UN / GAZA SITUATION WFP PRESSER

Matthew Hollingworth, World Food Program (WFP) Country Director in Palestine said, “The exodus that we've seen in the past 20 days or so, out of Rafah has been an awesome and horrific experience for many, many people. Most of them who have been displaced on multiple occasions in the past and thought they were staying in a safe area for the remainder of the war.” UNIFEED

• Video Length: 00:04:24
• Production Date: 31 May 2024
• Asset Language: English
• Corporate Name: WORLD FOOD PROGRAMME - WFP
• Subject Topical: WAR; FOOD AID; HUMANITARIAN EMERGENCIES; HUMANITARIAN ASSISTANCE
• Geographic Subject: GAZA; ISRAEL
• MAMS Id: 3213549
• Parent Id: 3213549
• Alternate Title: unifeed240531e

Description

STORY: UN / GAZA SITUATION WFP PRESSER
TRT: 04:24
SOURCE: UNIFEED
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH / NATS

DATELINE: 31 MAY 2024, NEW YORK CITY / FILE

Shotlist

FILE – NEW YORK CITY

1. Wide shot, exterior, United Nations Headquarters

31 MAY 2024, NEW YORK CITY

2. Wide shot, speakers, journalists, press briefing room
3. SOUNDBITE (English) Matthew Hollingworth, Country Director in Palestine, World Food Program (WFP):
“The exodus that we've seen in the past 20 days or so, out of Rafah has been an awesome and horrific experience for many, many people. Most of them who have been displaced on multiple occasions in the past and thought they were staying in a safe area for the remainder of the war.”
4. Wide shot, speakers, journalists, press briefing room
5. SOUNDBITE (English) Matthew Hollingworth, Country Director in Palestine, World Food Program (WFP):
“The sounds, the smells, the everyday life are terrific and apocalyptic. People sleep to the sounds of bombing, they sleep to the sounds of drones, they sleep to the sounds of war. As now tanks roll into parts of central Rafah which is only kilometers away. And they wake to the same sounds.”
6. Wide shot, speakers, journalists, press briefing room
7. SOUNDBITE (English) Matthew Hollingworth, Country Director in Palestine, World Food Program (WFP):
“And, of course, unfortunately, we've seen ever decreasing amounts of assistance going it from our side too. Rafah is still closed as a border crossing; World Food Program’s bakeries in Rafah have all closed down for the lack of fuel and constant supplies being impossible. From the 7th to the 20th of May not a single WFP truck crossed from the southern corridors from Egypt into Rafah and into indeed the central areas from the southern corridor.”
8. Wide shot, speakers, journalists, press briefing room
9. SOUNDBITE (English) Matthew Hollingworth, Country Director in Palestine, World Food Program (WFP):
“We are living and working precariously in the south, we have some partners who are able to provide hot meals in Rafah. We serve around 27,000 people right now, but that's not enough in Rafah itself. And we're trying desperately hard to gear up to do support people in the central areas in particular where almost a million people have fled to in this great exodus.”
10. Wide shot, speakers, journalists, press briefing room
11. SOUNDBITE (English) Matthew Hollingworth, Country Director in Palestine, World Food Program (WFP):”
“With the limitations of a set of aid through the southern corridors, we will no doubt see what we saw happen in the north in the first months of the war, when you do not have consistent at volume levels of aid, which is free and unconditional, going to families their wellbeing, their health deteriorates.”
12. Wide shot, speakers, journalists, press briefing room
13. SOUNDBITE (English) Matthew Hollingworth, Country Director in Palestine, World Food Program (WFP):
“Around 12,000 tons of interagency assistance, predominantly food, from multiple partners, including the World Food Program, many other partners as well have been able to get into the north since the first of May. And the North looks very different because of it.”
14. Wide shot, speakers, journalists, press briefing room
15. SOUNDBITE (English) Matthew Hollingworth, Country Director in Palestine, World Food Program (WFP):
“What we need, of course, is an immediate ceasefire. We are tired people are tired. We desperately need to start helping people go beyond this day-to-day existence and scraping for an existence. And to do that there has to be a ceasefire. That also means hostages need to be released. There needs to be no excuse for this war and no justification for this war to continue.”
16. Wide shot, speakers, journalists, press briefing room
17. SOUNDBITE (English) Matthew Hollingworth, Country Director in Palestine, World Food Program (WFP):
“One of our greatest challenges if not the greatest challenge, over the past 7 months has not been necessarily the physical challenge of delivering in a war zone, but rather, the political challenges of having safe, expedited, efficient, and constant ability to communicate so that we can really bring volumes of aid that will change the situation for the most vulnerable.”
18. Wide shot, speakers, journalists, press briefing room

Storyline

Matthew Hollingworth, World Food Program (WFP) Country Director in Palestine said, “The exodus that we've seen in the past 20 days or so, out of Rafah has been an awesome and horrific experience for many, many people. Most of them who have been displaced on multiple occasions in the past and thought they were staying in a safe area for the remainder of the war.”

Briefing reporters virtually from Jerusalem today (31 May) on the situation in Gaza, Hollingworth said, “The sounds, the smells, the everyday life are terrific and apocalyptic. People sleep to the sounds of bombing, they sleep to the sounds of drones, they sleep to the sounds of war. As now tanks roll into parts of central Rafah which is only kilometers away. And they wake to the same sounds.”

He continued, “And, of course, unfortunately, we've seen ever decreasing amounts of assistance going it from our side too. Rafah is still closed as a border crossing; World Food Program’s bakeries in Rafah have all closed down for the lack of fuel and constant supplies being impossible. From the 7th to the 20th of May not a single WFP truck crossed from the southern corridors from Egypt into Rafah and into indeed the central areas from the southern corridor.”

He added, “We are living and working precariously in the south, we have some partners who are able to provide hot meals in Rafah. We serve around 27,000 people right now, but that's not enough in Rafah itself. And we're trying desperately hard to gear up to do support people in the central areas in particular where almost a million people have fled to in this great exodus.”

He stressed, “With the limitations of a set of aid through the southern corridors, we will no doubt see what we saw happen in the north in the first months of the war, when you do not have consistent at volume levels of aid, which is free and unconditional, going to families their wellbeing, their health deteriorates.”

He also said, “Around 12,000 tons of interagency assistance, predominantly food, from multiple partners, including the World Food Program, many other partners as well have been able to get into the north since the first of May. And the North looks very different because of it.”

He stated, “What we need, of course, is an immediate ceasefire. We are tired people are tired. We desperately need to start helping people go beyond this day-to-day existence and scraping for an existence. And to do that there has to be a ceasefire. That also means hostages need to be released. There needs to be no excuse for this war and no justification for this war to continue.”

Answering a question, he said, “One of our greatest challenges if not the greatest challenge, over the past 7 months has not been necessarily the physical challenge of delivering in a war zone, but rather, the political challenges of having safe, expedited, efficient, and constant ability to communicate so that we can really bring volumes of aid that will change the situation for the most vulnerable.”