‘We have to have hope’ – Oxfam policy lead in occupied West Bank

We spoke to Bushra Khalidi, who’s the policy lead for Oxfam in the occupied West Bank.

Ayshah Tull: Let’s just start with those reports of Benjamin Netanyahu in the Knesset and Palestinian officials striking this cautious optimism almost. Is that what you’re feeling right now? Do you have hope?

Bushra Khalidi: I mean, we have to have hope. Otherwise, we wouldn’t have survived the last 15 months under this relentless onslaught and death and destruction, as your report mentioned it. But, you know, it’s hard to get very excited just because of so many of those promises early on this year, where we were so close to a ceasefire and then negotiations would fall through. So I’m not getting excited yet and I will stay cautious as the prime minister was.

Ayshah Tull: Do you feel like this is any different? Do you feel like momentum might be going this way? Because we’ve been hearing more and more reports of ceasefire talks going a bit better.

Bushra Khalidi: I really am not able to comment. As you know, I’m not involved in such negotiations. This is way above my pay grade.

Ayshah Tull: Sure. I just wondered if you got a sense.

Bushra Khalidi: Yeah, I think I mean, there’s definitely been talks. Everybody is really seeing this coming closer to an end. But, you know, unfortunately, the situation on the ground is, you know, remains nothing short of apocalyptic. It’s an absolute nightmare. So it’s difficult to kind of rejoice when we keep waking up every single day to new massacres and new shellings and new bombings.

Ayshah Tull: Let’s talk more about the situation on the ground. I do wonder what it is like to go and look for food and drink in Gaza right now. Just talk me through what that might look like for a family.

Bushra Khalidi: Families are starving. Families and parents. I know myself because my family is in the south right now. The entire Gaza Strip is facing acute malnutrition. So we can expect that many parents right now in Gaza are skipping meals so that their children are at least getting one meal a day. And my brother-in-law was telling me last week when I was speaking to him that they were telling the children to stop playing and stop horsing around because they would get dizzy because they’ve not eaten enough and they don’t want them to get dizzy and feeling sick because they just simply don’t have enough food. We’re seeing children in Gaza rummaging through rubbish for scraps of food, and we’re seeing entire communities being systematically cut off from life saving aid. And when they are accessing aid, it’s overcrowded. You know, lines of people, of children, with their pots and their pans, desperate for a little soup or whatever the soup kitchens are selling on that day. I mean, it’s just absolutely unconscionable for me to watch all of these children have turned into basically, you know, looking for food and water every day. That has become their childhood in Gaza.

Ayshah Tull: And you say your family is in the south, but what about the situation in the north where we’ve had reports that it’s even worse? What’s the situation there?

Bushra Khalidi: There’s been just 12 trucks from the analysis that we have and the numbers that we’ve had access to ,of food and water that have entered the North Gaza Governorate in the last two and a half months, and that is composed of Beit Lahiya, Jabalia and Beit Hanoun are the areas that Israel announced to besiege two and a half months ago and where basically they’ve effectively, ethnically cleansed the northern part of the strip, asking people to evacuate to Gaza City and the south. And now all the images we’re seeing of those areas is absolute, complete erasure and destruction.

Ayshah Tull: I don’t have you for very long. I just wanted to get one last question. What would you like to see happen? Just very briefly, finally, what needs to happen right now?

Bushra Khalidi: Israel is the occupying power, has the clear obligations under international law to protect and provide for the people of Gaza. Yet it continues to flout these laws with impunity. The international community cannot continue to look away. Every day without action is a day complicit in the suffering of millions of Palestinian. It’s not just the humanitarian crisis. This is the political solution that we need. With the winter biting harder each day, we have more than 1 million people that are left without adequate shelter. We need an immediate, unconditional ceasefire with unfettered access for humanitarian aid because every minute of cost inaction, cost lives. And our message to the world is clear. Humanity is at stake in Gaza and in the world, and if we do nothing, history is going to judge us for failing to stop these atrocities.