Ray Hanania Show Special: How bad is Gaza鈥檚 humanitarian situation?

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  • UN Relief and Works Agency spokesperson Juliette Touma says 鈥渘eeds growing by the hour鈥� in the Gaza Strip
  • Israeli attorney Daniel Seidemann slams Netanyahu for bolstering Hamas while marginalizing Palestinian Authority

CHICAGO: The scale of humanitarian suffering in the Gaza Strip has reached unprecedented levels as Israeli airstrikes continue to lay waste to large swaths of the territory, according to Juliette Touma, director of communications for the UN Relief and Works Agency.

During an appearance on the Ray Hanania Radio Show, she painted a grim picture of the situation on the ground, saying: 鈥淯NRWA is overwhelmed at the moment in Gaza. The needs are growing by the hour. We do not have supplies. We do not have enough fuel to continue delivering assistance.鈥�

The Gaza Health Ministry said on Wednesday that the death toll since the war began on Oct. 7 had passed 6,500, with 756 Palestinians, including 344 children, killed by Israeli strikes in the previous 24 hours alone.

The unfolding humanitarian crisis is 鈥渦nprecedented 鈥� four times more than what we had planned for in the worst-case scenario,鈥� Touma said. 鈥淲e are now hosting four times more people than we thought we would have in a worst-case scenario.鈥�

Although Israel has now permitted humanitarian aid to enter Gaza from Egypt through the Rafah, border crossing, the territory鈥檚 only link to the outside world, Touma said it is only a fraction of what was being delivered prior to the conflict.

鈥淲e鈥檝e seen a number of convoys that have been coming through for the past three days; 54 trucks have come into Gaza,鈥� she said.




People search for survivors and the bodies of victims through buildings that were destroyed during Israeli bombardment in Khan Yunis. (AFP)

鈥淭hat鈥檚 absolutely nothing. It鈥檚 peanuts. It鈥檚 crumbs. If you compare it with the numbers that, according to the UN and UNRWA as well, every day to Gaza we should have 500 trucks coming in, including for aid and 100 for fuel alone. So, we have, in three days, 54 trucks and none of these trucks had fuel on them.鈥�

UNRWA, one of the oldest UN organizations, has been serving the people of Gaza for more than seven decades. It is also the largest UN agency active in the Gaza Strip, with 13,000 staff, many of them teachers. Indeed, it is the only UN agency that operates schools. Since the war began, however, UNRWA has been forced to close its schools in Gaza, depriving at least 300,000 children of education.

鈥淢any of our schools have been turned into shelters where people have sought refuge,鈥� said Touma.

The conflict has exacted a significant toll on the agency itself and its staff.

鈥淲e have already lost 35 colleagues at UNRWA,鈥� said Touma. 鈥淭hey were killed. Half of them were teachers, half were men, half were women.鈥�

In the wake of the Oct. 7 attack by Hamas, Israel imposed a strict embargo on Gaza, denying its impoverished population of 2.2 million people access to food, water, electricity and medicine. At the same time it launched a daily bombardment, killing thousands of civilians in the process.

Touma called for the blockade to be lifted and for an immediate ceasefire.

鈥淢edicines, fuel, food, water, these are things that are very, very much missing,鈥� she said. 鈥淎nd I don鈥檛 think it鈥檚 too much to ask. These are the basics that people need to live in dignity. And I also think for people to live in dignity, we need to have a ceasefire as soon as possible.鈥�

Israeli attorney Daniel Seidemann, who also appeared on the Ray Hanania Radio Show this week, said that Israel鈥檚 failure to properly engage with the Palestinian Authority, and misconceptions about the true nature of Hamas, created the conditions for the unprecedented attack.

A resident of Jerusalem, member of the Israeli Bar Association and founder of the nongovernmental organization Terrestrial Jerusalem, he added that the dehumanization and violent suppression of Palestinians had contributed to the latest crisis.

Hamas took control of the Gaza Strip in 2007. The Sunni militia, with roots in the Muslim Brotherhood but with financing and support from Shiite Iran, has engaged in multiple conflicts with Israel, each ending in flimsy ceasefires.

However, the Oct. 7 attack in which 1,400 Israelis, mostly civilians, were killed by Hamas gunmen who breached the border in several places in the country鈥檚 south, marked a fundamental change in the long-running conflict.

鈥淚sraeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for many years bolstered Hamas, favored Hamas, ironically because strengthening Hamas would give you a pretext of not negotiating with the Palestinian Authority and with Mahmoud Abbas,鈥� Seidemann told The Ray Hanania Radio Show, which is sponsored by Arab News and broadcast weekly on the US Arab Radio network.

鈥淗e had an ideology, which was firmly entrenched in Israel, that Hamas can be contained. We鈥檙e not going to arrive at peace. We don鈥檛 have to give up anything. But they can be contained. And that collapsed on Oct. 7.鈥�

According to Seidemann, Israel鈥檚 leveraging of Hamas as a tool to undermine the Palestinian Authority merely strengthened the armed group, while failing to recognize its true nature. Seidemann believes Hamas took inspiration for its ideology from Daesh and Al-Qaeda.




UN workers talk in the playground of an UNRWA-run school that has been converted into a shelter in Khan Yunis. (AFP)

鈥淭hat is something that I did not anticipate, I don鈥檛 think many Israelis anticipated,鈥� he said.

鈥淔ormer Prime Minister Ehud Olmert 鈥� was the last Israeli leader to negotiate with the PA in good faith. And he lambasted Netanyahu and has been doing so for years: 鈥楾his is a monster that you created. You made false assumptions about it because you didn鈥檛 want to deal with Mahmoud Abbas.鈥�

鈥淚sraelis have been safe, in many ways, because of the stability of the Palestinian Authority. Netanyahu did everything he could to marginalize them and Hamas was the tool for it.鈥�

While marginalizing the PA, Israeli authorities simultaneously dehumanized the Palestinian people, Seidemann said. A pervading viewpoint was created in which 鈥淧alestinian lives matter much less and sometimes don鈥檛 matter at all.鈥�

He added: 鈥淚 very much am sympathetic with the sense that there is a double standard. It鈥檚 a global double standard in all sorts of ways. It鈥檚 dangerous for me to express that among Israelis these days but, to be honest, that鈥檚 what it is.鈥�

By violently repressing any form of dissent, and believing that high-tech military defenses could take the place of a peaceful and dignified solution, and that the world would go on treating the lives of Palestinians as having less worth, the conditions for a violent backlash were laid, according to Seidemann.

鈥淲e crush every political expression more radical than a scout meeting, and we have crushed meetings so the political energies go into the direction of people who don鈥檛 ask permission 鈥� and some of them are violent,鈥� he said.

The blocking of avenues for peaceful resistance and the pushing of Palestinian opposition to the occupation down violent paths has not gone unnoticed, prompting efforts to improve the economic conditions for communities in the West Bank and Gaza.

鈥淧eople in recent times have been speaking about making the lives of Palestinians better, the improvement of the Palestinian economy,鈥� said Seidemann. 鈥淣o 鈥� the deficit the Palestinians are suffering is the deficit of freedom. The deficit of dignity.

鈥淢y friends in East Jerusalem are telling me what the discourse is, on social media, their support for Hamas because 鈥榳e鈥檝e been ignored for years. Nobody has counted us. Everybody鈥檚 bypassed us. And regrettably, the only language that Israel understands is violence.鈥� And I have to concede, we鈥檙e proving that.鈥�

Asked whether the peace process can recover from the Hamas attack and resulting assault on Gaza, Seidemann said the ultimate outcome is unknowable but the events of recent weeks have overturned some long-held assumptions.

鈥淭he Israeli public is traumatized and that is not auspicious circumstances in which to resume,鈥� he said. 鈥淚 believe that the notion that Israel can bully and break the will of the Palestinians with superior force has taken a hit and destroyed that myth.

鈥淵es, you鈥檝e sent this Iron Dome. You鈥檝e sent the soldiers. You haven鈥檛 said that鈥檚 the one thing that can work, and that is a political agreement, and that is fairness and decency.鈥�

Seidemann is doubtful that the Netanyahu government will change its current course.

鈥淲hat鈥檚 Israel鈥檚 goal? I wish I knew,鈥� he said. 鈥淚 doubt my prime minister knows. It鈥檚 one of the reasons, and there are numerous reasons, why it鈥檚 time for him to leave.




A shelter for displaced Palestinians in Khan Yunis. (AFP)

鈥淏ut in his world of 鈥榳e can defer this problem indefinitely; we can live alongside occupation without dealing with it; we can contain the Palestinians; the world doesn鈥檛 care; we could normalize and bypass the Palestinians鈥� 鈥� all of that is clearly not true or it hasn鈥檛 been true for many of us all along.

鈥淏ut we鈥檙e now entering into a war. We鈥檙e in a war and ground operations. And it鈥檚 not clear to me what the objective is. I hear from our leaders, and some of them are in exemplary good faith saying we will be victorious. What do you mean by that? And they don鈥檛 explain it other than maybe implying that they will destroy Hamas and continue the way things have been.鈥�

While many in the international community have expressed solidarity with Israel following the Hamas attack, they have also called on the Israeli government and military to exercise restraint and to permit humanitarian aid to reach civilians who have been prevented from leaving Gaza.

Israel has massed troops on the border with Gaza in preparation for a widely expected ground operation. The escalation has prompted fears of the conflict escalating into a wider regional war involving other Iranian proxies, including Lebanon鈥檚 Hezbollah.

Against this background, Seidemann believes a long-term vision is needed to establish peace between Israel and Palestine.

鈥淲e have to think of the day after,鈥� he said. 鈥淭here鈥檚 not going to be peace the day after. There are going to be deeply traumatized people on both sides who have suffered unspeakable horrors.

鈥淎nd we have to pick up and rebuild. And we will be rebuilding in the Middle East, which has an entirely different architecture from what we鈥檝e known in the past.

鈥淚t鈥檚 not only that the situation is unknown at the moment. It鈥檚 unknowable. But it doesn鈥檛 absolve us from preparing for it.鈥�