ANDREA MITCHELL: According to the New York Times, more than a thousand truckloads are waiting to be unloaded and delivered to the people inside Gaza who need them, who’ve been desperate for food, water, medicine, fuel for eight months. This comes after Israel implemented a humanitarian pause in fighting to help increase the flow of aid. But the Rafah crossing, the most critical entry point, has been closed since May 6th. Joining me now is USAID Administrator Samantha Power, the former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations. It's good to see you, Ambassador, thank you very much. So there's been a pause or there are daylight pauses in the fighting, we are told. What is making it so difficult for UNRWA, for the UN relief agencies, to safely get the aid delivered to the people who need them?
ADMINISTRATOR SAMANTHA POWER: Well, it is in some ways a kind of doom loop because the paucity of assistance getting in over such a long period of time, gave rise to such desperation on the part of families that every time a truck shows up or goes through a part of Gaza, there's a feeling this might be the last truck and there's not that regularized flow of assistance that we need in order to give people that confidence that they need that more will continue to flow. So that's one aspect.
There's criminality, there are gangs, there are armed elements there. And then of course, there is IDF, Hamas fighting, there's just war, which makes it difficult for unarmed humanitarians to move convoys from point A to point B. So it's a perfect storm of really difficult circ*mstances. There are humanitarians, Andrea operating on the ground who you've seen in, working in conflict zones their entire careers, they say they have never worked in a more complex situation or in a more desperate situation.
MS. MITCHELL: And Israel and the aid groups are trading accusations over who's to blame. But from my analysis and my travels there, I mean, with Rafah closed, that is cutting off a huge choke point for people to get out, also for injured people, for sick people to get out.
ADMINISTRATOR POWER: Well, there's no question that the medical evacuation process needs to be amped up dramatically and significantly. And you're right that the Rafah crossing was a crucial point of exit for kids and civilians who had life-threatening, have life-threatening needs. And we have been on the phone all of this week, again, with the groups and the Israeli authorities to try to get that back up and running at scale. You know, personally, again, how frustrating it has been for families to show up at checkpoints and to wait for hours when you know, it's a life and death kind of circ*mstance, that just can't happen.
But on the food situation, we do have lots of trucks that have moved into Gaza. But this is why if Hamas would just take the ceasefire, we have trucks that really could be reaching hungry people and are unable to move because of the conflict or because of these other elements that I've described before. And we could do industrial scale surge of assistance if this ceasefire would take hold. Barring that, because it hasn't happened yet, we are working with the IDF and humanitarian groups.
In fact, I was a participant in a meeting with the most senior IDF commanders this week with the leaders of the humanitarian community to try to expedite procedures at long last. It's been eight months, there's been some improvement, but not nearly enough.
But also to make those aid workers feel safe. More than 278 workers, as you know, have been killed, simply trying to deliver assistance or sometimes in their own homes. That can't happen if we are to have a sustained and reliable humanitarian operation.
MS. MITCHELL: And of course, you most recently, we've seen Yahya Sinwar, the Hamas military leader, underground wherever he's hiding, with intercepted communications, saying that it's helping his cause, the most malign cause when people are dying, that this is a good thing for him, which is, you know, unspeakable.
I want to ask you about U.S. diplomats, though, because a number of them, a group of diplomats, both at main State and USAID, have resigned in protest, believing that the Administration has been too uncritical of Netanyahu’s policies in terms of the way weapons are used in some very dense civilian areas, refugee camps included, as well as the initial policy of holding up aid and, you know, basically trying to starve people out.
ADMINISTRATOR POWER: Look, at USAID people come to work here in order to deliver on a humanitarian and development mission, and that in Gaza is unbelievably difficult right now. And absolutely, there have been occasions where the blockages on humanitarian assistance coming from Israel into Gaza have been issues that we have raised with the Isralies, pressed on. President Biden, as you know, makes this – in the granular details of this checkpoint, this truck, you know, subject for every engagement with the [Israeli] Prime Minister.
But there are strong views at USAID, people come to this Agency to deliver assistance, and they are going to continue to push from within. Some of them don't, you know, feel comfortable being here and have objections to U.S. policy. I engage with them, hear from them. I think it's incredibly important that we have an Agency where those viewpoints are brought forward. It certainly makes it more effective, especially when they have ideas.
MS. MITCHELL: Can you empathize with them? Can you empathize with their concerns?
ADMINISTRATOR POWER: Imagine again, your job is to help civilians endure the worst of conflict. And you find yourself unable to meet the needs of these people because trucks are backed up or because aid workers are killed in IDF operations, or because Hamas is hiding among civilians. It's heartbreaking and incredibly frustrating for them. But we also have teams of people who are working 24/7 to reach as many people as we can, as quickly as we can before it is too late.
MS. MITCHELL: Samantha Power, you know, congratulations for everything that you are doing. Your Agency has been, you know, critical in all of these efforts. We thank you for joining us today.
ADMINISTRATOR POWER: Thank you, Andrea.
