Imtiaz Sooliman – . Joins ICJ Protest Advocating for Palestine

What is the current situation in ithaza, at the moment, with your

team being on the ground? Well, the team said it's horrendous.

They said they limited in every way. The biggest difficulty is

people in the North need a lot of help. And you said today, the

report came yesterday, that if you move from the north to the south,

even though they've asked you to move from the north to the south,

they hassle you on the way. They stop you. They sniper you. They

bomb you with tanks. All of the tanks have moved from the North.

They're on the side on the roads. If you're trying to come from the

south to the north, it's a no go. They kill you on site. People want

to go back to their homes, but there is no home to go back to.

They flatten everything. And even you go back to the home. There's

no shops, there's no electricity, there's no water, there's no food,

there's no medical care. So it's a useless situation. The trucks that

are coming in only 10 a week get to the north, and there's hundreds

of 1000s of people there, the food stores that come from the UN

compound, and there's no un compound in the north to

facilitate that. So there is some kind of looting that takes place.

There's there's criminal element that's taken place. It's

desperation. So a lot of people who deserve to get the stuff don't

get the stuff. Some people sell the food at high price. Where it's

more control is Rafa in the south. But it's not only the people in

the South. Anytime it's in the central area or where this is,

again, 30 hospitals are not functional. There's no fuel.

57,000 almost 60,000 wounded, injured people need urgent

support. 6000 people have to be evacuated immediately to outside,

whoever wants them, otherwise they're going to die. 180,000

people have respiratory disease, density treatment, 140,000

children, people, more, a large portion of them under five

children that have diarrhea that needs to be treated. There's

emotional and psychological challenges. There's starvation.

Children and adults are dying of hunger. There's this, there's

pain, there's suffering. And our teams themselves and the medical

care guys don't know who's alive is not alive. The doctors are

exhausted. They can't function anymore, and they need a support

team to come into support. We want 150 medical personnel to go in. I

can even double that amount, because I've got guys from the UK,

from America, from other parts of the world, wanting to join us, but

I don't have to do that. There's enough South Africans wanting to

go into support. But whilst we're doing that, we've our

psychologists are in training, talking to the people in in

Palestine, how should we modify the counseling method? They're

going to special courses. So once you set again 100 days tomorrow,

we're not wasting time. And even surgeons. What equipment is

required. We are ready to if that border opens up, if we get the

permission, we're ready to move in. I was recently in Cairo. I

spoke to Dr Nasr Sheik as well, who's very instrumental in the

logistics of some of the trucks that go over to the Rafa border as

well. Are there still trucks being intercepted, and are we still

finding that the aid is not getting to the right people, the

people of Gaza that need it desperately? Well, intercepted is

is being stopped. They're not being intercepted. They're being

delayed. It's a difference. There's a there's a very long

procedure involved in getting truck aid to Gaza. There's about

15 steps. It's very complicated in terms of bureaucracy. The trucks,

you first of all have to apply for permission. Then you have to get

Egyptian Red Crescent to delivery. They could arrange the trucks.

Then you gotta give a manifest of what you want to put in. And they

can suddenly look at the list, and they say they don't like number

four, not them, desireless number four, number five, number 10. You

gotta unpack. You're gonna prepare a new list. You can't put in

tents, you can't put in certain medical supplies. You can't do

this, that and the other the bigger countries have been

fortunate. They managed to get some tents inside. NGOs are having

a battle to get that in the trucks then go to our Arish. They have to

wait there to get permission to join the con point. Only 20 to 30

trucks are sometimes at a good day, 50 trucks can go, but that

they cross into Karam Shalom. It's on the Israeli side. They can stay

there for three days. They go to the old truck. That distance from

Rafah to Karam Shalom is 30 kilometers. It took my trucks 13

days to cross 30 kilometers. Then they come back to karafa and they

go to Qatar house. Qatar house is a stopping point controlled by the

UN there they have to offload. Then the Palestinian trucks to

come and fetch them. The Palestinians don't have enough

trucks, and they don't have enough fuel. And then they're going to

move that stuff to other parts of the country where it's possible.

The roads are not functional. There's bombing everywhere. It's

difficulty. People are in desperate need so and the aid is

so limited it can't get to everybody. We got in another seven

trucks yesterday. It's at Karim Shalom. I don't know it is you

will take to come back in, but even you get in to answer your

question, there's a deliberate policy to obstruct. They don't

intercept. They allow the trucks to go through, but they if they

decide they don't want the five items of truck, they'll send it

back. One last question, you recently lost a pivotal member of

your team on the ground in Haza as well, which we want to say that

all of us at Hillel TV feel for yourself and your organization as

well. But.

This happens to so many other organizations in and around that

provide aid, and it can obviously put a damper on some of the work

that is needed in Gaza at the moment. What is your message to

all those NPOs that are assisting, even though they're going through

so much right now? Well, let's, let's, rather my Palestinian

people, answer that question in the way they said it. So on the

seventh of October, we call them and said, Netanyahu is gonna bomb

the LRW guys. His ego as we dented, and he's gonna go crazy,

because desert teaching at home, the gods destroy him. He makes me

at first classical example right now. And we said, be ready. They

said, We know the people. We're ready. Five days later, I said,

oops, you guys are in serious trouble here. They said, We know

this is the worst. This is genocide. I said, expand the team.

In case somebody dies. We need to replace you guys. The work was

carry on. They said, We already did that. We anticipating to die.

So we will not give up. You know, we will fight at the end. We're

not leaving here on the 12th of November, as I mentioned earlier,

he said the personal skill said, and I got a premonition around the

same time that he was going to die. And he said,

I will not move. Stay in the north. I'm taking my wife and my

three children and my 30 family members. We're going to stay in

our own apartment, in our own house, and we're going to wait for

the bombs to die, afford on us. We will die as non military artists,

but we will not suffer the indignity of being pushed from

political post. We rather die in dignity. My family can be in the

house. I will deliver what I've been mandated to do as a

Palestinian. I know my responsibility. I will be I will

not give up. I'm on the 16th coming out of the mosque. He was

booked, murdered by the Israeli force, occupation forces, and his

brother, doctors also killed instantly. We removed that. We got

our teams in Gaza. We are here. We're not there. We got them to

move to 30 family members, the wife and the three children. They

are in relative safety, if there's such a thing in Gaza. For now, you

know, it's from the 16th of November. We grateful that it's

still alive. And the other, other family member, another team

member, lost 100 family members. The other family team members

together lost 50. So we've lost 150 family members, but they are

so motivated by what they see here, what they see in South

Africa. And they say, your protest, you're standing up the

government going to iCj, Palestinians from the ISPA said,

we salute you. Thank you. You're keeping obstacle alive. So to

answer your question to all NPRs, it's the Palestinians that are

driven and desperate. Can never be broken. You can kill Gaza, you can

destroy a building, you can cut water, but you can't break the

spirit. Thanks so much. Doctor India, from the gift to beginners.

Have a great afternoon. Thank you very much. Bye.