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Earlier, I spoke with Hazem Balouch. He's a freelance journalist in Gaza. I asked him to tell us more about the situation in Gaza in the wake of intense airstrikes reported overnight. Situation, as you said, like there were intense airstrikes across the Gaza Strip, whether in the north, but the places where the Israeli army asked the people to evacuate, or to the area in the south, where people were asked to evacuate to. Dozens or hundreds of casualties were reported by the Ministry of Health and Ministry of Interior. Still, it's not clear what's going on. It's hard to count the number of airstrikes or the bombing. We can hear it from time to time in my area. I'm in the refugee camp in central Gaza Strip, and I can hear the tank shells, the airstrikes, and the sirens of the ambulances that evacuated casualties. There was a report that one bakery was hit overnight in the refugee camp in central area, and according to the information office, that it's the only bakery that has the refugee camp there. The UN agency working with refugees in Gaza says that it might halt Gaza aid operations due to a lack of fuel. How much aid have you seen coming through into Gaza? We are talking about few number of trucks. We are talking like 54, then I think yesterday there were a few trucks more came in, but that is very below the need, and all of these aids are not including fuel, which is the basic need for many services, for water supplies, for vehicles to work, for ambulances, for civil defense, as well as for water desalination. You know, Galba water is contaminated, and it needs to be desalinated in different stations, as well as there is no fuel, there will be no drinking water for the ordinary people. The UNRWA is providing some bakeries with wheat, with no wheat, so that the bakery sells the bags with the cheaper price for the people. Other aids, I mean, personally, I haven't seen it. Maybe there was some distribution in schools, like as shelters, people are evacuated too, and some medical supplies were distributed partially to some hospitals in the south. Officials in Gaza and medics are saying that the hospitals in the north of Gaza City, including the main hospital of the Gaza Strip, Sheikha Hospital, are not receiving any of these aids, as it's what you are preventing delivery to these areas. We can now talk to Israeli military spokesperson Peter Lerner. He joins us from Tel Aviv. Welcome to the program. Now the UN, the US, Canada, and the EU's foreign policy chief, they've all called for a pause to the fighting to allow humanitarian aid into Gaza. Is the Israeli military planning such a pause or perhaps a ceasefire? Terry, good morning. It's day 19 of our war against Hamas. Hamas initiated a war, opened a war, massacred over 1,400 Israelis, abducted 222 people. We are, we have decided to destroy Hamas and make sure they can never wield the sword of terror against us again. The situation in the Gaza Strip as such, as we are doing, going out of our way to try and differentiate between the civilian population and the terrorists, unfortunately it is Hamas that is intentionally putting the people at risk. Indeed, we are working with international humanitarian organizations operating in the ground in order to assess and understand the needs. There are, and there was of course, stockpiles of food and medical supplies before this war started 19 days ago, and we are facilitating, and indeed we've seen over the last few days several trucks come in from, through Rafa. Right. It is a dire situation. Mr. Lennon, sorry. It is a war. Sorry. It needs to change the paradigm. Sorry. I just wanted to ask you, I see your points there, but I was wondering about a ceasefire or a pause. Is the Israeli military planning a pause in the fighting or a ceasefire? The idea is continuing its strikes against Hamas. That is our mission. That is our goal at this time. I'm not aware of any plans to conduct a ceasefire or any need for that at this time. Indeed, we are listening to the international actors and we are listening very carefully, but nevertheless, the time has come where Hamas has to go. All right. Now, let's talk about fuel. Fuel is not being allowed into Gaza. It's desperately needed for hospitals and sanitation, as you know. Your government says that Hamas is hoarding fuel. But even if that's the case, what speaks against the UN supplying fuel to hospitals and desalination plants? Ask Hamas. That is precisely the problem. Hamas is controlling the dimmer of the humanitarian crisis or the image of the humanitarian crisis that is developing. Hamas has the fuel. It's hoarding it. It has the ability. The request for fuel needs to go not to Israel, but to Hamas. They are the governing authority of the Gaza Strip. They are claiming the responsibility for the people of Gaza. They should, instead of hoarding the fuel for their terror tunnels so that they can have ventilation or for their rockets for propellant fuel or whatever they're doing with it, they should give it to the hospitals. They should give it to the people for the water pumps. That is the right thing to do. They should do it. The world needs to rally around this change of regime so that Hamas can never hold Israelis hostage. Two hundred and twenty-two Israelis are being hostage this morning, or the people, the two million people of Gaza hostage. I do want to ask you about those hostages in just a moment, but regarding the fuel, you know that the UN organization that's operating in Gaza providing relief to refugees, it says it's going to have to stop its operations if it doesn't get fuel coming in today. What do you think is going to happen in Gaza if the UN is no longer operating? It's not important what I think. It's important what they do. And they need to demand from Hamas, instead of hoarding the fuel, they need to give it to the people that are in dire need. We're not saying that there's not a dire need, of course. When we've asked a million people to evacuate the northern Gaza Strip to the south to get them out of harm's way, then there is going to be an increased need in the south. And so Hamas need to make sure that the people receive their needs. It's the responsibility of Hamas. They are the governing authority of the Gaza Strip. They decided as a governing authority to go to war with Israel. You can't expect Israel to give Hamas fuel. It's quite a simple conundrum. Unfortunately, the international humanitarian organizations demanding this assistance come from Israel are missing the point. Hamas need to be held responsible for their actions. They need to make sure that they are giving the supplies to the hospitals. From day one, the hospitals have only fuel for one more day. But every day, they keep giving them fuel. So it shows that Hamas are actually distributing. Just to be clear, I think what they're asking for is for the aid, the fuel to come in from Egypt at that crossing there, and not asking for Israel to provide the fuel itself, but to simply allow it in for the humanitarian work. I wanted to move on to something else. The question of safe areas in the south, you referred to those. Those areas are also being bombed. We have plenty of eyewitnesses to confirm that. What are you doing to assure that innocent civilians are not being killed in those safe areas so-called? So I just received a report that in the humanitarian zone that we designated that a rocket had actually been fired out of that. So that poses the exact challenge we are facing. Do we not protect ourselves because Hamas is launching rockets behind civilians? Do we not protect our civilians? This is the dilemma. What we are doing is trying to minimize the impact. We are targeting Hamas for sure. We will continue to pursue this terrorist organization that brutally massacred, maimed, abducted over 1,400 people, 1,400 men, women, and children. When they dismembered, when they came in and penetrated our border, they signed their own destiny. They cannot be permitted to ever hold the power of government in Gaza again to launch such attacks against Israel. That is the situation. Unfortunately, it is the civilians of Gaza that have been let down miserably by this terrorist organization. It is their responsibility to try and alleviate those issues on the humanitarian but also on security. Sorry, we're just about out of time. I just wanted to ask you one more question about the hostages, which I mentioned earlier. What efforts are underway to get those hostages released, briefly, if you can? The hostages, as I said, 220 people, the families of 220 people that have been torn to pieces for 19 days now, a reality that I can't imagine the pain that they are going through. And we are, and I'm saying that the IDF has put at the top of our priority both for operational and civilian efforts in order to bring them home immediately. It is Hamas's responsibility for their welfare. We're demanding the International Committee of the Red Cross have access to them. And I would say we will go to any length in order to bring them home. They are the top of our priority. They need to be let free now. Hamas have that responsibility. We are expecting them to come home now. Peter Lerner of the Israeli Defense Forces. Thank you very much for talking with us today. Thank you. Good day. And we can now talk to Margaret Harris, a spokesperson for the World Health Organization. She joins us from Geneva. Ms. Harris, I understand you're in touch with your WHO colleagues in Gaza. What are they telling you? They're telling me that they're not sleeping, the bombardments all the time. They're not sleeping because of the bombardments, but also because of the anxiety about trying to get the supplies to the hospitals. They've only been able to supply four hospitals from the trucks that we were able to get through beginning Sunday because there's no safe way to get to many of the hospitals in the center in the north. And there's no guarantees from any sides that they will be safe. And wherever they go, the need is so desperate. They describe how they arrive at a hospital, the staff open the door, go through the boxes and get the drugs, particularly the anesthetic drugs that they desperately need to use to operate on the people who, until they had those drugs, sometimes the doctors even had to operate on them without anesthetic. The UN is warning that Gaza could run out of fuel by the end of this day, Wednesday. What would that mean for the humanitarian situation there? It would mean death for so many patients. We know of 300 babies that are in, sorry, 150 to 30 babies, premature babies who are dependent on the electricity to keep them warm, to keep the ventilators going. There are 1,000 dialysis patients. There are pregnant women, an average of 183 births are happening per day. So that needs light and warmth as well. There are 350,000 people who need continual care. And there are the thousands of people who are being injured every day. And without the electricity, you don't have the light, you don't have the machinery. You cannot function, you cannot provide the safe space that a hospital needs to be. There's also a link between lack of fuel and the spread of waterborne diseases, I'm told, too. Why is fuel so necessary for providing clean water to the people living in Gaza? That's correct, because it's used for the desalination plants, and the desalination plants are the only way people are getting water at the moment because not much water is coming in. As you know, there's been a blockade. At the moment, people are getting no more than three liters per day, and the basic standard for a person is 15 liters per day. You need that for washing, cooking, and drinking. And if you're not getting that, you're not able to wash, certainly, you're not able to cook safely, and you may well be drinking dirty water. So you are highly likely to be getting gastroenterological diseases. Now the Israeli military says it has good reasons for not allowing fuel to enter Gaza. What do you say to that, Margaret? We're talking about health. We're talking about hospitals. We're talking about 15,000 injured people and people being injured every day. There is no other way that hospitals can generate electricity. They do not have any electricity coming in. They can only do it with generators, and the only way those generators are going to work is with fuel. Israel has called for civilians to leave northern Gaza to go to the south. Many have stayed there in the north. Do you have any idea what the situation is like for those people who have remained in the north? It must be terrifying, but it's also terrifying for the people in the south. They are also receiving bombardment. And I'm hearing from our colleagues on the ground that many people who came down from the north have moved back again because they don't feel any safer in the south. They talk about people sort of running when they hear the bombs, running somewhere else, running somewhere else. I cannot even begin to imagine what this is doing to their mental health, particularly the terror the children are feeling. Margaret, thank you very much for talking with us today. That was Margaret Harris, spokesperson for the World Health Organization. While Germany has voiced strong support for Israel since the Hamas terror attack, Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock was among the diplomats who addressed the UN Security Council on Tuesday. She also appealed for humanitarian relief. The fight is against Hamas and not against civilians. That is why it's crucial for us that this fight must be carried out in line with humanitarian law, with the greatest possible consideration for civilians in Gaza. That is why my country, Germany, is increasing our humanitarian aid to Gaza by 50 million Europe, of which 19 million go to UNRWA. That is why we need humanitarian windows so that those who are suffering can get help in Gaza. Let's bring in Johann Wadepohl here. He's the deputy head of the CDU-CSU parliamentary group in Germany and an expert on defence and foreign policy. Welcome to the programme. We just heard Foreign Minister Baerbock there announcing a new aid package for Gaza after repeating that Germany stands by Israel in the face of civilian casualties mounting in Gaza and the humanitarian situation there. Is there a red line for Germany when it comes to supporting Netanyahu's government? I think thinking in red lines is not the necessary approach in that very situation Israel is in now. You know, due to our responsibility after being responsible for the Holocaust, for killing millions of Jews, there's no doubt that Germany is close to Israel, is supporting Israel fully in its combat against Hamas. Hamas is the very reason for the situation we are in now. And if there is a chance to solve, especially the problems for the civilians who may be injured in the fight ahead, it is Hamas who can solve the problem. If they give up their terrorist fight against Israel, if they leave their arms beside and if they come back to a negotiation table, and of course there are legitimate rights of Palestinians and everybody is in favour of a two-state solution, but not in this way, not by killing more than a thousand Israelis, not through terrorist attacks. So in that very stage, Germany fully supports Israel. Now Israel says it wants to wipe out Hamas after that horrible attack on October 7th. But there are voices who say that the current war will breed more hatred and extremism. We heard German Chancellor Olaf Scholz talking to Benjamin Netanyahu, urging him not to be blinded by rage. What's your take? Is Israel on the right path now? Yes, it is on the right path. You have not seen a full-fledged offensive on the ground. So I do not see rage. But I see in Israel, which is clearly decided, to really wipe out these terrorists. And I think this is very necessary. I do not see any other solution. And I would have expected that the UN Council and especially the General Secretary could have urged the Arabic countries, who are of course taking care of the face of the Palestinians and who are formulating their interests on the international level, which is necessary and absolutely legitimate. But I would have expected that the UN Secretary could have asked the Arabic countries to put more pressure on Hamas, to use their leverage on Hamas, to give up this fight, to give up the way and only using terrorist chances and opportunities to wipe out Israel. There's no legitimation for this. Johan Wadepoel, deputy head of the CDU-CSU parliamentary group and expert on defence foreign policy. Thank you very much. Thank you as well.