The executive director of the United Nations World Food Program, Cindy McCain, emphasized the “immediate” need for help and a high fire in Gaza.
“It is a tragedy. And what we need at this time is an immediate access of high fire, complete and without restrictions, along with the paths of the safe fence, each open door, to feed people and prevent this catastrophe from happening. If we do not do that, it will be a humanitarian catastrophe, as I said, like no other,” McCain said Sunday “this week with George Stephanoopoules.” “
The Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) began to deliver help this week after an 11 -week embargo. The Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, announced on May 19 that Israel, “with our American friends”, was creating a “system with distribution centers” that would be “secured by the IDF, preventing Hamas from reaching the area.”
GHF has been criticized by the United Nations and other help groups for its distribution methods. Gaza photos and videos show long rows of Palestinians waiting for help. The United Nations warns that Gaza is approaching a famine.
The executive director of the World Food Program, Cindy McCain, appears in “This Week” of ABC News on June 1, 2025
ABC News
According to the Gaza Ministry of Health, 31 people died and 200 were injured when Israel opened fire in a GHF help distribution center located in Rafah. In a statement published in X, Israel’s defense forces said: “At this stage, there are no casualties known for the FDI’s shots” inside the site. “The matter is still under investigation.”
“They do not have enough access points. They do not have enough food that enter. And, and so, the feeling of despair can be seen in the video, it is very discouraging,” McCain said. “I mean, for all of us that we do this, you know, this is what we do. We, we understand what is needed and understand the complexity of it. But we also understand the serious humanitarian need of that, that is now exists.”
Here are more outstanding aspects of McCain’s interview:
On the UN interaction with the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation
Stephanopoulos: Have you had any coordination this week with the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation?
McCain: No, I don’t have personally. I know there have been some, some meetings that have taken place around Europe, particularly in some of the things. But we have, we have not seen a plan. We have been part of some of those meetings. Some of them have not been. But again, we have not seen any plan. And, look, we will work with anyone to feed. This is: this is the kind of things that, at this level of despair, we have to work together to try to feed people. So, it’s not about not being willing to work with people. We need access. We need Israelis to let us in so we can do our job. And we do, we are the best in what we do, I could add. And we are the ones who, we can, not only can we enter, but we can enter scale, which is the most important thing at this time.
In the Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, saying: ‘That is a lie that people are dying of the USAID cuts
Stephanopoulos: Is it a lie that people have died due to help cuts?
McCain: Well, you know, I will not do it, I will even pretend to understand what is happening with Inside The, the United States government at this particular point. I know what I see on the ground, not only in Gaza but throughout the world. There are places like Sudan, the Congo of the RDC, other places, South Sudan, etc., they are in as many problems as this. We need to get help, in Gaza, and we need to get it now to avoid this catastrophe.
