Speaker 1: Bloomberg Audio Studios, podcasts, radio news.
Speaker 2: For somebody like me who has lived four years in Gaza,
Speaker 2: and I know every street in Gaza. When I look
Speaker 2: at the pictures of the neighborhoods, I hardly recognize them
Speaker 2: due to the scale of destruction.
Speaker 3: Faras Algol is a Bloomberg reporter from the Gaza strip.
Speaker 2: That's where I was born, That's where I grew up.
Speaker 3: He's been living in Canada since July twenty twenty one,
Speaker 3: and he's covering the war from his home there week
Speaker 3: to week. He says, the satellite images he sees change dramatically.
Speaker 2: They were grayish, because you know, the color of the
Speaker 2: buildings in Gaza is mostly gray. But when you look
Speaker 2: at the same picture at the same location after a
Speaker 2: week or two, you find it has become like yellowish
Speaker 2: because of the sand. Because this means that the homes
Speaker 2: were blown up or were livid to the ground.
Speaker 3: Since the start of the war in October, most of
Speaker 3: Faris's family has left Gaza. His mother made it to
Speaker 3: Egypt last month, but his sister is still there with
Speaker 3: her children and she's pregnant. Ferris has been trying to
Speaker 3: help her get out. Before the baby is due in
Speaker 3: two months.
Speaker 2: I hate listening from her because the first thing she
Speaker 2: asks is what happened? When are we leaving Gaza? Have
Speaker 2: things worked out? And they really have no answer. She
Speaker 2: hopes that if she was still in Gaza by the
Speaker 2: time of her delivery, there will be ceasefire so she
Speaker 2: can at least get the minimum care.
Speaker 3: For millions of people. Like Faris's sister, the promise of
Speaker 3: a ceasefire, even a brief one, could be critical. About
Speaker 3: a quarter of Gaza's two point three million people are
Speaker 3: facing starvation according to the UN. For weeks there have
Speaker 3: been ceasfire talks involving the US, Egypt, Qatar, Israel, and Hamas.
Speaker 3: The goal was to secure a ceasefire deal by the
Speaker 3: start of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, but now
Speaker 3: that deadline has been missed and questions remain about when
Speaker 3: and if an agreement could be reached. Today on the show,
Speaker 3: what would a six week ceasefire mean for people on
Speaker 3: the ground in Gaza and what might it tell us
Speaker 3: about the future of the territory after this war ends.
Speaker 3: This is the big take from Blueberg News. I'm your
Speaker 3: host Sarah Holder. Sunday marked the beginning of a Ramadan
Speaker 3: that will be very different for the people in Gaza
Speaker 3: this year.
Speaker 2: Mosques are usually full with people, the month is marked
Speaker 2: by festivities, by family gatherings for large meals. All these
Speaker 2: things are unattainable in Gaza these days.
Speaker 3: The White House had hoped to reach a deal in
Speaker 3: time for Ramadan.
Speaker 4: It happens to be a time when passions political religious
Speaker 4: nationalists often run high, and so the goal was to
Speaker 4: avoid the conflict being underway at a time like that,
Speaker 4: and also to offer relief of some kind of course
Speaker 4: to those under siege in Gaza.
Speaker 3: That's Ethan Brauner, Bloomberg's Israel Bureau chief. He told us
Speaker 3: it was a long shot goal to begin with Hamas,
Speaker 3: which controls Gaza, is designated a terrorist organization by Israel,
Speaker 3: the US, and the EU. It's October seventh attack on
Speaker 3: Israel killed over one thousand people and took hundreds hostage.
Speaker 3: Israel has stated that it won't end this war until
Speaker 3: Hamas is completely uprooted from Gaza. To reach a ceasefire deal,
Speaker 3: Hamas wants a release of prisoners held in his prisons,
Speaker 3: and Israel wants a complete accounting of the people still
Speaker 3: held hostage and a guarantee that they'll be released. As
Speaker 3: of the latest talks, Israel offered to release some prisoners,
Speaker 3: but Israel wants to pause fighting for some weeks to
Speaker 3: permit the exchange, and Hamas wants an end to the
Speaker 3: fighting entirely and a commitment by the Israeli military to
Speaker 3: leave Gaza.
Speaker 1: There is a big gap.
Speaker 4: Israel wants a temporary pause, Hamas wants an end and
Speaker 4: square in that circle has been the big challenge all.
Speaker 2: The about is even Hamas and Israel, they talk either
Speaker 2: about hostages or fighting. Unfortunately, they are not paying attention
Speaker 2: to the suffering of the civilians of the people.
Speaker 3: More than thirty thousand Palestinians have been killed since the
Speaker 3: start of the war in Gaza, according to the Hamas
Speaker 3: run health ministry. Every day that talks dragon the situation
Speaker 3: on the ground gets more desperate. We asked Ferris and
Speaker 3: Ethan what people are most in need of right now
Speaker 3: in Gaza.
Speaker 2: Most people in dire need of food. They are hungry
Speaker 2: most of the time. People depend on unhealthy foods such
Speaker 2: as cans, and they eat also helps it that are unsafe.
Speaker 2: Diseases are spreading in the south of Gaza Strip because
Speaker 2: of the jamming of people into displacement locations and intense cities.
Speaker 4: Temporary housing, power and internet come and go, water comes
Speaker 4: and goes, and of course the difficulty of getting reliable
Speaker 4: food has been increasingly a problem, especially in the north.
Speaker 4: There are somewhere between three hundred and five hundred thousand
Speaker 4: people still in northern Gaza living among the rubble without
Speaker 4: access to reliable aid convoys, so they are at greatest risk.
Speaker 3: NGOs and countries around the world are at the ready
Speaker 3: to provide aid. In some cases they're already doing what
Speaker 3: they can.
Speaker 4: So there's the entire European Union, Spanish Front, the British,
Speaker 4: and then there's the entire well off Sunni world, that
Speaker 4: is to say, the United Arab Membrate, Saudi Arabia, Jordan.
Speaker 4: So these are all countries that are involved. They are
Speaker 4: already involved in setting up field hospitals in Gaza and
Speaker 4: floating hospitals offshore.
Speaker 3: The US has air dropped aid into Gaza, but President
Speaker 3: Biden has also committed to building a floating pier to
Speaker 3: deliver resources to Gaza from the water.
Speaker 4: They're going to build it at sea and then sort
Speaker 4: of push it toward northern Gaza, and then there's going
Speaker 4: to be this corridor of aid coming on ships from Cyprus.
Speaker 4: The expectation is that those ships would be the equivalent
Speaker 4: of about two hundred trucks a day, so that's nearly
Speaker 4: half of the need. But it's not going to happen quickly.
Speaker 3: Crucially, any of these plans would require the support of
Speaker 3: the Israeli military on the ground to distribute aid, but
Speaker 3: there is deep distrust between Israeli troops and the Palestinian
Speaker 3: people who now need them for basic necessities. Of violent
Speaker 3: incident late last month exposed how fraught the situation is.
Speaker 2: This was in North Gaza Strip. Israel allows a few
Speaker 2: trucks of the aid at the into North Gaza, and
Speaker 2: this is way lower than what the people need there.
Speaker 2: That's why people go and wait for the trucks.
Speaker 3: As a convoy of aid trucks reached a crowd of
Speaker 3: people waiting, the crowd reportedly surged toward the trucks.
Speaker 4: There was a mela around a convoy early in the morning,
Speaker 4: and Israeli soldiers felt threatened and fired.
Speaker 3: A stampede broke out.
Speaker 2: You can imagine how this pushing and the stambiding and
Speaker 2: when thousands gathered waiting for the food the spirit. You
Speaker 2: can imagine such incidents will happen.
Speaker 3: Hamason Israel dispute exactly how many people died from Israeli
Speaker 3: fire and how many died from the subsequent stampede, but
Speaker 3: over one hundred people were killed. In the best case scenario,
Speaker 3: a six week ceasefire could provide a crucial moment for
Speaker 3: humanitarian relief to flood into the region.
Speaker 4: What I understand is some hundreds of trucks need to
Speaker 4: come in every day, Okay, they need to have stuff
Speaker 4: to get people back on their feet in terms of
Speaker 4: nutrition and in terms of other basic necessities.
Speaker 2: In normal times, five hundred the truckloads of goods, food
Speaker 2: and other supplies used to get into Gaza. Now this
Speaker 2: number is varying around one hundred the truck.
Speaker 3: In a moment, we unpack the on the ground challenges
Speaker 3: across Gaza to distributing aid and what a ceasefire could
Speaker 3: mean for surveying what it would take and what it
Speaker 3: would cost to rebuild Gaza after the war. The deadly
Speaker 3: incident in Gaza City in late February revealed how desperate
Speaker 3: the situation on the ground is and also how reliant
Speaker 3: people in Gaza are on the Israeli military to distribute aid,
Speaker 3: and it's hard to overstate how fraught that dynamic is.
Speaker 3: First of all, many Israelis do not see taking care
Speaker 3: of Palestinian civilians as their responsibility.
Speaker 1: Ethan says after October seventh, which was a deeply traumatic
Speaker 1: day for Israelis, there's not a great deal of patience
Speaker 1: for that conversation in Israel today.
Speaker 4: And in fact, one of the slightly shocking things being
Speaker 4: here is how little attention the misery in Gaza has
Speaker 4: drawn in Israel. It's almost never on the front page,
Speaker 4: it's never on television, and it's just, you know, there's
Speaker 4: a war from their perspective, because there are one hundred
Speaker 4: plus hostages still held there, and there's still just an
Speaker 4: incredible amount of emotional and political damage that this country
Speaker 4: is undergoing and feeling as a result of that attack.
Speaker 3: But even if Israel wants as little involvement as possible,
Speaker 3: it controls what goes in and out of Gaza, and increasingly,
Speaker 3: how aid moves through it. Pharaohs and Ethan helped us
Speaker 3: trace the complex path of relief aid into and through
Speaker 3: the country.
Speaker 2: The aid flows into Gaza through Israel and Egypt in
Speaker 2: North Sinai. In Egypt, the Egyptians have opened an airport
Speaker 2: there and the dozens of cargo airplanes and military airplanes
Speaker 2: land in the airport in Alarish, and they send the
Speaker 2: aid to Gaza through trucks and the Egyptian side. The
Speaker 2: lines of the trucks waiting to enter Gaza are too
Speaker 2: long that they reached two kilometers of length.
Speaker 4: The dispute between the Israelis and the international aid organizations
Speaker 4: over who is responsible for the lack of sufficient aid.
Speaker 4: The aid organizations say that Israel has imposed a series
Speaker 4: of security checks that have been prohibitive in getting the
Speaker 4: stuff in. If you talk to the Israelis, they will
Speaker 4: tell you that they are able to scan forty four
Speaker 4: trucks an hour. The trucks that are stuck on the
Speaker 4: border are not their fault. It's because of the other side.
Speaker 3: Once aid trucks make it into the territory, they face
Speaker 3: roads turned into rubble and a lack of local security forces.
Speaker 3: In previous wars, hamas helped to distribute aid during ceasefires.
Speaker 2: Usually when there is a seas fare, hamas police forces
Speaker 2: will go back into action. They will oversea and they
Speaker 2: guard the truck the aid convoys.
Speaker 3: But during this war, Israel does not want Hamas to
Speaker 3: help distribute aid.
Speaker 4: So one of the problems is that the entire social
Speaker 4: structure and political structure in Gaza is run by Hamas
Speaker 4: and has been run by Hamas, and Israel considers those
Speaker 4: people who work for hamas legitimate targets. So when some
Speaker 4: convoys began to come in and former Hummas police officers
Speaker 4: were involved in guarding them and so forth, the Israelis
Speaker 4: took those people out, pushed them aside and said, you
Speaker 4: guys are Hummas people. You're not going to do this.
Speaker 3: The result is that aid isn't reaching the people who need.
Speaker 4: It most young men, some are some not or most
Speaker 4: likely to get a hold of stuff, whether it's strapped
Speaker 4: from the air or comes in by truck. And those
Speaker 4: who are a frail and elderly and children are least lucky,
Speaker 4: and of course they're in greatest need.
Speaker 3: And so the Israeli military on the ground has had
Speaker 3: to be part of bringing these supplies to people.
Speaker 4: You can't ignore the fact that they are the ruling
Speaker 4: force on the ground, and it is therefore their responsibility.
Speaker 4: I think morally and legally to make sure that the
Speaker 4: aid gets the people who need it.
Speaker 3: Israel does have international aid organizations it could theoretically partner
Speaker 3: with during a ceasefire, but there are complications there too.
Speaker 4: There's an enormous amount of blood between UNRAH and Israel.
Speaker 3: The United Nations Relief and Works Agency UNRAH is one
Speaker 3: of the key partners bringing aid to Palestinians on the ground.
Speaker 3: A few weeks ago, the Israeli government alleged that some
Speaker 3: UNRA staffers were involved in the October seventh attacks.
Speaker 4: We're talking about ten or twelve thousand or thirteen thousand
Speaker 4: employees of UNRA, and we're talking about I think a
Speaker 4: dozen or twenty known cases, so it's not overwhelming. But
Speaker 4: because of the bad blood, cooperation is going to be hard.
Speaker 4: And there are a bunch of a bunch of unra's
Speaker 4: staffers who were killed in Israeli bombardments in the first
Speaker 4: weeks of this war, some very large number. So cooperation
Speaker 4: is going to be hard but vital, and it needs
Speaker 4: to involve unra's staffers, un staffers and ICRC staffers, Red
Speaker 4: Cross and other normal international organizations.
Speaker 3: The best case scenario for Palestinian civilians trying to survive
Speaker 3: this war, is that a six week ceasefire deal happens
Speaker 3: and it holds that time. As aid workers tend to
Speaker 3: immediate nutrition, housing, and medical needs, there might be a
Speaker 3: chance to assess the damage to the entire territory and
Speaker 3: to start to consider what it would take to rebuild it.
Speaker 2: That six weeks maybe enough only to assist the deliver
Speaker 2: of destruction, the scale of destruction. That's it.
Speaker 3: So it's not enough time to rebuild.
Speaker 2: Slamgazan's estimate that if you lit in a heavy machinery
Speaker 2: and the workers and the money to start rebuilding, you
Speaker 2: need at least three years just to remove the rubel,
Speaker 2: to collect the rubel before starting actual rebuilding.
Speaker 3: Confronting that timeline brings us back to a fundamental question
Speaker 3: about a ceasefire, how long could it hold.
Speaker 4: One of the goals of the international community in creating
Speaker 4: the six week pause is to sort of hope to
Speaker 4: build on it and to sort of get everyone to
Speaker 4: calm down and to allow for this to keep going
Speaker 4: as a you know, then to have another pause and
Speaker 4: to effectively create a day after situation, whether there's a
Speaker 4: six week thing. And then another part of the war
Speaker 4: and then an end of the war or six week
Speaker 4: thing that begins the end of the war right away.
Speaker 4: There are a whole series of plans that are out
Speaker 4: there being discussed in the US, in the Arab world
Speaker 4: and here in Israel about how to rebuild Gaza. They
Speaker 4: are very complicated, years.
Speaker 1: Long plans.
Speaker 3: Looking ahead, Pharaes, do we have any sense of what
Speaker 3: it would take in terms of money and resources to
Speaker 3: truly rebuild Gaza after this war.
Speaker 2: For this to happen, the blockade must be lifted in Gaza,
Speaker 2: and the blockade cannot be lifted if Hamas is to
Speaker 2: remain in Poa.
Speaker 3: The blockade Pharas is referring to is an Israeli government
Speaker 3: controlled restriction on what goods and materials can come into Gaza.
Speaker 2: Given the impact on the scale of the destruction. In
Speaker 2: order for a successful rebuilding process, all crossing points need
Speaker 2: to be opened to operate twenty four hours a day
Speaker 2: without any restrictions. The blockade has to be removed, and
Speaker 2: billions of dollars need to get into Gaza in the
Speaker 2: form of construction materials heavy machinery to start rebuilding. And
Speaker 2: all of this cannot happen without an agreement on the
Speaker 2: day one, the day after the war. We don't know
Speaker 2: who will run Gaza after the war.
Speaker 3: It isn't clear what most Palestinians on the ground want
Speaker 3: in terms of post war leadership.
Speaker 2: That's why there is no plan or vision for the
Speaker 2: reconstruction of Gaza. As long as there is no agreement
Speaker 2: on who will run Gaza.
Speaker 3: And if the ceasefire deal does happen but it doesn't hold,
Speaker 3: people will be plummeted back into the situation they face now.
Speaker 2: There was a ceasefire in November, and when it ended,
Speaker 2: the hostilities resumed momentarily, and they quickly they resumed the
Speaker 2: fighting and the suffering was back again. They disavered again,
Speaker 2: food disavered again. And I think this is the similar scenario,
Speaker 2: unfortunately that we might we may see in the coming
Speaker 2: weeks after.
Speaker 1: This is fire.
Speaker 3: Meanwhile, Farah says his sister, like so many Palestinians, is
Speaker 3: trying to figure out contingency plans for her health and safety.
Speaker 2: She's trying to work on a plan B in case
Speaker 2: she is to deliver while she is still in Gaza.
Speaker 2: We are talking to a doctor there to see where
Speaker 2: if he can help in case of emergency and she's
Speaker 2: moving next week to stay at other friends olive closer
Speaker 2: to the hospital.
Speaker 3: Well, my thoughts are with her and with your whole family,
Speaker 3: and we really appreciate you bringing us that personal story
Speaker 3: because I know it must be hardy, So thank you
Speaker 3: so much. I appreciate it.
Speaker 2: Thank you so much.
Speaker 3: Thanks for listening to the Big Take from Bloomberg News.
Speaker 3: I'm Sarah Holder. This episode was produced by Julia Press
Speaker 3: and Alex Sugera. It was edited by Caitlin Kenny and
Speaker 3: Naomi Shaven. It was fact checked by David Fox and
Speaker 3: Julia Press. It was mixed by Alex Suguera. Our senior
Speaker 3: producers are Naomi Shaven and Jill Diddy Carly. We get
Speaker 3: editorial direction from Elizabeth Ponso. Nicole Beemsterbor is our executive producer.
Speaker 3: Sage Bauman is our head of podcasts. Thanks for tuning in.
Speaker 3: We'll be back tomorrow.
Speaker 4: M and m HM