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Mary Louise Kelly (3:36)

It'S Consider this from npr. What's it been like to live through these last two years of war in Gaza? Here is how Palestinian journalist Shrug Ayla explained it to my colleague Layla Fadel this week. And she added that these two years of war have coincided with the first years of her daughter life.

Layla Fadel (3:55)

Daniel spent more than half of her age with no drinkable water, with no medical supplies for her illness, with no milk, with no diapers. And because of the famine, she grows up on canned food. She doesn't recognize the apples, the banana and all the other kind of food.

Mary Louise Kelly (4:20)

Aila and her daughter are like many thousands of Palestinians in that they've been hungry through much of the war. The International Rescue Committee is one of the organizations that's trying to help, trying to address the humanitarian crisis in Gaza. David Miliband is the IRC's president and CEO. He's in our studios to talk about what comes next. David Miliband, welcome.

David Miliband (4:41)

Thanks very much.

Mary Louise Kelly (4:42)

So you've got the challenge of trying to get aid to people who are moving, who may not have a place to sleep. Forget the food, forget all of the other challenges they're facing. What about just the starting challenge of getting food into Gaza? There are all these questions about the border crossings, what's open, what isn't. At the hour that you and I are speaking here on Wednesday, the Rafah crossing, the main crossing between Gaza and Egypt, is not open. Can you begin to get remotely enough aid in?

David Miliband (5:14)

Well, we can begin, but we're measuring it in hours, not yet in weeks. Monday was a good day. Tuesday was a worse day. Wednesday, I'm waiting to hear the news. Monday was a good day because 600 trucks of food and medicine got in. And one piece of good news is that there is a coordinated plan for what the humanitarian agencies led by the UN Want to do. We know we've got to sort out the nutritional supplies. We know we've got emergency health care. We know that if you don't get the water and sanitation done, then you're courting even worse disaster. Those are the top priorities. But we also know what winter's coming. So shelter is very Important. We also know that the commercial traffic is key because that drives down the prices. If you can get a surge of commercial traffic as well as humanitarian aid.

Mary Louise Kelly (6:04)

You said Monday was a good day because 600 trucks of aid got through. We are being told by a spokesperson for the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian affairs in Gaza that Israel has told them they'll only allow 300 aid trucks. 600, that was a good day. That is also the bare minimum to avert further famine, further starvation.

David Miliband (6:27)

And just to the benefit of your listeners, before October 7, 2023, there were about 500 trucks a day going in in steady state. We've got an enormous amount of ground to make up because of the restrictions. Sometimes no trucks over the last six months, sometimes only 50. We've got ground to make up. So we need many weeks of 600 trucks plus the commercial traffic. The UN figure for Tuesday was a bad figure, down to 150 or 200, I think. And so we are desperate that the feeding and treatment of people is not turned into a victim of the political struggle. From our point of view, feeding people is never a danger. It's always the right thing to do, and that's an absolute priority. And I was in touch with the head of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian affairs today, and I know he's working to get those numbers back up.

Mary Louise Kelly (7:19)

Have you heard any hopeful news yet? You know, a story of a person who, who is eating today, who didn't have food last week?

David Miliband (7:27)

Well, the hope comes from the fact that the conflict seems to be over. There's a hope of life, if you like. Now, the hope of livelihood has yet to follow, but prices in the markets went down on Monday because the commercial traffic started to flow. So, yes, we can say that there are flickerings of hope, but we have to be ultra realistic about this. This is an enormous multi year, maybe even a multi generational challenge to get enduring, sustained, sustainable change. And we are absolutely clear that the humanitarian aid is the first step on the road to development. But if it becomes just the last step, then we're going to lose the hope that's been created.

Mary Louise Kelly (8:10)

You sound hopeful that the ceasefire is holding, that the ceasefire will hold. Is that just hope or is there something grounding that optimism? Why would this ceasefire hold when the last two have not?

David Miliband (8:24)

Well, the answer to that is very direct. There's more political commitment than there was before. This is a commitment that has the United States fully behind it. It has all the region behind it. Israel and Hamas have both signed up to this. So we have more political support for more stability than ever before. It's obviously more enormous that the hostages have been released. It's big that the people of Gaza have the chance to hope that they've got some kind of future. And it's incumbent on all of us, I think, to play our role, whether humanitarian or political, in trying to make that happen. I would also say as a note of realism, journalists haven't been allowed in. And I'm not just saying this because I'm on your international journalists for the whole war. My absolute fear is that actually we're going to find things are worse than people realize, because what our staff say to me is, you have no idea. I mean, the numbers dead, the numbers injured are the bare minimum. And the danger that there are still bodies to be found, there are still. There's still destruction to be uncovered. I really worry about that because they're.

Mary Louise Kelly (9:26)

Challenges we haven't even become aware of yet.

David Miliband (9:28)

The educated, humane, engaged staff that we have, that I speak to, they've got fear in their eyes about the future as well as. As well as hope.

Mary Louise Kelly (9:38)

Let me push you, David Miliband, on how hard you will be pushing the United States. President Trump has been widely credited, has been praised his personal involvement in getting this first phase of a peace deal over the line. How confident are you that the US will stay the course and be a reliable partner for foreign aid?

David Miliband (9:57)

Well, the President deserves the credit for getting this, getting over the mountain and for ensuring that a ceasefire was declared. It's now his plan. And when something is his, he's really committed to it. So I'm hopeful that notwithstanding the skepticism and that the administration has about foreign aid, in this case, this same president.

Mary Louise Kelly (10:22)

Presides over an administration that has eliminated more than 80% of its international aid programs.

David Miliband (10:27)

Yeah.

Mary Louise Kelly (10:28)

Since January.

David Miliband (10:29)

That's why I. That's why I say that 2 million clients of the International Rescue Committee have lost services that were previously being paid for. This is kids getting education in Afghanistan, refugees in South Sudan from. From Sudan. So we know the cost of the aid cuts, but this is plan that the President has put his own name on. And when he puts his name on something, there's a determination and a commitment. He doesn't do it lightly. Clearly, he's got a lot invested in this now. And what we want to say to him is that we're there with him to make sure on the ground, the aid reaches the people who needs it. He's got massive challenges to help navigate on the security front, on the economic front. But when I heard him speaking on Monday, he wants to get it done and we want to get it done, too.

Mary Louise Kelly (11:11)

So to the question, how confident are you that the US Will be a reliable partner for a long term peace in Gaza?

David Miliband (11:17)

I think it's massively in the US Interests that this is not a running sore. I think it's massively in the US Interest that the political horizon is reinforced. And the only solution that anyone has ever found to this conflict has been for there to be a secure Israel that can live alongside a Palestinian state. In the end, our job as humanitarians is to say if you don't address the humanitarian side of the equation, you're courting disaster, you're courting political instability, not just loss of life. And so we feel we're in desperate times call for desperate measures. And this is a real Hail Mary pass that's been thrown for this, for this region of the world that so many people care so much about. And we've got to get the real human values up front and center to see this through.

Mary Louise Kelly (12:05)

David Miliband, president and CEO of the International Rescue Committee, thank you.

David Miliband (12:10)

Thank you very much.

Mary Louise Kelly (12:15)

This episode was produced by Erica Ryan and Connor Donovan, with audio engineering by Tiffany Vera Castro and David Greenberg. It was edited by Courtney Dorning. And you heard reporting at the top of this episode from NPR's Greg Myrey. Our executive producer is Sammy Yenigun. It's Consider this from npr. I'm Mary Louise Kelly.

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