In the cnn newsroom. Im Alex Marquardt in washington time is running outside for a Ceasefire Deal between israel and hamas as us officials had hoped. To broker that deal, that would see the return of hamas held hostages before the muslim, muslim holy month of ramadan that begins tomorrow night. But so far President Biden says that is unlikely whether it be a ceasefire by ramadan looking are you concerned about violence and youve got one. I assure this all comes as the humanitarian crisis in gaza is reaching a fever pitch, the us just conducted more airdrops with thousands of meals and bottles of water but aid groups is saying that is not enough. The United Nations has issued a warning that four out of five, 80 of households in gaza right now dont have Safe Drinking Water according to the Ministry Of Health there in gaza, at least two more people died today from severe hydration and malnutrition. In response to the crisis, the white house has announced that the us would join other countries to send aid from cyprus to gaza by ship, by barge. And as part of that, the us says it will build a floating pier. And causeway on the coast of gaza on the Mediterranean Sea to help deliver that humanitarian aid. Pentagon says the port could help deliver more than 2 million meals every day. But they warn that it could take weeks, even up to two months to build that pier cnns Clarissa Ward is on the ground in jerusalem for us tonight, clarissa, there are consistent warnings about gaza being on the brink of widespread famine. President joe biden has told israel there are no excuses not to open more Border Crossings to get more aid in and yet they havent. And youve seen a big reason why many israelis are against that. Why is that thats right. I mean, it may sound counterintuitive, but the reality is that according to recent polls, the majority of israelis, jewish, israeli specifically, do not believe that International Aid should be allowed to get into gaza. We spent the day with a group of protesters who two for six weeks have been going to that kerem shalom Border Crossing where much of the aid that gets in goes through. They have been actively trying to block pocket from going in the difference now, is that the israeli authorities and Border Police are taking a much stronger hand. Theyre much less tolerant that they had been. But we had the opportunity to confront some of these protesters and try to understand their thinking. Take a look the march with determination to the kerem shalom border as they have first six weeks their mission to block International Aid from crossing into gaza. The Border Police are waiting for their dangerous sniper fire and project mcdonalds. He officer warns, i asked you to leave this place. But the protesters are undeterred, made up mostly of hostage family members, dormir reservists, and settlers they ignore the order and change course to move closer to the crossing. So you can see the trucks with aid over there. The police had been trying just stop the protesters, but then theyve just cut through this field and theyre pushing ahead. How can anyone check lets inside or bags of rice that are meant to go to their children are filled with bullets under international law, its israel obligation to make sure that the ordinary citizens of gaza dont starve to that. And right now they are starving to death amongst is making it very difficult because the muscle is not allowing this to write theyre not holding it, theyre not leaving it but theyre doing it. Im telling you here now, we knew its getting to children of gaza. We will do it. This does not arrived at the doorstep. This arrives into the channels of come that are fighting Asset Holding now hostages, nowhere was no evidence to support the idea that all of this aid is going to hamas, not to the rest of the population. This is intelligence only for terror. Thats why theyre getting a should get only the minimum calories required to survive. Theyre starving to death. Is there are no, they are starting to really make it, you know what he was serving, starting to give us give the hostages back, know, a single a loaf of bread should goes her to our hostages are coming back to many people in the world, listening to what youre saying, what youre protesting for. It sounds like a contravention of international law, and be incredibly callous in the face of an epic humanitarian catastrophe in the face of children starving to death, people cant understand why anyone in their right mind would advocate for stopping aid. Hamas has no play. Hamas has no rules. Hamas is holding civilians, you know, even if hz or easy humanitarian crisis are in, there is no even if its my right and white to prioritize the life of duty one year old babies are desert over any guzman and would that the interview is over as the protesters press on. Previously, theyd managed to block aid trucks from crossing. But on this day, the police have been given their orders and no one is getting through, prompting anger from the crowd were confused. Go deal with the war. This shouts, we can to help you all i need to cross here. The protesters try their luck in another area that the authorities are just as quick to stop them. The police are now really started thank you to lose their patients. Theyve been trying to push these protesters away for hours now and still theyre not leaving the crowd on this day is small. But theres sentiment is shared by most people in the country. Recent poll by the Israel Democracy Institute found that 68 of Jewish Israelis oppose the transfer sure of humanitarian aid into gaza on the other side of the border, the situation could not be more dire seven yearold fought sand is suffering from severe dehydration and malnutrition doctors at the Kamal Adwan Hospital say they dont have the resources to properly treat him fadis mother says shes already lost two children. She doesnt want to lose him according to gazas health authorities, at least 17 children have died of dehydration and malnutrition already. And with the un warning that famine is just a step away, there is hardly room for debate more aid needs to get to more people as quickly as possible now, alex, it is important to mention that there is a diversity of opinion about this in israel, of course israel is not a monolith and on that same day that we were out with those protesters, there was another large protest trying to get to kerem shalom to they didnt make it, but they have the convoy of aid that they were trying to get into gaza. And there are people here, of course, who do not believe that restricting aid to gaza is at all all helpful to anyone. Alex. Just extraordinary to hear that denial that there is any kind of humanitarian crisis there clarissa, we are going to be speaking in a moment with someone who is in rafah in southern gaza. There were overnight strikes there by israel and israel has warned about a Ground Offensive in rafah to root out the rest of hamas what do you think that that would mean for the people who are taking shelter there . I believe its around oneandahalf million gazans well, i think that there had been warnings from many World Leaders to the idf that any kind of move on, rafah would be potentially disastrous with a very high death toll because simply put but there is nowhere for people there to go. It is heavily overcrowded, as you mentioned, oneandahalf million. Now we had heard israeli Benny Dan Say that you know, any any kind of rafah ramadan would be basically a deadline for that incursion into rafah to really get under for way ramadan, obviously expected in the next couple of days here. And a lot of anticipation that potentially we have gone from a scenario where it looks look like there might be a ceasefire to it looks like there may be some kind of an offensive on rafah at this stage. We dont exactly know which it will be or if indeed it will be either. But there is a sense, alex, absolutely. That this this cannot hold, that this cannot continue that the unraveling situation an inside gaza is unsustainable for palestinians, for the israelis and for the International Community at large. And close on that question of a ceasefire, which of course would include a release of whats expected to be dozens, at least israeli hostages were seeing huge protests again in israel tonight demanding that those horses such as be brought home. How is that anger . How is that pressure playing into these talks about a ceasefire in gaza there is so much anger alex, and these protests have been going on now for weeks and weeks. Its reaching a fever pitch. You talk to the parents of some of these hostages and they really cant understand and how its possible that more than five months later, they are still no closer. It seems to getting their loved ones back home safely and theres been such a positive information as to what kind of conditions theyre being held in. Web there they may be dead or may still be alive. We know that one of the key issues during the talks that have been going on is that the israelis have been pushing to get a list from hamas switch hostages are alive with chaucer iges are dead. Hamas has not been willing to hand that over and theres been a lot of speculation from analysts that hamas at this stage is not really interested in agreeing to a ceasefire that it would like to use the holy muslim month of ramadan as a period to try to ignite more fervor, more anger across the region of course, a lot of World Leaders fearful that that will happen up until this point it hasnt spilled out of control to a mass regional conflagration ration. And many are concerned that ramadan could provide a platform for that to happen if cooler heads do not prevail, alex its. Exactly what Israels MossadIntelligence Agency is saying that they believe hamas wants to exploit that situation for this conflict to expand. Clarissa ward in jerusalem. Thank you. Very much for your terrific reporting. I want to speak now with use of hammash. He is an Advocacy Officer for the aid group, the Norwegian Refugee Council use of his joining me now from rafah but in the southern part of the gaza strip, yousef, thank you so much for joining me this evening. I know how difficult that can be with connection issues. You and i last spoke at the end of november. There was a brief pause for a week in the fighting and at the time you described what you are living through, what was happening as living in an earthquake for seven weeks. Now, it has been five months. How much worse have things gotten since then . Thanks. So for her for hosting me x and give me the chance. And unfortunately, we nothing have changed. Its getting worse and worse, especially with the layers of the waves of displacement that we saw recently. To rafah, hand it off as a city doesnt have that capacity to host all that amount to people which added a new layer health jenin for the displaced families and Rafat Situation become worse and worse every day and every day that this city madness is less thing cause us human loss at and engage us more in this disaster situation and the catastrophic situation, catastrophic situation that we have in rafah and other areas in gaza. Unfortunately, nothing were boosted since we last spoke until now and if you have two young children, they have now lived through several wars. You told me last time that they have become experts at war. They understand the different types of weapon because in bombs that are being dropped, but as far as your family goes, what are your biggest needs right now unfortunately, there is not that ability for us in rafah engine oil and its not only my situation is the situation for more than 1 million andahalf that they could fulfill their needs. There is lacking we are lacking literally everything we are likely to city fuel, food, water anything from our basic needs. We are lacking here and unfortunately we cannot fulfill it as responsible and in front of our children are extended families the situation is really, really challenging for anyone whos in indra i could say its more acceptable for that rather situation in the north and bottom gaza which is totally forgotten. And because there is no Media Appearance and recently everyone on me, theres talking about invading rafah, expanding the Military Operation in rafah, which she grabbed huge Media Attention and kind of a bounded the situation in the north and passed out of gaza. What we are hearing from our relatives and our neighbors, our friends, that who stayed in the north important in gaza city is heartbreaking, heartbreaking, and making us a rafah who are living a real catastrophe feel lucky somehow become because we have gotten of xs for our basic needs. And what we are getting from the north is really heartbreaking its really weird when youre comparing the situation in gaza in general, why, despite how small it is yeah. There are hundreds of thousands of people who as you say, are in the northern part of the gaza strip who dont have access to what is already very, very limited aid that you may have access two in the south, one of the solutions that the us and other countries have come up with her airdrops, dropping aid from airplanes into gaza. Do you know if those have made any difference . And when you hear about the United States planning to build that pier, that dock on the water on the coast of gaza. How much do you think that would help and if possible, when we started essentially to hear that to hear a lot about the airdropping first thing and its small hail even for one child, it worth it, but i dont think that it was realistic to spend all that amount of effort on airdropping. And thats that we had the huge favorite recently when one of the airdrops, that one of the items that have been drugged have killed some people in the north and that was not realistic option while we could tradition, community and World Leaders and us specialty could spend more efforts coordinating with this when its closest ally, which could use its influence to allow attract, which is like half an hour away from Rafah Crossing or kerem shalom crossing. Now, they are talking about this kind of a seaboard. Unfortunately, spending all, again, all of these efforts on building a c4, c4 to allow aid is kind of unrealistic to be honest, we are the gazans. He already, were dreaming for ease to have a small piece of london as a seaport but in the situation that, in circumstances that we are going through in gaza, its going to be more efficient if we allow the aid and Veterans Community use their influence on it israel, to allow a different areas. All across gaza. And what that restrictions on aid. And we had different borders with in the north and Gaza City Garden Crossing Point in gaza city and air is causing both in the north and despite we left all of that and we went to go to more kind of unrealistic options. Unfortunately, the us has said that israel will open up another Border Crossing in the next few weeks. Which one . We dont know right now, but yusov, as you know, israel also accuses hamas of stealing much of the aid that goes into gaza. Weve seen all kinds of widespread looting how big of an issue is it of hamas taking some of that aid as israel alleges and here we are operating at mainly and we will observe it and we supervise all of the delivery of or other items under a very technical you just procedures to reach the people in need. We didnt notice or seen any of all of these allegations on the ground there, and thats our own experience working in the field for more and more than 13 side there were no evidence on all of these allegations so far, and we were we are working in the underground and rafah and i talking about rafah saving all these Amount Thousands of displaced families that we reach. And we didnt see anything underground related to all of these allegations. Allegations so if there is obviously these discussions about a ceasefire that could mean a break in the fighting again, and this time for at least six weeks, what would that mean for your family . And to be honest, we are looking for a second to breathe and even one hour is in. We just looking for a breath but based on our readers experience, we had that too humanitarian pause they have different meanings, different names for everything for one week. And after then we after that week we found ourselves in an endless nightmare. The bottom that have intensified the m v, the Michigan Killing Two will have increased significantly. We dont want to find ourselves in that circle of violent again and again, we are looking for for permanent ceasefire, ensure that dignity and that basic human life for people who are suffering for years under the siege. And now we are in this 155 days madness that we are going through with all of these circumstances surrounding us bombardment, drones, lack of a lack of fuel, lack of drinking water, doesnt have the ability to provide for your own children. All of the we are looking for an end for it and we are hoping that this is not going to be a break. We dont want we dont need a break we want out to ensure our lives back. We made our lives back as far as cnn, who are trapped in gaza under the situation yeah, so many gazans, of course, hoping that its not just a pause, but a permanent ceasefire and an end to this war. Yousef hammash. Thank you so much for joining us this evening in rafah i really appreciate it thank you for president ial campaigns are colliding in the battleground. State of georgia with President Joe Biden and his predecessor for holding dueling events. Just a