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UN / GAZA UNRWA INTERVIEW
STORY: UN / GAZA UNRWA INTERVIEW
TRT: 05:08
SOURCE: UNIFEED / UNRWA
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH / NATS
DATELINE: 10 OCTOBER 2023, ATHENS, GREECE / 8 OCTOBER 2023, GAZA STRIP, PALESTINE
8 OCTOBER 2023, GAZA STRIP, PALESTINE
1. Wide shot, destroyed buildings
10 OCTOBER 2023, ATHENS, GREECE
2. SOUNDBITE (English) Juliette Touma, Director of Communications, United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA):
“We have at least 14 UN facilities that have sustained damage due to the airstrikes that have been taking place since the morning of the 7th of October. Our headquarters received collateral damage this morning due to heavy airstrikes in the neighbourhoods nearby. It happened while some of our staff were taking cover in the same compound in another building next door, and very luckily, we did not record any casualties. Another UN facility, a school sheltering the display, has been directly hit a few days ago. And overall, we are hosting some 170 thousand people in over 80 schools and other facilities across the Gaza Strip. These are families who have fled the shelling and the bombardment.”
8 OCTOBER 2023, GAZA STRIP, PALESTINE
3. Wide shot, destroyed buildings
10 OCTOBER 2023, ATHENS, GREECE
4. SOUNDBITE (English) Juliette Touma, Director of Communications, United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA):
“We have lost four UNWRA staff who work with us in different parts of the Gaza Strip. I'm in touch with our colleagues on the ground every day, sometimes more than once a day. They are telling us how terrified they are and that they were forced many, many of them, to leave their homes in search of safety. Some have sought refuge in UN buildings and schools. Many have lost loved ones, relatives, neighbours. Some colleagues have lost their houses. We have a very big number of staff working with UNWRA in the Gaza Strip. We are the largest UN agency with 13 thousand staff. These are doctors, nurses, teachers, engineers, sanitation workers, drivers, logisticians. These are really the core of our operation, the largest that the UN runs on the ground in the Gaza Strip.”
8 OCTOBER 2023, GAZA STRIP, PALESTINE
5. Wide shot, destroyed buildings
10 OCTOBER 2023, ATHENS, GREECE
6. SOUNDBITE (English) Juliette Touma, Director of Communications, United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA):
“We have 14 distribution centres on the ground, so we had to close them down. And due to everything that's been happening. Our schools have been closed and that's impacting the education of at least 300 thousand Palestinian refugee children in the Gaza Strip. Many have actually been able to work. So, we have the health colleagues, some of them are working. We have people who are responding to the needs of the people in the shelters. They're giving them mattresses. They're giving them a place to sleep, clean water, some food in cooperation with the World Food Program.”
8 OCTOBER 2023, GAZA STRIP, PALESTINE
7. Wide shot, destroyed buildings
10 OCTOBER 2023, ATHENS, GREECE
8. SOUNDBITE (English) Juliette Touma, Director of Communications, United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA):
“We have not been able to get in any humanitarian supplies since the 7th of October, not just us at UNRWA, but the whole of the UN family working in the Gaza Strip. We cannot get in UN personnel, UNRWA personnel and we cannot get out any people who work with us. So, the Gaza Strip is sealed off completely for humanitarian assistance and personnel.”
8 OCTOBER 2023, GAZA STRIP, PALESTINE
9. Wide shot, destroyed buildings
10 OCTOBER 2023, ATHENS, GREECE
10. SOUNDBITE (English) Juliette Touma, Director of Communications, United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA):
"The United Nations is calling on all parties to end the fighting everywhere and despair further unnecessary loss of civilians. I think people have suffered for way too much for way too long. For many people in the Gaza Strip this is the seventh time that they're going through a conflict. For many of our staff members who have been through thick and thin in Gaza, they say this is by far the worst. They are worried and they're fearful for themselves, for their children, for their loved ones, for what the next hour will bring, let alone the next day. Uncertainty, fear, sorrow, grief. It is time for all of this to come to an end for the sake of everyone."
8 OCTOBER 2023, GAZA STRIP, PALESTINE
11. Wide shot, destroyed buildings
The Director of Communications at the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), Juliette Touma, today (10 Oct) reported that 14 UN facilities have sustained damage due to Israeli airstrikes since 7 October, including its Gaza headquarters and an UNRWA school.
Touma said UNRWA is “hosting some 170 thousand people in over 80 schools and other facilities across the Gaza Strip, stressing that “these are families who have fled the shelling and the bombardment.”
The spokesperson said, “we have lost four UNWRA staff who work with us in different parts of the Gaza Strip,” and added that staff are “terrified” and many of them had “to leave their homes in search of safety,” and “many have lost loved ones, relatives, neighbours.”
She noted that UNRWA has 14 distribution centres on the ground that had to be closed down “due to everything that's been happening.”
UNRWA schools, Touma said “have been closed and that's impacting the education of at least 300 thousand Palestinian refugee children in the Gaza Strip,” and added that UNRWA is “responding to the needs of the people in the shelters” and has been able to provide “a place to sleep, clean water, some food in cooperation with the World Food Program.”
Nevertheless, she stressed, “we have not been able to get in any humanitarian supplies since the 7th of October, not just us at UNRWA, but the whole of the UN family working in the Gaza Strip.”
She said, “the Gaza Strip is sealed off completely for humanitarian assistance and personnel.”
In closing, Touma said, "the United Nations is calling on all parties to end the fighting everywhere and despair further unnecessary loss of civilians. I think people have suffered for way too much for way too long. For many people in the Gaza Strip this is the seventh time that they're going through a conflict. For many of our staff members who have been through thick and thin in Gaza, they say this is by far the worst. They are worried and they're fearful for themselves, for their children, for their loved ones, for what the next hour will bring, let alone the next day. Uncertainty, fear, sorrow, grief. It is time for all of this to come to an end for the sake of everyone."
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