SCOTT SIMON, HOST:
The International Rescue Committee says it's been forced to suspend all of its aid programs in Gaza City, saying the conditions are too dangerous. The Israeli military says it has launched a new ground offensive into Gaza City to begin a takeover. Despite warnings, this would worsen the humanitarian crisis. Bob Kitchen is head of emergencies at the IRC and joins us now. Mr. Kitchen, thanks for being with us.
BOB KITCHEN: Thanks for having me.
SIMON: What kind of aid have you been trying to provide in Gaza?
KITCHEN: Well, across Gaza, we're distributing about 90,000 liters of clean water every day. We're screening malnourished kids and giving them ready-to-use therapeutic feeding to help them stay alive. And we're helping children and women who've faced such obvious but such life-changing trauma. In Gaza City specifically, we've been doing all of those three things up until recently.
SIMON: This kind of aid certainly sounds life-saving. So what led you to make this decision that it's too dangerous?
KITCHEN: Well, we've had a team of about 22 staff based in Gaza City. They're from Gaza City. They're - they live there, and they're helping their neighbors and their communities survive the hard war. And as the evacuation warnings have come in, our staff have said that they want to stay. They want to stay and help their communities stay alive. But as the bombardment worsened and as the tanks started to roll in, many of them felt as though they had to leave just to protect themselves and their children. We're, at the moment, tracking six final staff that felt that they had to withdraw at the final minute as they walk the 14 miles south to the humanitarian zone further down in the Strip.
SIMON: I feel the need to be blunt about this. Do you feel that people in Gaza City will be in even more danger because you've had to make this decision to protect your own staff?
KITCHEN: Well, we left that decision to our staff. We had advised them to really consider very carefully where they were based and whether they wanted to move south about a week ago, as the warnings got serious and the bombardment started. But they themselves made the decision that they wanted to stay on until the very last moment. We are able to continue delivering water as of today. But we've had to stop the nutritional screening, which, as you said, is completely life-saving, and then the trauma care that we're providing women and children. And for sure, more people's lives are now at risk because we're no longer providing those services.
SIMON: What do you hear from other aid groups? Are they contemplating the same complex decision you are?
KITCHEN: Yeah. My understanding is that we were one of the last organizations delivering aid in Gaza City. Our staff are, like many organizations, so brave, staying on this long. So I think there is very little humanitarian assistance now being delivered, and let me just put that in context. While there has been 350,000, approximately, people who have left Gaza City, there's still half a million people in there who are refusing to leave, trying desperately to cling on to their lives and their homes for fear that they would be destroyed if they left. So there is a significant number of people who are both in harm's way and also now without the basics of nutritional care, protection, health care, etc., as organizations are forced and their staff are forced to flee because of the violence.
SIMON: As I'm sure you know, an independent international commission attached to the U.N.'s Human Rights Council said this week that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza. The U.N. declared famine there last month. Israel denies both allegations. What do you hear from people on the ground?
KITCHEN: We hear from our staff and the communities that we serve that they think the world has forgotten them. They think the world doesn't understand what's happening in Gaza because if the world did understand, they would be forced to act. And the world has just stood by and allowed it to happen, so the only calculus that people in Gaza can understand is that we just must not know. To know and not to act is beyond their comprehension. They themselves are fighting every day to stay alive. My own staff - they can't find food to buy, so I'm having to provide one meal a day in the office to keep my own staff from starving. We've accepted all of their children into our nutritional programs to try and keep them alive. The situation on the ground is desperate.
SIMON: Bob Kitchen is vice president of emergencies at the International Rescue Committee. Thanks so much for being with us.
KITCHEN: Thank you. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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