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Speaker 1: I'm Joe Matthew alongside Kaylee Lines in Washington. Israel has

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Speaker 1: released its report on the death of seven World Central

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Speaker 1: Kitchen aid workers killed earlier this week by air strikes.

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Speaker 1: According to the IDF, two members of the Israeli military

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Speaker 1: have been fired as a result. We spoke earlier today

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Speaker 1: exclusively with Cindy McCain, executive director of the World Food Program,

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Speaker 1: again by asking whether that incident is giving her organization

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Speaker 1: reason to rethink its efforts.

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Speaker 2: JWP has no intention of pausing right now at all.

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Speaker 2: We are there, We're staying in and we need obviously,

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Speaker 2: as you know, to what occurred today, we hopefully will

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Speaker 2: have the ability to get more trucks in and more

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Speaker 2: aid in. As a result of the changes that are

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Speaker 2: being made, we'll see.

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Speaker 1: The headlines this week have been sobering. Director, as you

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Speaker 1: well know, not only World Central Kitchen, the UN says

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Speaker 1: one hundred and sixty five relief workers have been killed

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Speaker 1: in this conflict, making it the deadliest ever for relief workers.

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Speaker 1: Described the impossible task in your words, of getting trucks,

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Speaker 1: particularly to the north, to those who need food in Gaza.

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Speaker 1: I'm wondering what you hear from Israel when they turn

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Speaker 1: your trucks around. What the communication is like and how

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Speaker 1: do they justify not letting you in?

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Speaker 2: Well, first of all, my heart goes out to world's

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Speaker 2: central kitchen. I know exactly how that feels, because I've

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Speaker 2: lost people on my watch too, and so I pray

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Speaker 2: for them every day, and I pray for Jose's strength

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Speaker 2: and all this. It's been a frustrating go for us

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Speaker 2: because it's been start and stop and start and stop.

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Speaker 2: We've had the Sometimes we can get some a few

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Speaker 2: trucks in. Sometimes we can't. Sometimes we're given permission and

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Speaker 2: not let go. There's no organization or coordination to it,

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Speaker 2: and it's still too little. What we need and hopefully

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Speaker 2: this will give it to us is more access. Right now,

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Speaker 2: there's one point one million people who starving to debt.

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Speaker 2: Famine is eminent. So it is imperative that we get

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Speaker 2: as many trucks as possible North, especially to be able

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Speaker 2: to stave off this famine. And we've got to do

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Speaker 2: it now. We can't wait. The waiting has got to

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Speaker 2: be done. We've got to get this going. It's too

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Speaker 2: desperate not to.

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Speaker 3: What we have seen Israel make some changes is you've

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Speaker 3: alluded to. Just in the last twenty four hours, the

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Speaker 3: Era's border crossing has now been opened. How immediate will

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Speaker 3: the impact of that opening be. How much further will

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Speaker 3: that go to getting you to scale in terms of

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Speaker 3: the distribution you are attempting to achieve.

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Speaker 2: Well, I'm hopeful it will help for this reason because

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Speaker 2: you know, there's a great deal of prioritization that takes

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Speaker 2: place in a lot of the Israelis X ray everything

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Speaker 2: and they make sure that their trucks only are carrying

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Speaker 2: food on board, which I understand, but we have to

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Speaker 2: be able to do that in a much more efficient

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Speaker 2: fashion and in a faster fashion. Things are held up.

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Speaker 2: The gates have to be left open longer. They can't

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Speaker 2: weave them open from eight to six or eight to five,

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Speaker 2: whatever it is, and then randomly close them when they

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Speaker 2: feel like it. This is it's too important, and more

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Speaker 2: importantly being having more access internally. We have been using

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Speaker 2: the fence road is what we call it, along the

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Speaker 2: eastern border of Gaza, and as you know, there's a

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Speaker 2: middle road and a beach road as well. All these

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Speaker 2: routes need to be safe, they need to be unfettered,

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Speaker 2: and we need to be able to travel on them

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Speaker 2: and a safe and in a safe fashion, but also

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Speaker 2: remembering our humanitarian principles along the way and deliver food

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Speaker 2: in a principal fashion.

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Speaker 1: Can we put a finer point on this, Director McCain,

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Speaker 1: If you're getting one one hundredth of the food in

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Speaker 1: that's needed, I believe that's what your most recent measurement was.

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Speaker 1: Is it Israel or Hamas that's blocking your trucks.

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Speaker 2: Well, Israel is in charge, so it's it's Israel that

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Speaker 2: is blocking the trucks or has been blocking the trucks.

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Speaker 2: So I mean with that it's their checkpoints where we

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Speaker 2: get turned around. And yes, there have been some instances

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Speaker 2: where the trucks were looted, where we got stuck in

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Speaker 2: a crowd, where things were not vetted properly for us,

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Speaker 2: and tragedies occurred as a result of that, and we

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Speaker 2: don't want a more of that. Our whole goal is

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Speaker 2: to get food in feed people as fast as we

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Speaker 2: possibly can.

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Speaker 3: Well, as you say, Director, that you're being stopped at checkpoints,

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Speaker 3: so it's what I would believe would be IDF personnel

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Speaker 3: that are actually manning those checkpoints. Do you see a

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Speaker 3: breakdown and inconsistency with the communication you're getting at the

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Speaker 3: higher levels of the Israeli government as to what you

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Speaker 3: should be able to do versus what's actually happening on

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Speaker 3: the ground. Who is it directly that you communicate with

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Speaker 3: and are they saying the same things? It all ends well.

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Speaker 2: We obviously have our contacts within CogAT and within the

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Speaker 2: IDEF as well as the political side of it. All

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Speaker 2: those all those bodies play at play a part of this.

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Speaker 2: In many ways they've been they've been helpful. In a

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Speaker 2: lot of ways they haven't been. So what we are

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Speaker 2: asking for is consistency and the unfettered access, as I said,

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Speaker 2: and the ability to move in through more not just

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Speaker 2: more gates, but ports also. As I mentioned earlier, the

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Speaker 2: port of Ashtot is extremely important to being able to

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Speaker 2: deliver food to the North.

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Speaker 1: There are many other areas around the world. I know

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Speaker 1: the program is working in that we want to ask

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Speaker 1: you about Director McCain, But in terms of Gaza, finally

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Speaker 1: knowing that the World Food Kitchen has stopped its deliveries

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Speaker 1: and narrow another group has as well, can the World

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Speaker 1: Food Program fill the gap left by those departures.

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Speaker 2: We listen it's not about filling the gap. We need

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Speaker 2: everybody in there. But yes, if you're asking we can

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Speaker 2: get to scale, yes we can. Right now. We have

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Speaker 2: food a mass outside the gates and on the border,

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Speaker 2: enough to feed one point one million people for three months.

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Speaker 2: We need to get in. So it's not about anybody

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Speaker 2: taking anybody's spot or anything like that. We all work

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Speaker 2: together in a good way. We need to get in.

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Speaker 2: We need to get it now well.

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Speaker 3: As Joe suggested, Director, unfortunately, millions of people on the

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Speaker 3: brink of famine are not just contained to Gaza. There

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Speaker 3: are other areas of the world that are getting far

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Speaker 3: less attention right now, including Haiti, which of course is

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Speaker 3: a long history of food insecurity. But because of the

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Speaker 3: recent uptaken gang violence we have seen, we know that

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Speaker 3: there potentially are millions of people who at least need

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Speaker 3: food assistance, if not are on the brink of famine themselves.

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Speaker 3: What should we know about conditions in Haiti? How hard

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Speaker 3: is it for the World Food Program to be doing

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Speaker 3: it's worth there? Right now?

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Speaker 2: We are in Haiti and we have not stopped delivery

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Speaker 2: at all there. It is, as you've just described, as

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Speaker 2: a very compelling place to be because it's dangerous. It's

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Speaker 2: the country's pretty much run by the gang things now,

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Speaker 2: the places that we operate there are more on the outskirts,

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Speaker 2: supporter prints and further outside the country, not outside the country,

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Speaker 2: but outside that that particular metropolitan area. So we've been

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Speaker 2: able to continue our school feeding programs and our smaller organized,

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Speaker 2: smaller places that where we can provide hot meals, et cetera.

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Speaker 2: But it's difficult. I mean, you know, we have either

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Speaker 2: evacuating all the embassies or evacuating unnecessary personnel there, and

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Speaker 2: I understand the need to do that, but we're not leaving.

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Speaker 2: We intend to stay. Well.

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Speaker 1: With that said, Gaza and Haiti are taking a lot

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Speaker 1: of attention and certainly generating a lot of headlines right now. Director,

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Speaker 1: is you work into your second year at the helm

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Speaker 1: of the program. What other parts of the world could

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Speaker 1: be left behind? Is it Sedan?

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Speaker 2: Is it Chad?

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Speaker 1: Where should our focus be?

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Speaker 2: You just named it Sudan, Chad, the Sahel of Africa, DRCO.

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Speaker 2: All of these places are in desperate straits right now

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Speaker 2: and need our support and the support of the world.

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Speaker 2: More importantly, within all of these these areas, I might

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Speaker 2: I might also say and I failed to mention this

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Speaker 2: just earlier when we were talking about Gaza. I want

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Speaker 2: to thank President Biden for his efforts on this. It

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Speaker 2: was really President Biden that shook this loose, the changes,

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Speaker 2: and so I'm very grateful. As a humanitarian and someone

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Speaker 2: who operates the largest humanitarian organization, I'm very grateful for

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Speaker 2: his participation and his willingness to represent the humanitarian community.

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Speaker 3: That was Cindy McCain, Executive director of the United Nations

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Speaker 3: World Food Program,