GAZA “IT’S COMPLETE CARNAGE” MARTIN GRIFFITH – UN RELIEF CHIEF

November 25, 2023

Absolutely chilling words from
@UNReliefChief
Martin Griffith that really put into perspective just how historically atrocious what’s happening in Gaza is:

“The. Worst. Ever. And I don’t say that lightly. I mean I started off in my twenties dealing with Khmer Rouge and you remember how bad that was. But 68% of the people killed in Gaza are women and children. They stopped counting the number of children killed. Nobody goes to school. Nobody knows what their future is. Hospitals have become places of war. No, I don’t think I have seen anything like this before. It’s complete and utter carnage.”

English Script:
Host: So you have been, you know, on the front line of this since the beginning, but you’ve also been, you know, U.N. special envoy and adviser to many, many, many issues, Yemen, Syria. You’ve been in UNICEF. You’ve been doing this for a long time. Head of a relief operations, NGOs, the whole lot. Have you ever seen anything like this? Well, how do you assess what’s happening right now in terms of humanitarian needs in Gaza?

Martin Griffiths: The worst ever, Christiane, and I don’t say that lightly. I mean, I started off in my twenties dealing with the Khmer Rouge, and you remember how bad that was, the killing fields and so forth. But 68% of the people killed in Gaza are women and children.

They stopped counting the numbers of children killed after four and a half thousand had been counted. Nobody goes to school in Gaza. Nobody knows what their future is. Hospitals have become a place of war, not of curing. Now, I don’t think I’ve seen anything like this before. It’s complete and utter carnage

Host: The Palestinian authorities say that 12,000 plus people have been killed in Gaza. We believe you’ve said 68% are women and children. There must be a combination of civilians and, I suppose combatants. But how do you analyze the pushback from the Israelis, sometimes even the Americans, that we can’t even trust these numbers?

Martin Griffiths: They and we in my office have indeed been using the statistics provided, for example, from the Ministry of Health in Gaza and have triangulated them over the years to make sure that we feel confident about them. And I think people can trust us to enough to know that when we say these things, it’s pretty likely to be close to the truth.

Host: why do you think the Israelis, the spokespeople, the government, people who speak on behalf of them are so fixated on the fact that we shouldn’t believe these figures this time?

Martin Griffiths: I mean, of course, you can understand why Israel wanted to challenge these figures because they are so horrific and they have led to such a global reaction. Gaza is a global crisis, as you know. It’s not just a crisis about Gaza. It’s a crisis about humanity. It’s a crisis which affects politicians across the world. It’s a crisis which brings people out onto the streets in great numbers.

And it’s a crisis which destroys our faith, built up over many decades that war should not be the first option. And I’m terrified to see that in this case, that’s not true. War has become the option4 of the day, and the suffering that comes from it is astronomical.