AMY GOODMAN: In Gaza, Israeli forces have killed more than 120 Palestinians over the past day, including many at aid sites, bringing the official death toll to over 55,000, though that figure is believed to be a vast undercount. Gaza’s Government Media Office has accused the Israeli military of, quote, “perpetuating a policy of starvation and deliberately targeting and killing starving people seeking food,” unquote.

This comes as thousands from around the world are arriving in Egypt for the Global March to Gaza to call for the end to Israel’s genocide against Palestinians. Independent Egyptian news outlet Mada Masr reports Egyptian security forces detained and deported several Turkish citizens outside their Cairo hotel, where they were spotted carrying Palestinian flags. Dozens who flew to Egypt for the march have also reportedly been turned back as they arrived at the Cairo airport, including 40 Algerian nationals this morning and an all-female Tunisian delegation. Drop Site News shared video of activists chanting as they were deported at the airport.

ACTIVISTS: [translated] Shame! Shame! They sold Gaza for a dollar!

AMY GOODMAN: The activists were chanting, “Shame! Shame! They sold Gaza for a dollar!” implying the Egyptian government sold out Gaza.

Egypt’s Foreign Ministry released a statement Wednesday nominally, quote, “welcoming foreign delegations” of the Global March to Gaza, which plans to bring humanitarian aid to the Rafah border crossing in Egypt, but warned they should seek permission to cross the Sinai Desert to Rafah.

Democracy Now! spoke to one of the people planning to participate in the march, Hala Rharrit. She’s an 18-year career diplomat who resigned from the State Department over the Biden administration’s Gaza policy. She was the first State Department diplomat to publicly resign. She had served as Arabic-language spokesperson for the State Department. We spoke to her briefly on the show Tuesday, then did an extended interview. In Part 2, I asked her to elaborate on what made her decide to go from spokesperson to resigned spokesperson to actually participating in the Global March to Gaza.

HALA RHARRIT: Thank you so much for having me, Amy.

Well, fundamentally, it’s the exact same answer: diplomacy, justice, peace, equality — all of the values that I grew up with, that I cherished, all the values that we’re supposed to hold dear as Americans. These are the exact same principles and reasons why I am going, why I resigned, why I became a diplomat, why I resigned, and now why I’m joining the march, because, again, as I mentioned in Part 1, we cannot, as human beings, turn the blind eye to injustice. We just cannot. What type of world are going to be living in, what type of world are we going to be allowing our children to grow up in, if we stand by while an entire civilian population is forcibly starved — I’m going to say that again, forcibly starved — under all of our watchful eye, children dying of malnutrition?

This is not propaganda. These are facts. We have the images. We have all of the details of these children dying of starvation, while others that are trying to get them food get shot at. Simultaneously, the population continues to be bombarded. It’s an absolute affront to international law, an affront to diplomacy, that I dedicated my entire life to.

And again, we can’t speak anymore. We can’t just talk and talk and talk and allow governments to take advantage of the cover of diplomacy to continue the injustice. At this point, it is power to the people. The people are uniting in a show of solidarity. And as you mentioned, Amy, we’ll be going to Egypt and doing a walk to Rafah, representing humanity, over 3,000 people from over 50 countries, completely peaceful, nonviolent, a show of collective humanity, saying, “Enough is enough. Break the siege. Allow humanitarian aid in,” and to also let the Palestinian people know that they are not alone. They are not alone. We are going to be continuing these efforts until the siege is broken.

AMY GOODMAN: Philippe Lazzarini, the UNRWA commissioner-general, posted on his official X account, quote, “The State of Israel must lift the siege and allow the UN safe and unhindered access to bring in aid and distribute it safely. This is the only way to avert mass starvation including among 1 million children. Today, there are 12000 UNRWA staff who continue providing health, sanitation and psychosocial services under the most brutal and adverse environment. Our warehouses outside Gaza are full with a volume of assistance equivalent to 6,000 trucks. Letting food rot and medicine deliberately expire would simply be obscene,” Lazzarini wrote.

And it’s interesting to note, Hala, that one of the responses of the Israeli government to the Gaza Freedom Flotilla was that there are proper ways to bring in humanitarian aid, and they weren’t following them, as they attempted to bring in aid and challenge the siege. If you can respond to Lazzarini, to Israel, and especially from your position as a longtime former spokesperson for the State Department, if you can talk about the U.S. role in all of this?

HALA RHARRIT: I’ll respond to the Israeli point first, specifically about the Gaza Humanitarian Fund that they’ve set up, that they propped up, potentially with Israeli intelligence, because I want your audience to understand something very, very clearly. This is a propaganda tool. And I say this as a former spokesperson, as someone who worked in the propaganda arm, the public relations arm of the U.S. government. I thought I was doing good at the time.

If you want to feed malnourished children, you do not give them a box of pasta. You do not give them a box of rice. This is not how you treat malnourishment. This is not how you treat starvation. This is strictly not only a public relations plot, but it is additionally a financial ploy, because people are benefiting. This is a private firm that was contracted. People are literally making money off of other people’s starvation.

An additional layer is that we’ve seen with our own eyes people getting shot at, the Palestinian civilians getting shot at in their desperation of trying to obtain food from the Gaza Humanitarian Fund. It is part of a systematic effort to ethnically cleanse, to potentially wipe out the population. There are irreversible damages made from a population, a civilian population, that is malnourished, that is unable to properly grow. You have an entire generation that is stunted. And that is by design.

When I was a spokesperson, Amy, to your point about the U.N. statement about allowing the U.N. to do its job, as a spokesperson, I was expected to say the line of ”UNRWA, you know, is corrupt,” or ”UNRWA is in on it. UNRWA is full of Hamas.” I asked for proof. I asked for proof for everything that I was expected to say. I had a top-secret security clearance, even if I wasn’t authorized to share that proof on TV. All I asked is, “You convince me of that, I will go on TV, and I will say it.” Spoiler alert: I never saw any proof, because there is none. If there was proof that the U.N. was somehow in cahoots with Hamas, we would have all seen it by now.

This is, again, a public relations ploy to try to divert attention from the facts on the ground, which is that forced starvation is being used as a tool of war, and that is fundamentally a war crime. The flotilla was trying to break that, because governments are refusing to act. And now the Global March is going to act to also try to break that, because we will keep pressuring governments to actually do their jobs until they do them.

AMY GOODMAN: Hala Rharrit, if you can talk about exactly — give us more details on this march, the Global March to Gaza, to the Rafah border crossing in Egypt, and talk about the Egyptian government’s response, as well. How many people are going on it?

HALA RHARRIT: Thanks so much for giving me the opportunity to talk about it. It is really a grassroots movement. And I have to say I’m not part of the organizing committee, but I was inspired by them. They are a group of peace activists, of lawyers, of doctors, basically people from all walks of life that have been — all of us have been talking about what can we actually do, as opposed to just talk.

And weeks ago, if not months ago, I’m told that a core group of organizers got together. I found out about it not too long ago and decided to do whatever I can to support it. And so, they approached — this core organizing committee approached the Egyptian government formally, through various Egyptian embassies around the world. They met with Egyptian ambassadors around the world, in European capitals, in Canada. They gave them formal notices through diplomatic notes. So the Egyptian authorities are fully aware.

They’ve received initial positive feedback from some of the Egyptian diplomatic missions, I’m told. And they were also — it was confirmed that they would receive a response, the march would receive a response, from Cairo in terms of a permit for a march at some point. The good news is that we have not received a “no,” which I think is obviously a good sign.

And I want to stress that this march does not at all aim to undermine — because there have been some concerns that I want to alleviate. It’s not at all aimed to undermine Egyptian authority or Egyptian sovereignty. It is quite the opposite. It is very much in line with Egypt’s diplomatic efforts. Egypt has been calling on an end to the siege. Egypt has been calling on a ceasefire. They’ve been in the negotiations to try to achieve a ceasefire. And so, this is in support of that.

And we’re going to be landing, as I mentioned, on Thursday in Cairo. Some participants are already there. It’s going to be — the number is increasing every time I speak to them, but definitely over 3,000 from over 50 countries. And we’re going to make our way from Cairo to el-Arish in the Sinai. And then, from Friday, we’re going to start walking from el-Arish to Rafah. We’re going to be walking for two or three days in the Sinai Desert. And then, once we arrive to Rafah, we are not planning on storming the border. This, again, is a purely, purely peaceful, nonviolent march in solidarity with the Palestinian people. We are going to camp out in Rafah, and we’re going to try to make a statement of collective humanity. We’re going to, again, be representing the world with our over 50 delegations. And we’re going to be insisting that this will keep happening over and over again until the siege is broken. We will camp out for a few days to try to hopefully make that statement loud and clear and try to effect some change, until we return back, back to Cairo.

AMY GOODMAN: Are there government officials who will be in this delegation, or former spokespeople, like yourself, you, a former State Department spokesperson?

HALA RHARRIT: I know that there are European members of Parliament that have joined the march. They’ve also — others have also signed letters in support of the march. I know that there are current diplomats, I’m not sure from which countries, but I know that there are current diplomats that are also — that are also joining the march, again, peace activists, lawyers, doctors, artists.

It is — for me, honestly, Amy, it’s a beautiful show of human solidarity. And when I see all of this injustice in the world, whether it’s in Los Angeles, whether we’re talking about kidnapping people and sending them to El Salvador, this gives me hope. People from all around the world, they’re not benefiting from this. They’re leaving their jobs. They’re leaving their families behind. But they’re standing together and saying, “This is not OK. It’s not OK that children are starving. It’s not OK that children are being bombarded every day. Illegal occupation cannot exist in 2025.” And this, to me, already gives me hope. It’s a show of a beautiful human unity, and this is what we need.

And just like the flotilla inspired millions around the world, we’re hoping that this march inspires millions around the world, because, fundamentally, this is the way things change. I served in South Africa as a diplomat, and I learned so much from that experience, but, fundamentally, it was the power of the people that ended apartheid in South Africa. And the movement is underway, as well, for Palestine.

AMY GOODMAN: I want to ask you about a former colleague of yours, former State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller, under President Biden, who recently made headlines when he admitted Israel had committed war crimes in Gaza, something he never said from the State Department podium.

MATTHEW MILLER: I don’t think it’s a genocide, but I think the — I think it is, without a doubt, true that Israel has committed war crimes.

MARK STONE: You wouldn’t have said that at the podium.

MATTHEW MILLER: Yeah, look, because I — I mean, when you’re at the podium, you’re not expressing your personal opinion. You’re expressing the conclusions of the United States government.

AMY GOODMAN: So, I’m wondering if you can get — if you can respond to what the former State Department spokesperson under Biden, Matt Miller, is saying on Sky News? Did it surprise you, Hala?

HALA RHARRIT: I can absolutely respond, and thank you for giving me the opportunity. It is absolutely disgusting. That’s it. I’m going to be very blunt, Amy, because I worked in the exact same office as Matthew Miller. The reports that I mentioned that I wrote on a daily basis when I was a spokesperson, they went up that chain. They went up to global public affairs. I knew he knew, because I was drafting reports showing the war crimes.

When I was asked to spread those lies, I said, “I cannot spread lies.” I swore an oath to the U.S. Constitution when I became a diplomat. I had a top-secret security clearance. That means we don’t violate laws. We don’t violate U.S. laws. We don’t violate international laws. And if you are a true patriot, if you are truly a diplomat, you do not do as you are told when you know it is illegal. You do not do as you’re told when you know it is immoral, when it is inhumane, and, fundamentally, as well, when you know it is a threat to U.S. national security, which we all knew, which I was also documenting.

As far as I’m concerned, Matthew Miller has blood on his hands, because he knew what he was doing was wrong. And why was he doing it? For careerism. I’m going to be very blunt, Amy, because I’ve — perhaps I’m not as diplomatic as I should be or as I used to be. But it’s careerism. And the only reason why he admitted it now, again, on TV, is because he thinks it’s going to make him look good, where, in reality, it makes him look terrible, because everybody knew he knew he was lying. But that does not make a good diplomat, certainly not. And fundamentally, I think it’s going to haunt him for the rest of his life, whereas I have a very clean conscience, and I’ll continue to try to do good in the world. It’s not about a paycheck. It’s about the type of world we live in and we want our children to grow up in.

AMY GOODMAN: That was Hala Rharrit, 18-year career diplomat who resigned from the State Department over the Biden administration’s Gaza policy. We spoke with her Tuesday about joining the Global March to Gaza, which begins today in Cairo and heads to the Rafah border crossing in Egypt.