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STORY: UNFPA / GAZA SAFE SPACE
TRT: 05:58
SOURCE: UNFPA
RESTRICTIONS: PLEASE CREDIT UNFPA ON SCREEN
LANGUAGE: NATS
DATELINE: 29 JANUARY 2025, 04 - 05 FEBRUARY 2025, GAZA CITY, PALESTINE / 06 FEBRUARY 2025, KHAN YOUNIS, PALESTINE / 06 FEBRUARY 2025, NUSAIRAT, PALESTINE
04 FEBRUARY 2025, GAZA CITY, PALESTINE
1. Med shot, woman hangs cloth outside of a tent
2. Close up, plates and household items on the ground
3. Wide shot, tent
4. Med shot, woman carries a child into a makeshift shelter
5. Wide shot, inside the shelter
6. Wide shot, woman and child walk through rubble
7. Close up, water jugs
8. Med shot, UNFPA staff meet with field workers
9. Various shots, Nestor Owumhangi, UNFPA Representative to Palestine, and UNFPA staff meet with a group of women
10. SOUNDBITE(English) Nestor Owumhangi, Representative to Palestine, United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA):
“I’m here in Gaza, and everywhere you look, there is a stark landscape of devastation and unbearable living conditions. Most houses have been demolished, reduced to rubble and debris. People are living outside of their previous homes. In my interaction with women and girls in one of UNFPA-supported women’s safe spaces, they narrated to me harrowing experiences. Most of them had lost (the household) breadwinner – they had lost their husbands, but they were willing to carry on, if only support would come from all of us, from the international community.”
04 FEBRUARY 2025, ABDEL SHAFI COMMUNITY HEALTH ASSOCIATION, GAZA CITY, PALESTINE
11. Various shots, Owumhangi and UNFPA staff meet with women in the safe space
12. SOUNDBITE(English) Nestor Owumhangi, Representative to Palestine, United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA):
“The women narrated to me a list of demands, of requirements, for them to be able to stand on their own. But most importantly, they are worried – they’re worried that the current cessation of hostilities may not last. And they’re calling on us, the UN system, the international community, to do all that we can to make sure peace prevails.”
05 FEBRUARY 2025, AL-AWDA SUB CLINIC, GAZA CITY, PALESTINE
13. Various shots, UN vehicle drives through destroyed buildings
14. Wide shot, UNFPA and hospital staff walk to the clinic
15. Wide shot, clinic tent
16. Med shot, inside the clinic tent
06 FEBRUARY 2025, HAYAH CENTER, KHAN YOUNIS, PALESTINE
17. Various shots, UNFPA staff chat with a group of women in the safe space
18. Med shot, UNFPA staff distributes dignity kits and winter blankets
19. Med shot, UNFPA staff distributes dignity kits and winter blankets
20. SOUNDBITE(English) Nestor Owumhangi, Representative to Palestine, United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA):
“Since the announcement of the truce, or ceasefire which is about two weeks ago, UNFPA has brought in almost 100 trucks of reproductive health supplies, dignity kits, menstrual hygiene kits, kits for newborns and new mothers. But these kits alone cannot ensure that services are available for women.
05 FEBRUARY 2025, PALESTINIAN MEDICAL RELIEF SOCIETY, GAZA CITY, PALESTINE
21. Med shot, inside the clinic
22. Close up, healthcare worker performs ultrasound exam
23. Close up, ultrasound monitor
24. Med shot, healthcare workers perform ultrasound exam
25. Close up, ultrasound monitor
06 FEBRUARY 2025, AL-AWDA HOSPITAL NUSAIRAT BRANCH, NUSAIRAT, PALESTINE
26. Wide shot, staff, and medical workers outside of the container building clinic
27. Wide shot, staff, and medical workers outside of the container building clinic
28. Wide shot, hospital expansion under construction
29. SOUNDBITE(English) Nestor Owumhangi, Representative to Palestine, United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA):
“We need a conducive operating environment. We need funding, to be able to mobilize human resources and find spaces where services can be delivered. Most importantly, we need to ensure that the ceasefire holds and that we're able to deliver on what we are promising to the women and girls of Gaza.”
29 JANUARY 2025, GAZA CITY, PALESTINE
30. Various shots, scenes of destructions in Gaza City
In Gaza city, the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA)’s Representative to Palestine, met women in the Assahaba Hospital and in a UNFPA-supported women and girls’ safe space, as well as with youth volunteers in central Gaza.
The ceasefire in Gaza provides a vital reprieve for Palestinians, who have endured over 14 months of relentless displacement, trauma, destruction, and severe hunger. More than 47,000 people have been killed, and untold numbers lie buried beneath the rubble. From houses to hospitals, schools to shelters, over 90 percent of infrastructure has been demolished, leaving nearly every single person displaced.
More than half of the 1.9 million people who have lost or been forced from their homes are struggling to survive the winter in flimsy tents, most patched together with scraps of fabric and old rice sacks. Tens of thousands are travelling for hours to return to homes that are no longer standing.
At the UNFPA-supported women and girls’ safe space, Owumhangi heard from women who said they are desperate for shelter and privacy, for clean water, sanitation, and healthcare. Owumhangi said, “I met women who had been forced to give birth in the bitter cold, with no heat or hot water, with no homes to return to,” adding that “they are haunted by perpetual fear and uncertainty of what their future will bring.”
Sickness, disease, and hypothermia are widespread in Gaza. Women and girls lack access to sexual and reproductive health services and gender-based violence protection. For 50,000 pregnant, displaced women, malnutrition and infections increase the risks of complications and preterm births. And they have scarce options to deliver safely: Supply shortages, power outages, and repeated attacks against the health system and staff have left only half of Gaza’s hospitals able to function even partially.
The women’s greatest fear, Owumhangi said, was that the fragile ceasefire might collapse, thrusting them back into insecurity, displacement, and bombardment. They pleaded with the international community to do everything they can to support peace.
And yet, amid the rubble of the Jabalia refugee camp in North Gaza, Owumhangi was encouraged by a health facility that UNFPA partners have rapidly set up, as well as a dedicated safe space for women in Gaza city providing vital psychological support.
He also saw glimmers of hope: Relief supplies were starting to arrive, and within the three-week window of the ceasefire, UNFPA had delivered close to 100 trucks of supplies to the people of Gaza. Many of these supplies are lifesaving, with medicines for obstetric emergencies, safe deliveries, and newborn essentials, as well as critical sanitary and menstrual health products. Other equipment, such as ultrasounds, incubators, and patient monitors, remain blocked from entry by Israeli forces.
UNFPA said it was critical that peace and the renewed flow of aid are sustained, and that humanitarians, including UNFPA and its partners, are assured safe and unimpeded access to help meet the huge level of women’s and girls’ needs across Gaza.
In 2025, UNFPA is appealing for $99.2 million to address the most pressing needs of women and girls in Gaza and the occupied West Bank.
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