Port of Ashdod, Israel
QUESTION: [off mic]...Is there an alternative plan to get the aid into Gaza?
ADMINISTRATOR POWER: Well, given the scale of the humanitarian crisis in Gaza, we're constantly going to be looking at maximizing the number of modes of entry and points of entry. So land access is the foundation, that's why making sure that there's much more flow through Kerem Shalom is so important, getting Rafah reopened is so important. And then these entry points that have been brought online in the north are really important as well.
The maritime pier came online at a time of some of the greatest despair and the greatest food shortages, and actually has brought to the people of Gaza enough food to feed 450,000 people for a month. So it's been, I think, a bigger part of meeting food needs than people are aware – that's more than 8,000 metric tons.
We're here at the Port of Ashdod. The Government of Israel, and the port authorities here, and the scanning authorities have brought online additional scanning capacity, in part because of the recognition that there needs to be a greater flow into Gaza. Ashdod port was a place that a lot of the humanitarian aid flowed before October 7. We think the capacity here can be built even more, and that Ashdod can be a major source of incoming supply that then can make its way by land into Gaza. So I think there will be a maritime part of the humanitarian solution over time that will get bigger and bigger, it will probably flow through at this port.
QUESTION: So one of the main issues is to keep the flow going and also keep it separate, right? So what are the main obstacles, you believe? And Israel [inaudible] but there are some piling up stuff there too. So, what exactly is causing that backlog?
ADMINISTRATOR POWER: Well, we need a ceasefire and the release of hostages. I know that we've been saying that for a long time, and all of us are heartbroken for the hostages’ families, for the people of Gaza who have to endure this horrific conflict day after day, after day. But we must set the terms of the ceasefire, and then we will be in a position to flood the zone with humanitarian support, on a scale that is just not possible where you have fighting – active fighting going on throughout Gaza.
The other major impediment right now is criminality – gangs, looting. With the shortage of humanitarian supply and the access challenges we encountered, or aid groups encountered before, that meant less food, that made the price of food higher, it gives gangs more and more of an incentive to get involved in criminality. I think the only way we break the back of the criminality is to flood the zone. So, again, I come back to the importance of the ceasefire.
In the event that Hamas does not accept the deal that is on the table, we are going to continue to use all of these ports of entry to try to increase the amount of commercial and humanitarian assistance that flows in. Having better deconfliction mechanisms, a technical, jargony term, but basically aid workers knowing that they are safe to move from point A to point B. They know there are hungry people, you know, five kilometers in that direction – having a system lined up with those aid workers can convey their coordinates, their movements to the IDF, and know that they're going to be safe in making those deliveries. That has not been an assurance that they have had throughout this conflict.
The one place that we have developed a system that has worked well, where humanitarians have been working, and have had confidence that they can move is with regard to the maritime pier – the U.S. military has been involved in that, USAID has been involved in that, the UN, IDF, all sitting around a table, negotiating access, negotiating movements together. And those movements have occurred effectively and safely.
What we have just secured is an agreement from the Government of Israel and from the military to extend that system, which so far has only been active in the maritime pier context, to all of Gaza. It's going to take time for those procedures and protocols. But it is so urgent, because again, if humanitarians are going to come and risk their life to support the needs of the people of Gaza, who are in such desperate circumstances, the least that we all can do is come together and make sure that those humanitarians can move freely and efficiently so that they can actually, you know, get the assistance to people in need. And that has not been the case in much of Gaza to this point.
QUESTION: The issues, of course, it's very important that the people that need to do that. So, Israel can do more than something that's relatively – do more there to help you or to make the flow going on, the trucks going in? [inaudible] Israel can do more?
ADMINISTRATOR POWER: The decisions that have been made, just in recent days to increase the scanning capacity here at Ashdod port and allow this to become more of a humanitarian hub, is important. This system, taking a coordination cell that has been narrowly applied to goods that have come in through the U.S.-established maritime corridor – taking that system, scaling it to all of Gaza, they have agreed to do that, with the implementation of that rapidly so that it can affect convoy movements not a month from now, but a week from now. That is what we are pushing on. That is one of the reasons that I am here.
Additionally, you know, allowing goods to flow in a predictable way so that the humanitarian partners know how to pick them up and having that, again, that coordination where humanitarian assistance, but also the protection of civilians is a fundamental feature of every decision made even in a wartime context.
QUESTION: So, and also, in addition to that question of the ceasefire, is one or not also impacted, how we, how the things are going to develop there for aid?
ADMINISTRATOR POWER: Well, again, everyone in the world should be pressing Hamas to accept the terms of the deal on the table, which would not only bring about the release of hostages and the release of Palestinian prisoners – which is what Hamas has been pushing for on the Palestinian prisoners side – but also would mean Israeli withdrawal from major population centers. And that would be a reprieve, a long overdue reprieve, for the families that have had to move countless times from one city, to one village, never knowing where their next meal is going to come from. That kind of stability would be so important, but we are not banking on Hamas making the right decision. How can one ever trust that Hamas will do the right thing?
So, the reason that I am here is I brought new resources. We have made an announcement today of an additional $100 million of additional humanitarian assistance. We will make use of that in the event of a ceasefire where we can flood the zone. But we will make use of it no matter what. We will find a way to get these resources to people in need.
But, additionally, in a context in which there is not a ceasefire, these issues of deconfliction, of safe humanitarian movement become all the more important. Because when the IDF is active in military hostilities, humanitarian aid workers have paid the price – more than 278 aid workers have been killed in this conflict, more than anywhere in the world. So this agreement that we have just secured to extend a system that is applied only narrowly to the maritime corridor and convoys associated with those deliveries, extending that to all of Gaza is something we will do, even if there is no ceasefire. This is extremely important to see through.
QUESTION: And so USAID is working with partners inside Gaza right. How are the conditions there? Can you say something about that, or how they are dealing with the situation there, or expectations, or?
ADMINISTRATOR POWER: I can say from my own experience, initially I was a journalist – I started my career as a war correspondent. My whole career has been working in and around conflict areas, and I have never seen a more difficult conflict environment for humanitarians to work in, never. And that's partly because Hamas is burrowing itself, you know, in schools, and in refugee camps, and humanitarian facilities. But, it is also because civilian protection needs to be strengthened, and IDF military operations need to be taking account of what the humanitarians are doing, and the fundamental importance of that work.
And again, I think the decision that the IDF has made to extend this effort to protect humanitarians through all of Gaza, a system that has worked much more optimally than the system has seen a lot of accidents or a lot of collateral damage, this is something that we really need to work through. Because what the humanitarians say, to your question is, it's hard enough to do this work when the needs are so great and the resources available to us are so few. But to try to do that work when you can't have confidence that you can move safely from one point to another, from a warehouse to a hungry family, that just is excruciating. No humanitarian should have to make a life or death decision every day to provide life and death support.
And so that is what we are seeking to address, seeking to strengthen much too late in the conflict. We've been trying, of course, over many, many months. But we are hopeful that with this agreement, there will be much better coordination where the humanitarians and the IDF are sitting side by side, discussing their convoy movements in advance, that there is a red phone, you know, when a humanitarian encounters an issue on a road that, that immediately goes up the chain of command. Again, that has not been happening in the way that it needs to, and that is at least a factor behind the number of incidents in which humanitarians have taken casualties.
QUESTION: What agreements were reached with Israel?
ADMINISTRATOR POWER: The conditions in Gaza are so dire, that we have to do everything in our power to increase the flow into Gaza, and to seek better protection for humanitarians who are providing that assistance to civilians, who, in some cases, have no place else to turn, in many cases, have no place else to turn.
So what we have done here in Ashdod is received assurance that the humanitarian pipeline through this port – a critical port of entry for humanitarian goods – that those goods will be prioritized, that new scanning capacity is being brought online so that more can flow more quickly, because there's also a lot of commercial traffic that comes through here, and very, very importantly for the aid workers who are risking their lives every day in Gaza, we have secured an agreement whereby a system that has had UN workers and IDF soldiers and officers, with the U.S. military sitting together and coordinating movement from the U.S. maritime pier, to civilians who need those supplies – that system, which applied to just one small part of Gaza, we now have agreement to extend that system, which is called a deconfliction system, and fundamentally a system around humanitarian convoy management. That system is now going to be extended to all of Gaza.
Our hope, then, is that more supplies will flow and that the aid workers who deliver those supplies will be able to move in the knowledge that they have direct connection to the IDF, that they can raise any delays at checkpoints, any risks in terms of IDF military operations, and that that more can be done to assure their safety. Because nine months into the conflict, the only way that we're going to scale assistance to the degree that is needed, given the humanitarian crisis unfolding, is for humanitarian aid workers to be able to go where they need to go safely and efficiently.