Imtiaz Sooliman – Gift of the Givers to deliver aid in Gaza

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.