Imtiaz Sooliman – Gift of the Givers to deliver aid in Gaza
AI: Summary ©
The Israeli Federal Government faces challenges, including poor hunger and the devastating consequences of bombings, and the challenges of moving and the need for aid to the people of sitting memory. The shortage of trucks and the risk of loading supplies on trucks are causing delays and problems for suppliers, and the overwhelming mentality of the people in their homes is causing people to travel to the airport and go to hospitals. The crisis is causing people to travel to the airport and go to hospitals, and the United Nations has warned against the danger of unaware of the danger of life. The event is causing people to travel to the airport and go to hospitals, and the overwhelming mentality of the people in their homes is causing them to respond with immediate attention to the distress of American lives and the need for a permanent ceasefire.
AI: Summary ©
Welcome back. So gift of the givers says Israel is deliberately
blocking aid to Gaza. The foundation is expected to deliver
aid this Thursday. More than 70% of Gaza's 2.3 million population
is facing catastrophic hunger, with the World Food Program
warning that famine is likely to occur in May people remain trapped
in northern Gaza, and some have resorted to eating animal feed in
desperation. At least 27 children have been said to have died of
malnutrition in recent weeks as Israel blocked the delivery of aid
and food supplies. Well, let's get more details. Now we're joined by
Dr India Suleiman, who is the founder of gift of the givers.
Doctor Suleiman, a good morning to you. Thank you so so much for
joining us. I think before we even get into the details of it, talk
to us about the efforts that gift of the givers really has been
taking up and trying to get aid into Gaza since October. I know
this has been something that you've been working very hard on.
Good morning, really. But before I start that, I'd offer my
condolences to the world's central kitchen, an organization in
America that fire had five of his members deliberately, deliberately
bombed by Israel last night. They were killed in their car. And they
are the ones coordinating food meals, meal distribution inside
Gaza. They supported us in South Africa during the floods in KZN in
2022
and he supported us in Syria, foreign earthquake in Turkey and
Syria in 2023
and four of those members who died were British citizens. So
condolences to them for being deliberately targeted last night.
And just to continue to answer your question, this is an ongoing
patent gift of the givers. Now has an office inside Gaza with this
since 2013 in terms of the office, but we've been assisting before
that, since 2009
our teams for the first 60 days. In fact, on October 7, we told
them we're going to get bombed like crazy, because nothing else
even totally devastated by what has happened. Procure supplies
from warehouses, from wherever you can give out the vouchers to the
people. It's going to be a fallout massacre. And that's exactly what
they did. They purchased stuff. And for the first 60 days plus, we
managed to get items from inside Gaza. You know, there were
warehouses, There were shops, there were places we gave people
vouchers. Our vouchers are well known inside Gaza. We did since,
as I said, 2013
and people honor those for our vouchers, people could buy food,
baby powder, whatever that was available at that point. Our
teams, in the meantime, on medical equipment, medical supplies,
against what was available, wheelchairs, hygiene packs, took
it to the different hospitals. As best we could, we find that the
volunteers in hospitals giving them a cash salary, which now is
meaningless because you can't really buy anything with no banks
running. So we know we gave them money as best we could, supported
them as best we could. My teams took chances when they said, it's
very difficult to move. It's very high risk. We don't know where our
families are. It's a challenge, but we need to serve our people
from our seed desalination plants. They were supplying water. Then
the electricity got cut off. The local people gave them generators.
Then the fuel ran out. People took up fuel from their cars, and
generators worked again. And then, of course, the water tankers
couldn't carry water anymore because the fuel ran out of the
water tankers. Then people came with Donkey carts, and we loaded
water on Donkey cars, and we delivered it to schools,
hospitals, clinics, individual people. We deliver food parcels to
individual people, delivered hot meals. But that was after day 60,
and then everything died. It was not possible to carry on. It was
too dangerous. Our people couldn't do anything. And then on November
16, the head of my office, Ahmed ambassi, was deliberately targeted
and killed by the Israelis after morning prayer, his brother,
medical doctor at one of the hospitals, was also killed. But we
had contingency plans. At the beginning. I told them to expand
the team, because, you know what, you guys, some of you may get
killed in the process. And they said, We know, we know the
Israelis work. We've already done that. We've already expanded the
team, and you know, the reef carried on, and our first convoy
of aid then went in around 15th of December. It took 20 days to move
trucks from Cairo into Rafa. It took 13 days from Rafa border
from outside to the inside a distance of 30 kilometers to 13
days.
That's that's overwhelming.
And now I'm wondering, then, what it looks like at the moment. I
mean, one hopes that with the the UN Security Council passing that
resolution essentially demanding an immediate ceasefire for the
month of Ramadan, and part of their demands is for aid to be
allowed into Gaza. That that would be easier now for gift of the
givers to get aid to the people of Gaza. Has that been the situation
now in the month of Ramadan.
Now the simple answer is no. First of all, Israeli is a terrorist
state. They are a rogue state. They are pariah nation. Their
leader is a terrorist, and so are they defense ministers. You see,
when resistance meet, people take up resistance to freedom, self,
occupation, occupation, therefore terrorists. But when states elite
terrorism and kill and murder and innocent people. Kill babies,
women, children born hospitals. That's called War. In this case,
the terrorist state is Israel. They are not going to succumb, you
know, they are not going to bow down. They ignore South Africa's
case of iCj. They are protected by America whose veto every single
decision except the UN except the last one where they have stayed.
Maybe because it's a world pressure, I don't know. But even
with the UN resolution, it made no difference. Even at a time when
there was a ceasefire and they were told, we were told that so
many trucks were going per day that was never kept. The number of
trucks that were supposed to go in never went in. On a good day, 202
50 trucks go through. They need 900 trucks a day at a minimum.
That was before the war. So during the war, you can expect to realize
how much more was needed, because there are no commercial shops. Now
you can't go in the street and go and buy so much more. Hate shops
are required. You know, shops and trucks are required for aid. On
most cases you get 40 to 40 trucks talking. Okay, we've had an
experience where we got three trucks in 20 days, and the second
time we were lucky, we got a few more trucks in seven days. So it
varies all the time. Dr Sullivan explain to me, if you will, I
mean, what the process then looks like, because essentially, I know
that gift of the givers would then receive all these donations, and
you've got all these hampers that you've put together, from food to
sanitary wear and so much more, right? We don't have to talk about
what's in the packs, but what I'm essentially asking you is, where
are the hindrances? So talk to me about the journey that one of
those trucks would would have on its way into Gaza, and where the
big the big blockages really then have been paint that picture for
us.
You first of all, you have to purchase the suppliers leadership
where the currency promotes fluctuation in currency, so they
had difficulty in getting goods. Then you have companies that don't
want to take the currency because the bank rate is too low compared
to the black market rate. But we don't do, you know, funny
business. Our every step is legal, so then we have to wait for them
to accept or we pay the companies directly. They don't want the
money for the bank, and then, because they don't have the goods,
they can't accept the money. So there's a delay. Then you're going
to join all the A can only be delivered to the Egyptian Red
Crescent. The Egyptian red person has been very good to us, I must
say. And so I've been the suppliers of supplying it to us,
but like us, the other people buying and they have to wait for
their trucks to come back. They don't have their own trucks. They
hire trucks from companies, but the trucks are stuck at the
border, sometimes 1000 1500 in a convoy, and it takes 2025, days.
It means you can't load your stuff on those trucks, and when those
trucks come back, then they load your supplies and wait in Al
Arish, which is an hour away from Rafa. It can wait there for a
week, two weeks, three weeks, when a truck driver being away from
home in that period of time, and then eventually it's Rafa. But you
can't cross steps where the people cross. The trucks have to go to
Karim shalom, which is an Israeli checkpoint. There are six to seven
such checks points, and they're only using one, and depends with
the so many trucks, then the road is full for 30 kilometers in both
directions. And as they move one by one, Israelis can decide
whether they want to see two trucks in their warehouse, whether
they receive five trucks or 10 trucks. And they can take two to
three days for that process. And even they want to be funny what
they permitted previously, they say, now it's not permitted.
Coriander was not permitted. Tents were not permitted, certain
medical items were not permitted. Now, that flower was not permitted
at certain times. So they try to frustrate you, make you stay,
check the truck after two days and send you back. And then you want
to join the queue again. And then after, if you're successful and
lucky, then the truck goes back to Rafa, and from there, just okay.
And the Qatar house. Qatar house is inside Gaza. That's from where
the end it does, gets to check up, but there's not enough space, you
know, and not enough people for the truck to offload inside Qatar
house. And then the distribution has been done by the Palestinian
red peasants, but they don't have enough fuel and enough trucks. The
UN has had so many people killed, they shot off manpower. They don't
have finance. The roads have been bombed. You can't access the
areas. You can't drive. You deliberately targeted by tanks and
snipers and helicopters and planes. So even once the aid is
inside, they make sure it's almost impossible for you to move the way
you need to go. Getting to the north is almost impossible, they
said in the beginning, they told all people to move to the south,
because close to 500,000 people still living in their homes in the
north. Right? They come out. They move. The moment they come out,
they shot at they get killed instantly. So.
Four to five trucks of flower reach the people in the North in a
month, four to five flower trucks for close to four to 500,000
people while surviving on whatever crops they have, whatever they
have in the garden, whatever animal seed there is, I'm sure
that death dollar 37 is way, way, way too low. That's probably 1000s
dead from starvation and dehydration in our room. Nobody's
going to know until you suddenly get inside those buildings. Yeah,
and yeah, of course, to get to hospitals to provide food to the
patients. I mean, it's just a huge logistical challenge. I wish we
had more time, but Dr Suleiman, and I think there's, there's so
much to cover here for I mean, for one year, of you talked about how
your own volunteers have expanded their teams, knowing that their
lives are in danger, but as part of this resolution by the UN
Security Council has been a ceasefire, which means no shooting
has should be taking place.
Talk to me about what you are hearing from your volunteers on
the ground in Gaza is bombing continuing? And what are you doing
then, to protect your staff, if at all,
bombing has never stopped. From the moment of the ceiling spire,
The bombing has been very intense. You know, two days ago, 200 people
were killed
in the hospital. A day before yesterday, they found 300 people
were killed. Doctors and their medical staff were executed. They
found bodies all over the hospital. That was, of course,
before the ceasefire. But the modeling has been intense in a
huge way. It has made no difference. In some cases, it has
been even worse than before. The other two points on this, you
know, America said they like to send aid through a temporary
report. It's so cynical. Their weapons are killing Palestinians
in the morning, because like saying, My dear Palestinian
friends, we are sending you aid in the morning, eat nicely, and in
the night, we will kill you with our weapons. That's the kind of
message being sent across. And even the eight drops are falling
on people. It's indignified. It's falling in the sea. People have to
swim together out of the sea. They're drowning in the process.
Yet seven road borders can be opened, and we can put 900 trucks
a day. The second thing about Ramadan, it's saying it's okay not
to die during the Battle of Ramadan. Any case, you guys are
passing for five months already. What's another week or two going
to make any difference? We have given you we stopped from food
from getting to you. So no and after, I mean, I will start
killing you again. You know, it doesn't make sense that kind of
logic. There has to be a permanent ceasefire all the Walker is one
and more people are gonna die. And to add one more point, I lost one
office member and his brother, but my team members have lost 175
family members. You ask me how they continue? I can't answer that
question. I don't even know how they do it. I don't know what list
they take, how they go to how they are mentally strong to do what
they do. They bought poles inside Rafa. They bought tent material.
They made tents. They found some other way, houses that people
managed to sell them some food. They moved from north to south,
where they got the fuel from. I can't answer how they're getting
the money inside. I can't answer what's giving them the power to
Bond. I can't answer. All I can say is, these are the heroes, the
medical teams and the people of Gaza. Totally. This is Faith and
resilience. No other nation in the earth can do this. I.