Site 61 Israeli Military Base, Israel
ADMINISTRATOR SAMANTHA POWER: Thank you, really everyone around the table – huge appreciation to the humanitarian organizations that are operating in the most complex and difficult operating environment I've ever seen, as most of us have ever seen.
I think what's happening in this room is incredibly important. Operationalizing a maritime route that has allowed more than 8,000 metric tons of emergency assistance to cross into Gaza. But, you know, alongside that are – in order to do that, to develop a mode of interaction and communication, and cooperation that we think can be and must be scaled across Gaza. And that's not easy. Nor was this easy.
But the work that UN agencies and NGOs and others are doing, the risks that their staffs are taking to meet these colossal humanitarian needs. Anything that individuals gathered here, across the IDF, or anything our military, is able to contribute as well to mitigating civilian harm and facilitating the work of these organizations have – just I and so many others are incredibly grateful for.
And, you know, I think the next phase here is going to be challenging. As Muhannad [Hadi] and I have discussed, you know, every day the war goes on longer, the conditions are more and more dire for civilians. So the urgent discussions about the proof of concept here, about how this works, and how it can be extended, recognizing that every part of the operating environment is different, recognizing that. But I think that's just a really, really important part of what we're here to discuss today.
But my main message, certainly on behalf of President Biden, is just enormous gratitude for the spirit with which these engagements are occurring just to try to improve and improve and improve because we can't afford not to.
Thank you.