Transcript: Scott Anderson, director of UNRWA Affairs in Gaza, on “Face the Nation,” June 2, 2024

The following is a transcript of an interview with Scott Anderson, director of UNRWA Gaza Affairs, on “Face the Nation”, which aired on 2 June 2024.

MARGARET BRENNAN: Joining us is Scott Anderson. He is the director of the UN’s refugee efforts in Gaza. UNRWA is the largest aid agency for Palestinian refugees and he joins us now from Amman, Jordan. Scott, I know you were in the US Army, served two tours in Afghanistan. From what you saw in Gaza, how does that compare? Sorry, I can’t hear Scott right now.

UNRWA GAZA AFFAIRS DIRECTOR SCOTT ANDERSON: Sorry, I was going to say that Gaza is much worse, Margaret, than Afghanistan. I mean, everywhere you go, the scale of destruction truly defies description and looks like something out of a post-apocalyptic movie. In most places you see 90 to 100% destruction, with the infrastructure suffering much worse. Therefore, I have never seen anything like in Afghanistan what we see now in Gaza.

MARGARET BRENNAN: USAID chief Sam Power-Samantha Power said conditions are worse now in Gaza than ever before. She said this was due to Israeli military operations and the closure of crossings. What exactly is the humanitarian situation right now?

ANDERSON: So what we have is 2.2 million people who have been displaced at least once. Most have been displaced several times. In Rafah, before the operation, we had more than a million people displaced again to Khan Younis, to Deir al-Balah. And what’s missing are just the basic necessities we all expect. They need food, they need access to water, they need access to showers, access to bathrooms, access to medical care. And unfortunately, due to a number of factors, we cannot import everything needed and ensure that everyone has the basic necessities they need every day.

MARGARET BRENNAN: Nineteen different aid organizations released a letter this week saying that Palestinians are surviving on less than 3% of their daily water needs. Hepatitis is spreading. Medical evacuations were halted. Virtually all hospitals were ordered to evacuate. The Pentagon said it suspended airdrops of food because of Israeli military action, and as we know, the pier isn’t actually working. Who exactly is preventing the delivery?

ANDERSON: I mean, I think it’s a variety of things, not just one person that you can point to. All of our help comes through Kerem Shalom. Everything passes through Egypt, starts in Port Said, passes through Sinai to El-Arish and eventually goes to Kerem Shalom, where it is brought by us to the Palestinian side and then goes to the last final distribution inside Gaza. . There are a lot of steps that need to go right for everything to work and, unfortunately, not everything went right. For some time, Egypt did not send trucks. Where we had 80,000 metric tons of aid in the country, we had no access. And we are always trying to catch up on the aid situation since October. Not everyone has a tent that needs one, so there are still people sleeping outside as we are eight months into the conflict. And you correctly highlighted our number one concern right now, which is access to clean water. You know, without that, in addition to hepatitis, you have things like cholera and other diseases that can become very prevalent. We could see an outbreak happen very soon and it is something that we are concerned about. And besides, it’s getting hot, you know, it’s summer, you’re basically in the desert. And if people don’t have access to clean water, that’s a problem of dehydration as well as disease.

MARGARET BRENNAN: I know you’re at the UN, so you can’t talk about politics and policy, but President Biden gave this speech on Friday talking about a proposed ceasefire and hostage agreement. He said that 600 aid trucks would come a day to enter Gaza, with supplies, shelter and things like that, who is going to do all this distribution?

ANDERSON: I mean, it would be the entire international humanitarian community because of the scale. I mean, currently UNRWA feeds just over half the population. We feed about 1.3 or 1.4 million people every day, but that would be us, along with the rest of the UN and all of our partners, and I would say we very much welcome a ceasefire. It’s time for the hostages to return home to their families. It’s time for more aid to start arriving and then, hopefully, we can start rebuilding Gaza.

MARGARET BRENNAN: Scott Anderson, thanks for telling us what you’re seeing and experiencing on the ground. We’re back.