The CEO of the global aid group Save the Children said the ongoing humanitarian crisis in Gaza is “a choice” by Israel to withhold food and aid from the territory.
Janti Soeripto, the CEO of Save the Children, said on CBS’s “Face the Nation” that the situation in Gaza is “absolutely horrific” as the food, water and medical supplies in the territory continue to dwindle. The organization accused Israel on Saturday of “forcing civilians into deadly ‘safe zones’” and of “using starvation as a method of warfare” as necessary supplies continue to be scarce.
“And there’s nothing coming in and there’s an absence of basic necessities…There is no market of sorts to allow people to get access to food and water and everything they need. So we think that is a willful you know, it’s a choice. It’s a choice. It’s a choice. And it’s withholding aid from the population,” she said.
Soeripto said that aid workers from Save the Children cannot safely deliver humanitarian supplies to the population of Gaza without being threatened by shelling. She also said that they can’t ask civilians to come out to pick up the aid without them being put at risk.
She added that humanitarian groups are “running out of words to describe how bad it is” in Gaza.
“We have been there since 1953. We are not leaving now. We have 25 staff there,”Soeripto said when asked if the aid workers will stay there. “We won’t leave but at the moment working for us in a safe and quality way is impossible.”
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