

those supplies, because of the blockade and difficulty that's

accessing goods. You have to buy whatever's available in the

country, and by somebody call it some business, then it's sharp

enough and get to stop it. You can get it, or you need to open its

borders, or, you know, you can get supplies from there. But at at

some point, excessive supplies becomes very, very difficult. May

the health system is strained already, and as we've mentioned,

as a result of the covid 19 and the Israel authorities had closed

the areas crossing in the north of the Gaza Strip. Should we brace

ourselves for a further degeneration of the humanitarian

situation there?

Yes. I mean what each day. Remember, less fuel, more bombs,

more wounded, less supplies, more health facilities affected. Less

water available, less electricity available. That only compounds a

problem. You can't take wooded people out of the country for care

like they used to do normally. But I think if it opens borders to be

able to take some people out that way, but normally, they used to

take to their crossings, fly them to Turkey, to 4k and, you know,

get supplies. But all this is not going to happen this time. You

know, it's very unlikely that's going to happen. And many, many

people are going to die simply, not only because of the bombing,

but because of not die directly from the bombing, but die

indirectly because they've been injured. They could be saved, but

because they don't have the supplies, they will die because of

that. Under normal circumstances, they could be saved, but they

won't got a Suleman, great. Chatting to you. Thank you so much

for your time. That was a gift of the givers. Founder, Dr imtia

Suleiman, joining us live via zoom. You.