UN’s top humanitarian official discusses crisis in Gaza

Nick Schifrin:

To discuss the humanitarian situation in Gaza, but also other humanitarian crises around the world, we turn to Martin Griffiths, the U.N. undersecretary-general for humanitarian affairs and emergency relief coordinator.

Martin Griffiths, thanks very much. Welcome back to the "NewsHour."

Let's start in Gaza. The WFP said today that very little food aid has traveled into Central and Northern Gaza and that there is still a risk of famine. How serious is that risk?

Martin Griffiths, U.N. Undersecretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator: It's a very serious risk.

And what's quite striking about it is how quickly the move to possible famine is going in Gaza if you compare it to other parts of the world. We estimate maybe 400,000 people are seriously at risk of famine. Moving aid around in Gaza is, in all practical terms, impossible. Getting food to these people since up October the 7th has been very, very difficult.

It's a very, very rapid decline and it's very worrying.

Nick Schifrin:

Today, the Israeli government spokesman Eylon Levy said that there are — quote — "no limitations on humanitarian aid," and he added this:

Eylon Levy , Israeli Government Spokesman: It is lamentable that U.N. officials who have also been covering up for the fact that Hamas hijacks aid and covering up for the fact that it wages war out of hospitals are trying to cover up their own systemic failure by demanding the opening of new entry routes, when there is already adequate and excess capacity at the existing ones.

Nick Schifrin:

What's your response to that statement?

Martin Griffiths:

I think it's extremely unfair. I think it's wrong to suggest that we don't need more entry points.

But, most importantly, if the conditions inside Gaza, the operational conditions, don't exist for the distribution of aid, don't blame us for that. They result from the conflict. And they include safety of movement. They include roads which are not mined. They include assurances that places that we will deliver aid to won't be attacked.

They include hospitals that are not places of war. They include not taking out of our trucks when they're being screened on the way in. So I don't think it's right to blame humanitarian agencies for what is a very, very, very difficult operation.

Nick Schifrin:

You mentioned hospitals. Hamas operates near hospitals and has fired rockets near hospitals. The U.S. and Israel accuses Hamas of using hospitals as command-and-control.

And, in Southern Gaza, just in the last few days, we have seen Israeli forces surrounding at least two hospitals. What are your concerns for the patients in those hospitals and also the displaced Gazans who use the hospitals as a refuge place?

Martin Griffiths:

The hospitals are protected under international humanitarian law and should not ever be used by military forces from wherever they come from whichever party, Hamas included, as places of refuge or operation, of operational basis.

So to have a situation where the few hospitals that still continue to exist, where the patients find themselves in the middle of a war zone, where entry into an exit out of is through fighting, is, of course, a terrible, terrible thing to see and a terrible stain on our humanity.

And if that is because Hamas is sheltering there, then they should not do so. The central aspect of the tragedy of Gaza, in my view, is the total uncertainty for civilians about what's going to happen to them next. Where will they be? Where can they find food? Will there be safety? Where can that be found?

And the hospital example, if you like, of that encapsulates that sense of absolute danger and uncertainty about the future.

Nick Schifrin:

I want to shift to Yemen, where nine years of war has caused what you and I used to talk about as the world's worst humanitarian crisis.

Over the last few months, Houthi rebels have launched more than 30 attacks at international ships, both commercial and warships. And in the last 10 or so days, the U.S., U.K. and an international consortium have launched eight strikes on Houthis in Yemen.

Do you fear the violence could derail the progress that has been made toward a political settlement between the Houthis and, on the other side, the Saudi-backed international coalition that you were right in the middle of for many years?

Martin Griffiths:

I am totally, totally concerned about that, yes, Nick.

The people of Yemen have waited long enough and have glimpsed in the recent weeks the possibility of a cease-fire and an end to this tragic, unnecessary and brutal war. And suddenly to find it at huge risk and possibly taken away is just too, too depressing.

I think it would be very difficult for the Saudis and their allies to continue to ignore Houthi aggression into the Red Sea. At the moment, it's still kind of more or less not being allowed to get out of hand, if I could put it that way. But I don't see that lasting.

The Saudis got to the point with the Houthis of elaborating a plan for a cease-fire in some detail with some associated advantages for the people of Yemen. It was close to moving on to the next phase. Suddenly, to see that snatched away, that's just so unjust.

Nick Schifrin:

You recently released the humanitarian appeal for Ukraine, where some 40 percent of the population needs aid. That's 14.6 million people. And you're asking for $3.1 billion.

Are you getting what you need for the people of Ukraine?

Martin Griffiths:

Well, we're not getting what we need for the people anywhere, not, as it were, even in Ukraine.

What was depressing about launching that plan the other day was simply to think that now we're so close to entering the third year of that war, what the secretary-general of the United Nations clearly decided to label a war, and it is a war, against the people of Ukraine.

Now, I think Ukraine is going to be another sad, sad story. And the fact of the matter is that Gaza, it had moved Ukraine out of the center of the story. Ukraine and Gaza have moved Sudan out of the center of the story. And do you remember there was a place called Afghanistan we used to talk about that hasn't got resolved yet?

Nick Schifrin:

You went even further when we were talking earlier. You used the phrase a year as depressing as this one.

How depressing, from your perspective?

Martin Griffiths:

I cannot remember a year which is so full of crisis and, and, most particularly, a world where leaders often choose war first as an instrument to resolve differences.

We have spent the last 75 years building the new international order, norms, regulations, rules of diplomacy, efforts to keep the peace, efforts to emphasize the need for negotiation first. And, in this last year or two, we have begun to see that disappear, to vanish.

And that's why I think we call this the age of wars, because it really is, war is the first instrument for many people. And it's a savage one, because of people who suffer, as we were discussing at the top of the piece, of the civilians who have had nothing to do with those decisions.

Nick Schifrin:

Martin Griffiths, the undersecretary-general for humanitarian affairs and emergency relief coordinator, thank you very much.

Martin Griffiths:

Thank you so much, Nick. Thanks for having me on.