Interview
KAITLIN COLLINS: The U.S. military taking advantage of this temporary pause underway between Hamas and Israel to fly plane loads of critical supplies into Egypt, where they can be then brought into Gaza. The first of three C-17 delivered more than 54,000 pounds of food, medicine, and warm clothes today. Joining me now for an exclusive interview is Samantha Power, the Administrator for the U.S. Agency for International Development and a former Ambassador to the United Nations.
Administrator, thank you for being here tonight. Obviously, you know, more than 1.7 million people, around two million people live in Gaza have been internally displaced. It is now becoming rainy season. How vital is it that dry clothes, food, and medicine get to them right now?
ADMINISTRATOR SAMANTHA POWER: It's absolutely critical and that is why we are seeking, with our international partners, to take full advantage of this pause, but also to make sure that the flow of trucks and supplies continues. That this is not – that this becomes a new normal where we now have 240 trucks a day going in. That's still only a small fraction of the kinds of supplies that flowed in before this war began. So sustaining that flow, increasing it further, getting more fuel, more winterization supplies as the climate changes, all of that is going to be absolutely critical.
MS. COLLINS: Yes, it is critical, and as you mentioned it's not even close to what it was before, it was 500 trucks, about that, each day going into Gaza before this obviously, not close to that now. You mentioned a new normal, when does this become a point where it is the sustained delivery of commercial goods in addition to just the basic aid that’s going in now?
ADMINISTRATOR POWER: Well, again, we are very clear that there has been progress, but that what is going in is still not enough. And that is both because the humanitarian supplies should increase – I convened my international counterparts from all around the world and implored them to increase the amount of funding they provide to UN agencies and nongovernmental organizations so that cash and actual resources don't become a limiting factor here.
It had been that the inspections and getting supplies in were the limiting factors. You'd hate to see it be just a shortage of money on the part of the World Food Program or UNICEF or other partners. So that is key to getting, again those, that flow going, but it will be ultimately inadequate without commercial traffic, as well, accompanying humanitarian traffic. This is something that President Biden has raised at the highest level, it is something the White House is seized with, our special envoy in the region as well is pushing for commercial access.
So again, each week we see more progress in terms of supplies going in – the pause has given us a chance to expand dramatically, again, the throughput as they say, but we need to supplement humanitarian supplies with commercial supplies. That is, by far the most important next phase of the supply issue.
MS. COLLINS: It is a critical next phase, but how do you ensure that that aid continues to get in once Israel, as they have made very clear, resumes its military campaign. Because they’ve told all these people to go to the south, to leave the north, it's over a million people that have fled to the south. But they’ve made clear that that fighting can move to the south very soon so how do you make sure that aid can still while that’s still going on?
ADMINISTRATOR POWER: It's a great question. It's one we're very seized with even as we're trying to take advantage of the pause that now has been extended. We're also looking ahead, and Israel has made clear that it intends to pursue Hamas into the south.
Here again, President Biden, who has been a kind of humanitarian desk officer from the beginning of this conflict, again, increasing these supplies in – he's also extremely focused on civilian protection. On the fact that civilians need to be accounted for as this next phase of the military campaign begins, or as Israel plans it now with an eye to international humanitarian law, to the need to have spaces in the south like hospitals, like UN shelters, that are zones where civilians can gather and know that they will not suffer bombardment.
And so these are the very, very detailed conversations that are going on. There is receptivity to this message. But again, the planning is key, applying the lessons of the conflict in the north to the conduct of warfare in the south is absolutely critical because, again, civilians must be protected. There are no law free zones in war.
MS. COLLINS: Samantha Power, thank you very much for your time tonight.
ADMINISTRATOR POWER: Thank you Kaitlan.