Philippe Lazzarini: Each time it is getting worse. Each time it is getting extra determined. Last time I went was on the eve of the truce.

At that point, I’ve seen how determined individuals had been within the United Nations shelter. They had been overcrowded. They had been residing in unsanitary situation, sleeping on the ground with out mattresses, with out blankets. Winter is coming. And once I went final week, I believed that what I noticed earlier than was already heartbreaking sufficient.

But an offensive has been expanded now within the south of Gaza Strip, pushing extra a whole bunch of 1000’s of individuals to the south in Rafah. And now we have in the present day greater than 1.2 million individuals throughout the Gaza Strip sheltered in our premises. These will not be even shelters. These are faculties. These are warehouses. These are well being facilities. But you could have additionally a whole bunch of thousand of individuals now simply residing within the open.

Kelly: So the shelter is already overflowing and 1000’s and 1000’s of individuals residing outdoors the shelter. Is there one story, one one that you spoke to that’ll stick with you?

Lazzarini: Well, the story is the story of the person who’s a father of youngsters who mainly began to burst into tears when he instructed me that he feels that his dignity has been stripped as a result of he can not handle his youngsters anymore, since they’re begging daily for a sip of water, for a loaf of bread. They are queuing hours to go to bogs, and mainly they really feel handled like a human animals.

Listen to All Things Considered each day here or in your native member station for extra interviews like this.

Kelly: Talk to me about meals. I perceive it is change into so scarce that individuals are scrambling for it, preventing for it in the event that they see a meals truck go previous.

Lazzarini: Oh, that is additionally one thing utterly new, and I warned greater than as soon as that very quickly individuals is not going to simply die due to the bombardment, however they are going to die due to a mix of weakened immunity, illness outbreak and starvation.

And now the general public I used to be encountering throughout my go to had been telling me, “Listen, I haven’t eaten for the last day or two days. Sometimes we have to skip for three days.”

So in an atmosphere like this, certainly, individuals are so determined that they attempt to leap on our truck and take the meals from the truck and simply eat it from the road.

Palestinians examine a home after it was hit by an Israeli bombardment on Rafah.

Fatima Shbair/AP

cover caption

toggle caption

Fatima Shbair/AP

Palestinians examine a home after it was hit by an Israeli bombardment on Rafah.

Fatima Shbair/AP

Kelly: Where do your efforts stand to get extra meals in, to get extra drugs in, any help into Gaza?

Lazzarini: Our purpose may be very clear. We want the total opening of the Kerem Shalom crossing in Israel. Two days in the past, it reopened. Few vans got here in. But sadly, it is not but at scale to reply to such an enormous humanitarian disaster.

Kelly: I interviewed the president of Israel, Isaac Herzog, yesterday and I requested him about help. He was very vital of the U.N. He basically blamed the U.N. for the bottleneck in getting help into Gaza. He says the U.N. may very well be getting extra help in if you happen to needed. How do you reply to that?

Lazzarini: Well, that is true. We might have a lot, rather more if Israel would permit extra vans to return in.

Today, for instance, we had solely 46 truck coming from Kerem Shalom and 100 vans coming from Rafah. So mainly, regardless of the reopening of the crossing, we shouldn’t have total extra vans coming into the Gaza Strip. What we’d like is one thing rather more significant as a result of what we’re getting in the present day is much from sufficient to reply to such a disaster.

Kelly: I simply wish to keep on for this for a minute as a result of it is clearly extremely irritating to listen to Israel is blaming the U.N. I simply heard you say, you recognize, if Israel would open the crossings and hold them open, we might get extra in. How do you break the deadlock?

Lazzarini: Listen, you could have many bottlenecks. First of all, you could have nonetheless ongoing bombardment — roads which have been destroyed, vans which have been destroyed.

When vans are available in, they aren’t allowed to go to the ultimate vacation spot. They should obtain after which you must re-offload.

If we might let vans go into the ultimate vacation spot, you’ll be able to let vans are available in within the a whole bunch, and this may not be an issue. So the bottleneck is a collection of points associated to the battle but in addition to administrative process.

Kelly: Before I allow you to go, I wish to ask about your crew, your employees, as a result of I learn that it is 135 UNWRA employees have been killed in Gaza for the reason that struggle started. How many do you continue to have there and the way are they doing?

Lazzarini: So certainly, now we have 135 individuals who have been killed for the reason that starting of the struggle. This has been devastating for the company. Today, we nonetheless have between 3000 to 5000 employees working every day. But we should always always remember, they’re residing the identical situation than anybody else they’re supporting. They are additionally struggling to discover a shelter, they’re struggling to seek out water, electrical energy and meals. And lots of the employees are, in reality, coming to work with their youngsters, as a result of mainly what they are saying is, “I want to be sure that either I see my child at the end of the day, or if we have to die, we will die together.”