Mr. John Whyte:

Good questions. In terms of the stockpiling of supplies, some of them will expire. As a result, we are under pressure. We have flour for Gaza for a year, which is in Mersin in Turkey and Alexandria in Egypt. There is also a small amount in Amman in Jordan. We are under time pressure as well as financial pressure to get that flour into Gaza. We are working with, as I mentioned earlier, our partners, principally the WFP, because it has the ability to move food at scale, and that is what it does. We are hopeful that it will take two thirds of the supply of the 20,000 tonnes we have in Mersin. It will therefore take approximately 14,000 tonnes and we have 6,000 tonnes that are close to expiring. What we have to look at then is maybe converting it into another type of foodstuff - pasta, high-energy biscuits or whatever - in order to extend its shelf life. We are examining options around that. We are also looking to see if we can maybe swap it out. In such circumstances, suppliers in Turkey might take the 6,000 tonnes that we have sitting there and replace them with a quantity of fresher flour. This would at least give us more time to try to figure out what to do. We have not had this situation before. We normally move food in at a scale continuously. We have the logistics teams and capacity to do that. Now, however, simply because of obstruction, the supplies are stuck and accumulating storage charges, which is another drain on our resources. Realistically, we are not going to be allowed to bring in supplies, so I think we will stop procuring additional supplies. There is no point in adding to the queue that is already there.

Staff are paid through the Bank of Palestine. They can access their funds electronically, but they need to get cash because cash is king in Gaza. They need to pay a financial service provider, which charges a hefty commission, in order to get their salaries. If my salary is $1,000, I might get $500 of it.