We know the situation there has been complicated since the conflict flared up about two years ago. Just how bad is it right now in the Gaza Strip specifically, including Gaza City? Is famine the main problem?

Just last week, the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification — an independent international food security monitor — reported that parts of the Gaza Strip have reached the highest possible level of famine.

What that means is that one in five households is facing extreme food shortages, at least 30 percent of children are acutely malnourished, and every day at least two people out of 10,000 die from hunger or from the combined effects of disease and hunger.

In the past 15 years, famine at this top level has only been declared a few times — in Somalia, Sudan and South Sudan. But in those cases, it was always the result of weather conditions and war combined.

What we're seeing in Gaza today is entirely man-made famine. So the situation we're seeing is very, very extreme.

Can you put this in human terms, maybe with examples — what does "extreme famine" really mean? Just how bad is the food shortage? Are people really going days without anything at all to eat?

Yes. It was clear at the beginning of July already that at least a third of Gaza's population was going to bed without having eaten anything at all for several days in a row. So what's happening there really is famine.

How can the situation be helped or eased on the ground — do any measures exist? Can international aid organizations work freely there, or is it still basically a war zone with two sides fighting?

Gaza has been under blockade for 18 years now — more than 18 years. All entry and exit points to the Gaza Strip are controlled by Israel. Israel is essentially holding two million people hostage.

Since October 2023, more than 60,000 people have been killed in Gaza, an estimated 18,500 of them children. That count only includes those whose bodies have actually been recovered. More than 12,000 of them were under 12 years old. More than 30,000 children have lost at least one limb.

There's no way to sugarcoat this. What's happening in Gaza today is, first of all, a war crime — using hunger as a weapon — and second, it's genocide.

We've also seen international aid get in, either dropped from the air or brought in by sea. So there is at least some sort of channel [for aid].

Those airdrops are just a drop in the bucket. They're more of a symbolic act than real assistance. Gaza needs close to 1,000 truckloads of food coming in every single day to relieve the famine. On a good day, just over 100 trucks get in.

Where are those trucks coming from? Are they coming from the Israeli side — not at all through Egypt?

It's only — all of the entry points are under Israeli control.

Does Hamas, operating there, intervene in the humanitarian situation? Because in a way, you could say Hamas is also one of the causes of it.

Hamas' influence — its political power and legitimacy — has lessened considerably. At the end of July, the Arab League's 22 member states called on Hamas to lay down its arms in Gaza and hand over power. There are also protests against Hamas inside Gaza itself now. So Hamas' grip on power has definitely fractured.

At the same time, amid the chaos — this man-made chaos — new armed groups have sprung up who also raid and loot the aid trucks that manage to cross the border when Israel finally lets them through. So the chaos there really is complete chaos.

That said, there are still organizations managing to operate there. They find ways, and local farmers and so on, to get whatever food is still available. But from what we know — we're in contact with several of them — one kilogram of wheat flour can cost €50. And that's the context in which outside aid is clearly essential.

And, as I said, we're also in direct contact with several organizations. We've been trying for a long time already to find ways to help from here. But it's very difficult.

What's the most realistic way the Refugee Council can actually help people in Gaza?

Through local organizations on the ground. For example, those running soup kitchens there, who, come hell or high water, have to put something in that pot every single day to feed people.

But again, since the entry of food is controlled and restricted from the outside, those running these operations have to be incredibly resourceful in finding ways to keep them going.

Is it possible to operate honestly in that local, criminal tangle of groups, or does it in reality mean you have to give them a cut to get aid to the people who need it?

The reason it's taken us time to think through and agree on how we can take action there is because when we do act, it has to be in line with humanitarian principles. We have to make sure that aid reaches the people who actually need it.

That's also why it's so complicated, especially given the extreme conditions in Gaza today.

So what's your plan? What kind of aid do you want to send there — money, or actual food aid?

Our plan right now — well, we're best known for providing cash-based aid. But in Gaza, that doesn't really work right now, because there just isn't enough food on the market there.

So instead, [we want] to help organizations already distributing food aid get by — to get supplies, and cope with the extreme inflation.

And of course, one thing every person can do is — with [local] elections coming up — put pressure on Estonian politicians to take a clear stand on this issue. Not politically finesse or dodge their way through this mess, but make their position unequivocally clear.

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