UN / GAZA OPT HUMANITARIAN PRESSER

During his last briefing before leaving his position as Israeli authorities have not renewed his visa, the Head of the United Nations humanitarian office in the Occupied Palestinian Territory (OPT) Andrea De Domenico said, “the international community, the world, has to answer the question of how much human suffering can be tolerated in the name of security.” UNIFEED

• Video Length: 00:03:41
• Production Date: 1 August 2024
• Asset Language: English
• Corporate Name: OFFICE FOR THE COORDINATION OF HUMANITARIAN AFFAIRS - OCHA
• Subject Topical: HUMANITARIAN CRISIS; HUMANITARIAN RELIEF; WAR VICTIMS; WAR; DISPLACED PERSONS
• MAMS Id: 3242407
• Parent Id: 3242407
• Alternate Title: unifeed240801b

Description

STORY: UN / GAZA OPT HUMANITARIAN PRESSER
TRT: 03:41
SOURCE: UNIFEED
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH / NATS

DATELINE: 01 AUGUST 2024, NEW YORK CITY / FILE

Shotlist

FILE - NEW YORK CITY

1. Wide shot, exterior UN Headquarters

01 AUGUST 2024, NEW YORK CITY

2. Wide shot, press room dais
3. Wide shot, journalists
4. SOUNDBITE (English) Andrea De Domenico, Head of Office, Occupied Palestinian Territory, United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA):
“The international community, the world, has to answer the question of how much human suffering can be tolerated in the name of security. How many children have to be orphaned? How many elderly need to die? How many children need to be deprived of their childhood? How many civilians have to pay the ultimate price for it? The international community must help funding a path to peace and coexistence between peoples to avoid war, conflict and generated suffering.”
5. Wide shot, press room dais
6. SOUNDBITE (English) Andrea De Domenico, Head of Office, Occupied Palestinian Territory, United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA):
“I was given recently a one-month extension, and I was warned that it would have not been renewed beyond this one month. The reason that has been put on the table was, is the straw that broke the camel's back is the publication of the Children and Armed Conflict Report from the United Nations and they alluded to long-standing issues of reporting that OCHA has been doing. But this has been communicated verbally. There is no formal communication that I received despite asking repeatedly for that.”
7. Wide shot, press room dais
8. SOUNDBITE (English) Andrea De Domenico, Head of Office, Occupied Palestinian Territory, United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA):
“We cannot allow anybody to become immune to horror, because that's what is happening, what we're witnessing every day - you know, we were thinking with colleagues, you know, at the beginning of the war, when there was strikes that were hitting 20 people we were horrified, and we were shocked. It became, unfortunately, became through these months a daily reality. And the risk is to get used to it. And we should not, we cannot.”
9. Wide shot, press room dais
10. SOUNDBITE (English) Andrea De Domenico, Head of Office, Occupied Palestinian Territory, United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA):
“You know the number of violations of basic rights that we have seen in Gaza in these months is countless. And you know, how many we will discover throughout the next months and years, because our ability in fact to verify all this is still very limited. And same goes for any other violation that has been done and include that includes the West Bank.”
11. Wide shot, press room dais
12. SOUNDBITE (English) Andrea De Domenico, Head of Office, Occupied Palestinian Territory, United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA):
“We learned through these 10 months to satisfy ourselves with little step forward. Clearly, you know, it's a complicated situation where the constraints that are put upon us have been immense, and many of those things remain unchanged. But we have moved the dial.”
13. Wide shot, press room dais
14. SOUNDBITE (English) Andrea De Domenico, Head of Office, Occupied Palestinian Territory, United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA):
“My theory is that this is something that will not stop here. As I said earlier, NGOs visas are not, working visas in Palestine are not renewed, and we're talking about, you know, a lot of organizations that delivers everyday assistance to people both in Gaza and in the West Bank. So, this is very problematic. And as far as my position is concerned, I don't think that this job can be done remotely.”
15. Wide shot, end of presser

Storyline

During his last briefing before leaving his position as Israeli authorities have not renewed his visa, the Head of the United Nations humanitarian office in the Occupied Palestinian Territory (OPT) Andrea De Domenico today (1 Aug) said, “the international community, the world, has to answer the question of how much human suffering can be tolerated in the name of security.”

Briefing reporters remotely from East Jerusalem, De Domenico said, “how many children have to be orphaned? How many elderly need to die? How many children need to be deprived of their childhood? How many civilians have to pay the ultimate price for it? The international community must help funding a path to peace and coexistence between peoples to avoid war, conflict and generated suffering.”

Asked about his personal situation, he said, “I was given recently a one-month extension, and I was warned that it would have not been renewed beyond this one month. The reason that has been put on the table was, is the straw that broke the camel's back is the publication of the Children and Armed Conflict Report from the United Nations and they alluded to long-standing issues of reporting that OCHA has been doing. But this has been communicated verbally. There is no formal communication that I received despite asking repeatedly for that.”

The humanitarian official said, “we cannot allow anybody to become immune to horror, because that's what is happening, what we're witnessing every day,” adding that “the risk is to get used to it. And we should not, we cannot.”

He said, “the number of violations of basic rights that we have seen in Gaza in these months is countless. And you know, how many we will discover throughout the next months and years, because our ability in fact to verify all this is still very limited. And same goes for any other violation that has been done and include that includes the West Bank.”

De Domenico said, “we learned through these 10 months to satisfy ourselves with little step forward. Clearly, you know, it's a complicated situation where the constraints that are put upon us have been immense, and many of those things remain unchanged. But we have moved the dial.”

He said, “my theory is that this is something that will not stop here. As I said earlier, NGOs visas are not, working visas in Palestine are not renewed, and we're talking about, you know, a lot of organizations that delivers everyday assistance to people both in Gaza and in the West Bank. So, this is very problematic. And as far as my position is concerned, I don't think that this job can be done remotely.”