An Israeli air strike has killed Palestinian photojournalist Ahmed Al-Louh and five Palestinian Civil Defence workers in central Gaza’s Nuseirat camp as Tel Aviv announces that it will double illegal settlements in the Golan Heights.

Al-Louh, who worked as a cameraman for Al Jazeera alongside other media outlets, was killed yesterday in the strike on the Civil Defence post in the central Gaza camp, according to medics and local journalists.

The attack occurred as Israeli military strikes across the Gaza Strip killed at least 28 Palestinians on Sunday, medics said. Allouh is the third journalist killed in Gaza in the last 24 hours.

• READ MORE: Israeli forces bomb another UN-run school in Gaza, kill 20 Palestinians
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Meanwhile, the Israeli government has approved a plan to increase the number of settlers in the illegally occupied Golan Heights, days after seizing more Syrian territory following the ousting of Syria’s dictator Bashar al-Assad, reports Al Jazeera.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said the government had “unanimously approved” the “demographic development” of the occupied territory, which would seek to double the Israeli population there.

This new settlement plan is only for the portion of the Golan Heights that Israel has occupied since 1967. In 1981, Israel’s parliamentary Knesset moved to impose Israeli law over the territory, in an effective annexation.

Al Jazeera Arabic reports that journalist Al-louh was working while he was killed, wearing a “press” vest and helmet. He was taken to Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in Gaza’s city of Deir el-Balah.

Al Jazeera condemns ‘heinous crime’
Al Jazeera Media Network condemned Al-Louh’s killing, and called on human rights and media organisations “to condemn the Israeli Occupation’s systematic killing of journalists in cold blood, the evasion of responsibilities under international humanitarian law, and to bring the perpetrators of this heinous crime to justice”.

Israeli strike kills Al Jazeera journalist.        Video: CNN News

“We urge relevant international legal institutions to take practical and urgent measures to hold the Israeli authorities and all those who are responsible accountable for their heinous crimes and to adopt mechanisms to put an end to the targeting and killing of journalists,” the network added.

Al-Louh had been covering Israel’s war on Gaza when it first began in October 2023, embedded with the Gaza Strip’s Palestinian Civil Defence teams, Al Jazeera reporter Hind Khoudary said.

Gaza’s media office said the head of the civil emergency service in Nuseirat, Nedal Abu Hjayyer, was also killed in Sunday’s attack.

“The civil emergency headquarters in Nuseirat camp was hit during the crews’ presence. They work around the clock to serve the people,” said Zaki Emadeldeen from the civil emergency service to reporters at the hospital.

“The civil emergency service is a humanitarian service and not political. They work in war and peace times for the service of the people,” he said, adding that the place was hit directly by an Israeli air strike.

The Israeli military said they were looking into the attack.

Journalists ‘paying highest price’
“Since the war in Gaza started, journalists have been paying the highest price — their lives – for their reporting. Without protection, equipment, international presence, communications, or food and water, they are still doing their crucial jobs to tell the world the truth,” said Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) programme director Carlos Martinez de la Serna in New York.

“Every time a journalist is killed, injured, arrested, or forced to go to exile, we lose fragments of the truth. Those responsible for these casualties face dual trials: one under international law and another before history’s unforgiving gaze.”

Several other Palestinian journalists were killed this past week, with 195 killed in Gaza since Israel’s war began, Khoudary said.

Al Jazeera’s Hani Mahmoud said earlier on Sunday that Palestinian journalist Mohammed Jabr al-Qrinawi was killed along with his wife and children in an Israeli air attack that targeted their home in Bureij refugee camp, in central Gaza, late on Saturday.

Earlier on Saturday, Al Mashhad Media said its journalist Mohammed Balousha was killed in an Israeli attack in Gaza.

Several AJ journalists killed
Several Al Jazeera journalists have been killed since the start of Israel’s war on Gaza, including Ismail al-Ghoul, Rami al-Rifi, Samer Abudaqa and Hamza Dahdouh.

Also on Sunday, an air strike hit people protecting aid trucks west of Gaza City. Medics said several were killed or wounded but exact figures were not yet available.

Residents also said at least 11 people were killed in three separate Israeli air strikes in Gaza City. Nine were killed in the towns of Beit Lahiya, Beit Hanoon and Jabalia camp when clusters of houses were bombed or set ablaze, and two were killed by drone fire in Rafah.

Earlier on Sunday, at least 15 Palestinians were killed after Israeli forces stormed Khalil Oweida School in Beit Hanoon, sources told Al Jazeera.

Several other Israeli attacks earlier on Sunday killed Palestinians near Kamal Adwan Hospital in northern Gaza; and in Shujayea, in Khan Younis.

According to Gaza’s Health Ministry, at least 44,976 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli forces since October 7, 2023.

Pacific Media Watch, Al Jazeera and news agencies.

Speakers at a large rally in the heart of New Zealand’s largest city today strongly condemned Israel’s indiscriminate killing of Palestinian children in its 10-month genocidal war on the besieged Gaza Strip.

The 2000-strong rally was replicated in “Stop the war on children” protests across New Zealand this weekend.

Ironically, the demonstrations came as world leaders and humanitarian organisations condemned the latest atrocity by the Israeli military.

• READ MORE: Israel’s war on Gaza live: Victims of Gaza City school attack ‘in pieces’
• Other Israeli war on Gaza reports

An Israeli strike on a school-turned-shelter for displaced Palestinians in Gaza City during prayers has killed more than 100 people, mostly women and children, according to Palestinian officials who expect the death toll to rise.

Almost 40,000 Palestinians have been killed in the war on Gaza, more than 15,000 of them chidren, and at least 92,002 have been wounded.

While the Israeli military claimed in a statement that its air force on Saturday struck a “command and control centre” that “served as a hideout for Hamas terrorists and commanders” at the al-Tabin school.

However, it did not provide evidence and claimed it had taken steps to reduce the risk of harming civilians while questioning the accuracy of the reported death toll.

“There has been no evidence to back up the claims made by the Israeli military over the last 10 months when targeting civilian infrastructure and densely populated areas that are filled with displaced Palestinians,” reports Hamdah Salhut of Al Jazeera.

“Right after the Gaza City school was struck with three air strikes by the Israeli army, the military released a statement claiming that they were targeting Hamas operatives inside both the school and the mosque.

“They say that they use precise munitions in order to minimise the civilian damage and death, that this was an intelligence-based attack carried out in coordination with the Shin Bet, the internal security agency.

‘Pictures show different story’
“But pictures show a different story. The sources on the ground, the medics and the Civil Defence workers who are picking up body parts of Palestinians that have been blown to pieces tell a different story.

“We also heard from an Israeli army spokesperson in English who said that the military is denying the fact that more than 100 Palestinians were killed, based on Israeli military intelligence, which again was not provided.”

Al Jazeera has been banned by the Israeli government from reporting or broadcasting within Israel. It is reporting the Israeli side of the war from Amman, capital of the neighbouring state of Jordan.

Jordan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement that Israel’s attack went against “all humanitarian values” and was “an indication of the Israeli government’s attempt to block [peace] efforts and postpone them”.

It added that “the absence of a decisive international stance to restrain Israeli aggression and compel it to respect international law and stop its aggression against Gaza” was resulting in “unprecedented killings, deaths and human catastrophe”.

Other reactions to the attack include:

Qatar
Qatar’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said the attack constituted a “horrific massacre and a brutal crime against defenceless civilians”.

It called for an independent UN fact-finding mission to investigate attacks on shelters for displaced Palestinians in Gaza and demanded that the international community oblige Israel to ensure their protection and uphold international law.

Qatar, Egypt and the United States are the mediators between Israel and Gaza and have called for a new round of ceasefire negotiations for Thursday as fears grow of a broader conflict involving Iran and its Lebanese ally Hezbollah.

Hamas
“The massacre at al-Tabin school in the Daraj neighbourhood in central Gaza City is a horrific crime that constitutes a dangerous escalation,” said the movement that governs the Gaza Strip.

Izzat al-Rishq, a member of the Palestinian group’s political bureau, said there were no armed men at the school.

Hamas said in its statement that Israel’s claims of the school being used as the group’s command centre were “excuses to target civilians, schools, hospitals, and refugee tents, all of which are false pretexts and expose lies to justify its crimes”.

“We call on our Arab and Islamic countries and the international community to fulfill their responsibilities and take urgent action to stop these massacres and halt the escalating Zionist aggression against our people and defenseless citizens,” the statement said.

Ismail al-Thawabta, the director-general of Gaza’s Government Media Office, called on the international community and UN Security Council “to pressure Israel to end this cascading bloodbath among our people, namely innocent women and children”.

Fatah
Fatah, the rival Palestinian faction that last month signed a “national unity” agreement with Hamas, said the attack was a “heinous bloody massacre” that represented the “peak of terrorism and criminality”.

“Committing these massacres confirms beyond a shadow of a doubt its efforts to exterminate our people through the policy of cumulative killing and mass massacres that make living consciences tremble,” it said in a statement.

Iran
Ali Shamkhani, secretary of the Supreme National Security Council of Iran, said the Israeli government’s goal was to thwart ceasefire negotiations and continue the war.

Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesman Nasser Kanaani said Israel had again shown it was not committed to international law as he condemned the attack as genocide and a war crime.

He urged immediate action from the UN Security Council and said Israel’s actions in Gaza were a threat to international peace and security.

Egypt
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs said Israel’s “deliberate killing” of unarmed Palestinians showed it lacked the political will to end the war in Gaza.

In a statement cited by the state-run Middle East News Agency, it accused Israel of repeatedly committing “large-scale crimes” against “unarmed civilians” whenever there was an international push for a ceasefire.

It said such attacks reflected “an unprecedented disregard” for international law.

Saudi Arabia
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs said it denounced the attack in the “strongest terms” and stressed that “mass massacres” in the enclave “need to stop”.

Gaza is “experiencing an unprecedented humanitarian catastrophe due to the ongoing violations of international law”, the ministry said.

Lebanon
The strike offered clear evidence of the Israeli government’s disregard for international humanitarian law and its intention to prolong the war and expand its scope, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said.

It called on the international community to take a unified stance and stressed that stopping the war in Gaza is necessary to prevent an escalation in the region.

Turkey
“Israel has committed a new crime against humanity by massacring more than a hundred civilians who had taken refuge in a school,” Turkey’s Foreign Ministry said.

It accusing Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of wanting “to sabotage ceasefire negotiations”.

UNRWA
Philippe Lazzarini, the head of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, called for an end to the “horrors unfolding under our watch”.

“We cannot let the unbearable become a new norm,” he wrote on X.

“The more recurrent, the more we lose our collective humanity,” he said, reiterating his call for a “ceasefire now”.

Organisation of Islamic Cooperation
The strike was “an extension of the brutal massacres and genocide committed by the Israeli occupation for more than ten months in the Gaza Strip”, the OIC said.

It called on the international community, especially the UN Security Council, to oblige Israel to respect its obligations as an occupying power under international law and provide protection to the Palestinian people.

European Union
The European Union’s foreign policy chief, Josep Borrell, said he was “horrified” by the images of the attack, adding that at least 10 schools had been targeted in the past week.

“There’s no justification for these massacres,” he said.

Horrified by images from a sheltering school in Gaza hit by an Israeli strike, w/ reportedly dozens of Palestinian victims.

At least 10 schools were targeted in the last weeks. There’s no justification for these massacres

We are dismayed by the terrible overall death toll. 1/2

— Josep Borrell Fontelles (@JosepBorrellF) August 10, 2024

UN rapporteur
Francesca Albanese, the UN’s special rapporteur on the occupied Palestinian territory, condemned the world’s “indifference” to mass bloodshed in Gaza.

“Israel is genociding the Palestinians one neighborhood at the time, one hospital at the time, one school at the time, one refugee camp at the time, one ‘safe zone’ at the time. With US and European weapons,” Albanese posted on X.

“May the Palestinians forgive us for our collective inability to protect them, honouring the most basic meaning of international law.”

Gaza: In the largest and most shameful concentration camp of the 21st century, Israel is genociding the Palestinians one neighborhood at the time, one hospital at the time, one school at the time, one refugee camp at the time, one ‘safe zone’ at the time. With US and European… https://t.co/bHmrFbySYi

— Francesca Albanese, UN Special Rapporteur oPt (@FranceskAlbs) August 10, 2024

Save the Children
Tamer Kirolos, a regional director for the United Kingdom-based charity, called it the “deadliest attack on a school since last October”.

“It is devastating to see the toll this has taken, including so many children and people at the school for dawn prayers,” Kirolos said, adding that “children make up around 40 percent of the population and of people killed and injured since October” in the enclave.

“Civilians, children, must be protected. An immediate definitive ceasefire is the only foreseeable way that will happen.”

RNZ Mediawatch

New Zealand’s media were in emergency mode yet again this week, offering hours of extra coverage on air, online and in print.

Outlets in the hardest-hit places reported the basics — even without access to basics like power, communications and even premises.

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“Keep listening to the radio. You guys have done a great job updating people and it’s very much appreciated,” the Civil Defence Minister Keiran McAnulty told Newstalk ZB’s last Sunday afternoon as Gabrielle was just beginning to wreak havoc.

Barely two weeks earlier, sudden and catastrophic flooding in and near Auckland caught the media off-guard, but some commentators claimed the heavy warnings about Gabrielle were oppressively ominous — and risked “crying wolf”.

Gabrielle ended up as a national emergency and sparked non-stop rolling news coverage. There were few flat spots on TV and radio, and live online reporting around the clock also give a comprehensive picture — and pictures — of what was going on.

It stretched newsrooms to their limits, but news reporters’ work was skillfully and selectively supplemented with a steady stream of vivid eyewitness accounts.

Forestry slash flood
Tolaga Bay farmer Bridget Parker’s description on RNZ Nine to Noon of yet another inundation at her place with added forestry slash was among the most confronting (and sweary).

Checkpoint’s emotional interview on Wednesday with a couple that owned a house in which a friend “disappeared under water” was compelling — but also chilling.

RNZ’s Kate Green arrived in Gisborne on Monday with the only means of communicating that worked — a satellite phone.

“You can’t even dial 111. Everything that can break is broken,” she told RNZ Morning Report listeners, quoting the local mayor.

RNZ’s Māni Dunlop, who managed to fly in on Tuesday, told listeners that from the air the East Coast looked “buggered”.

Gisborne is a city and Tairawhiti a region not well covered at the best of times by New Zealand’s national media, which have no bureaux there. It is a bit of an irony that in the worst of times, it was so hard to get the word out.

But the locally-owned Gisborne Herald stepped up, somehow printing editions every day distributed free to 22,000 homes — with the help of NZDF boots n the ground on some days.

Proud news day
“I’m proud to be working on this paper today,” reported Murray Robertson said, signing off an eye-opening video of scenes of the stricken city posted online once power came back and a fresh Starlink unit kicked in.

On Wednesday, ZB’s Mike Hosking pleaded on air for diesel to keep their signal up in Hawke’s Bay, while the editor of Hawke’s Bay Today Chris Hyde — only months into his job — found himself literally powerless to publish when the rivers rose, cutting the electricity and cutting him off from many of his staff.

“The first day I was in a black hole. In a big news event, the phones ring hot. This was the biggest news event in Hawke’s Bay since the Napier earthquake  . . . and my phone wasn’t ringing at all,” he told Mediawatch.

Hyde, just 32 years old, was a student in Christchurch when The Press stunned citizens by publishing a paper the morning after the deadly 2011 quake.

Hyde said NZME chief editor Shayne Currie and The New Zealand Herald’s Murray Kirkness were instrumental in putting the Auckland HQs resources into getting NZME’s upper North Island dailies promptly back in print and available for free.

“Just keep supporting local news, because in moments like this, it really does matter,” Chris Hyde told Mediawatch.

On Wednesday, Hyde had the odd experience of seeing Tuesday’s edition of the paper on the AM show on TV before he had even seen it himself.

Cut-off news focus
On Wednesday, RNZ switched to focus on news for areas cut off or without power — or both — where people were depending on the radio. RNZ’s live online updates went “text-only” because those who could get online might only have the bandwidth for the basics.

Day of ‘danger’

This is the first copy of Tuesday’s @hawkesbaytoday that I’ve seen. It never made it to my home, to our offices, to our subscribers. When I wrote that headline had some idea of what was coming, and yet we had no idea. pic.twitter.com/57PmhoeyYr

— Chris Hyde (@chrishydejourno) February 16, 2023

“Thank God for news media in a storm,” was former Herald editor Gavin Ellis in his column The Knightly Views.

He was among the critics of media coverage of Auckland’s floods a fortnight earlier.

Back then he said social media and online outlets had trumped traditional news media in quickly conveying the scale and the scope of the flooding.

This time social media also hosted startling scenes and sounds reporters couldn’t capture — like rural road bridges bending then buckling.

But Gavin Ellis said earlier this week he couldn’t get a clearer picture of Gabrielle’s impact without mainstream media.

“Those two episodes where chalk and cheese. Coverage of Cyclone Gabrielle by all media was excellent, both in warning people about what was to come – although that wasn’t universal – and then talking people through it and into the aftermath, And what an aftermath it’s been,” he told Mediawatch.

“This is precisely why we need news media. They draw together an overwhelming range of sources and condense information into a readily absorbed format. Then they keep updating and adding to the picture.” he wrote.

Retro but robust radio

“It’s even more pressing if you haven’t got electricity, and you haven’t got those online links. That was when radio really came into its own,” said Ellis.

“Organisations like the BBC,and the ABC (Australia) are talking about a fully-digital future and moving away from linear broadcasting. What happens to radio in those circumstances if you haven’t got power? If you’re sitting on your rooftop surrounded by water, you can still have a radio on, he said.

“We need to have a conversation about the future of media in this country and the requirements in times of urgency need to be looked at,” Ellis told Mediawatch.

RNZ’s head of news Richard Sutherland’s had the same thoughts.

“It has certainly been a reminder to generations who have not been brought up with transistor radios they are important to have in a disaster. This will also sharpen the minds of people on just how important ‘legacy’ platforms like AM transmission are in civil defence emergencies like the one we’ve had,” he said.

“With the Tonga volcano, Tonga was cut off from the internet. and the only thing getting through was shortwave radio. In the 2020s, we are talking about something that’s been around since the early 1900s still doing the mahi. In this country, we are going to need to think very carefully about how we provide the belt and braces of broadcasting infrastructure,” he told Mediawatch.

“Everyone was super-aware of the way that the Auckland flooding late last month played out — and no one wanted to repeat that,” said Sutherland, formerly a TV news executive at Newshub, TV3, TVNZ and Sky News.

“Initially the view was this is going to be bad news for Auckland because Auckland, already very badly damaged and waterlogged. But as it turned out, of course, it ended up being Northland, Coromandel, Hawke’s Bay have been those areas that caught the worst of it,” Sutherland told Mediawatch.

News contraction
“Over the years, and for a number of reasons, a lot of them financial, all news organisations have contracted. And you contract to your home city or a big metropolitan area, because that’s where the population is, and that’s where the bulk of your audience is,” he said.

“But this cyclone has reminded us all as a nation, that it’s really important to have reporters in the regions, to have strong infrastructure in the regions. I would argue that RNZ is a key piece of infrastructure,” he said.

“This incident has shown us that with the increasing impact of climate change, news organisations, particularly public service lifeline utility organisations like RNZ, are going to have to have a look at our geographic coverage, as well as our general coverage based on population,” he said

“We are already drawing up plans for have extra boots on the ground permanently  . . but also we need to think where are the regions that we need to have more people in so that we can respond faster to these sorts of things,” he said.

“We are at a moment where we could do something a bit more formal around building a more robust media infrastructure . . . for the whole country. I would be very, very keen for the industry to get together to make sure that the whole country can benefit from the combined resources that we have.

“Again, everything comes down to money. But if the need is there, the money will be found,” he said.

Now that the government’s planned new public media entity is off the table, it will be interesting to see if those holding the public purse strings see the need for news in the same way.

This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.

Cyclone Gabrielle death toll rises to 11 after two deaths reported today https://t.co/ifMjC2wFsc

— RNZ News (@rnz_news) February 18, 2023

The extent of devastation caused by Cyclone Gabrielle in Aotearoa New Zealand is still unfolding with vast areas of the North Island flooded, at least 2500 evacuated and Wairoa cut off by phone and road.

Power is now mostly back on in the northern Hawke’s Bay town but its 8000 residents have no phone service, only one day’s worth of food and enough drinking water for two days, after the Wairoa River burst its banks.

Wairoa District Council is communicating with the outside world via satellite.

• READ MORE:  Cyclone Gabrielle: Severity of damage ‘not seen in a generation’, says PM
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An air force plane will fly over the town today to assess the damage.

A woman died overnight in Putorino, in northern Hawke’s Bay after a bank collapsed onto her home, Hawke’s Bay Civil Defence said.

Thousands of people are out of their homes in other areas from Tairāwhiti to Hawke’s Bay and Tararua on the eastern coast, and Dargaville, Muriwai, Piha and Karekare in the west.

MetService said heavy rain would continue to hit central New Zealand until Thursday with high waves along the east coast.

This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.

Watch: Dramatic rooftop rescue of stranded seasonal workers in Hawke’s Bay https://t.co/1IbiAbtzaU

— RNZ News (@rnz_news) February 14, 2023

At least 2500 people have been displaced by Cyclone Gabrielle this week, says Emergency Management Minister Kieran McAnulty.

About 1000 of those are in the Far North and another 1000 in Hawke’s Bay. The rest are mostly from Auckland, with some also in Bay of Plenty and Waikato.

But little is known about the situation in the east, with communications minimal and access hampered due to continued high winds and rain.

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Hawke’s Bay Civil Defence said a women had died in Putorino, after a bank collapsed onto her home.

Wairoa is of particular concern, with the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) “working very hard” to find out what is happening in the northern Hawke’s Bay region.

Prime Minister Chris Hipkins, speaking to media yesterday with McAnulty, said the Telecommunications Emergency Forum “has been activated and is working closely with NEMA and local Civil Defence organisations”.

“The first priority… remains the restoration of regional cellphone signals. High winds and ongoing poor weather is hampering progress in that area.”

There has also been a fibre cut affecting Taupō, Hastings and Napier and other areas.

‘Completely isolated’ Wairoa only has one day’s food, Civil Defence says https://t.co/UBjWe4suda

— RNZ News (@rnz_news) February 14, 2023

Comparisons to Cyclone Bola
Hipkins called Cyclone Gabrielle the most significant weather event in New Zealand so far this century.

“The severity and the breadth of damage we are seeing has not been seen in a generation.”

Asked how it compared to 1988’s destructive Cyclone Bola, Hipkins said he “wasn’t around in this kind of role” then so could not immediately compare the two. Officials were still building a picture of the impact of the cyclone, he said.

“In the last 24 hours or so, Fire and Emergency New Zealand have 1842 incidents related to Cyclone Gabrielle in their system . . . Two-hundred defence force personnel have so far been deployed and there are more on standby.”

Transpower had announced a national grid emergency, following the loss of power to the Hawke’s Bay and Gisborne, with potential for extended periods of outages, Hipkins said.

“This is a very significant event for the electricity network and the companies have not seen this level of damage since Cyclone Bola . . .

“The situation is changing rapidly and the lines companies are expecting more customers to be affected. They are working to restore power as quickly as possible… but restoration in some parts may have to wait until weather conditions improve.”

Many supermarkets in Northland have been affected and closed. People were asked to only buy what they needed, Hipkins said, urging people to avoid non-essential travel. If it was unavoidable, people should let friends and family know where they were going, he added.

“A high number of roads have been affected by surface flooding and by slips.”

The latest available information is on the Waka Kotahi website, which remained the best source of information for anyone having to travel, Hipkins said.

“On behalf of all New Zealanders I want to extend all of our gratitude to our emergency responders. They are putting in the hard yards and their lives are on the line in the service of their communities.

“To the families of the volunteer firefighters who responded to events in Muriwai last night and to the wider Fire and Emergency New Zealand family, our thoughts and hopes are with all of you.”

“To the men and women of the Defence Force, the linemen and women, the communication companies, the supermarkets, the transport companies getting goods to where they are needed, the roading crews that are making that all possible, thank you to you also.”

Danger remains
The good news is the weather is expected to ease overnight, Hipkins said. But that did not mean the danger would ease as quickly.

“People should still expect some bad weather overnight, particularly on the East Coast . . .  as we know from experience over the last few weeks, even if the rainfall eases off a bit, more rainfall can compound on top of the rainfall that we’ve already seen.

“So when it comes to slips and so on, we could still see more of that even as the weather starts to ease. We’re still in for a bumpy time ahead.”

The prime minister declined to put a figure on what the recovery might cost, but said insurance companies would cover a “significant portion”.

“People will pick numbers out of thin air and they may be right or they may be wrong. It’s really too early to put an exact number on it.”

He said it could impact on already fast-rising food prices, and would not rule out seeking international assistance.

Some farmers’ land has been damaged not just by the flooding, but forestry waste known as “slash”.

Hipkins said something would definitely need to be done to lessen the risk of slash destruction in the future.

Climate change’s contribution
As for climate change’s impact on the sheer scale of the storm, Hipkins rejected a suggestion that his actions since taking over as Prime Minister have weakened New Zealand’s efforts towards reducing emissions.

As a part of his policy reset, Hipkins canned a planned biofuels mandate and extended subsidies for fuel, a major contributor to warming.

“There is significant debate about whether the biofuels mandate was the right way of reducing our emissions from transport, when there are the other alternatives and other things that we can look at,” he explained.

“In terms of extending the fuel subsidies, we have to acknowledge that actually, there are people still having to get in their cars every day to drive to work, and we need to support them through what is a very, very difficult time at the moment.

“That does not in any way — I don’t believe — undermine our commitment to tackling the causes of climate change.”

He said Gabrielle’s impact would have “underscored” the need to keep reducing emissions.

“It is real, it is having an impact and we have a responsibility to do something about it.”

This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.

Cyclone Gabrielle: Rural Hawke’s Bay residents scramble onto roofs to avoid flooding https://t.co/7qEDU7dSkh

— RNZ News (@rnz_news) February 14, 2023