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STORY: UN / IOM DIRECTOR GAZA VISIT
TRT: 03:00
SOURCE: UNIFEED / IOM
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGES: ENGLISH / NATS
DATELINE: 20 FEBRUARY 2025, KHAN YUNIS, GAZA
1. Various shots, Amy Pope, IOM Director General greets children at an UNRWA school-turned-shelter
2. Various shots, local organization gives presentation of WASH services to Amy Pope and Muhannad Hadi
3. Wide shot, Amy Pope and delegation walk down halls of school-turned-shelter
4. Various shots, Amy Pope and delegation clap and sing with children
5. Wide shot, Amy Pope and delegation observing children session
6. Various shots, Amy Pope visits UNRWA distribution centre and speaks with distribution centre management
7. Various shots, Amy Pope and Muhannad Hadi speak with affected community members
8. Wide shot, Amy Pope and delegation speaking outside to UN staff
9. Wide shot, affected community member speaks to Amy Pope
10. Wide shot, focus group discussion with displaced people
11. Med shot, affected community member expresses himself to Amy Pope
12. Close up shot, Amy Pope
13. Wide shot, focus group discussion with affected community
14. Wide shot, Amy Pope and Muhannad Hadi outside in Al Mawasi
15. Wide shot, Amy Pope receiving presentation of WASH intervention
16. Wide shot, affected community member speaking with Amy Pope
17. SOUNDBITE (English) Amy Pope, IOM Director General:
“I'm in Khan Yunis in Gaza, where the sheer level of destruction all around me is overwhelming. With the ceasefire finally in place, many families are finally able to come home, only to find that nothing is left. IOM, with our partners, has been providing shelter, sanitation and hygiene, supplies and emergency relief to support Palestinians inside Gaza since October 2023. It's critical that there is coordinated efforts to deliver lifesaving aid where it's so desperately needed. And for this to succeed, all parties must uphold the ceasefire and ensure safe conditions for sustained humanitarian relief. And to thrive, to survive, they need much more than emergency aid. They need to have a chance to reclaim their homes and their future here inside Gaza.”
The International Organization for Migration (IOM) Director General Amy Pope and Humanitarian Coordinator for the Occupied Palestinian Territory (OPT) Muhannad Hadi have just visited southern Gaza and saw how the humanitarian community is scaling up operations to meet the immense needs of people who have endured more than 500 days of unimaginable hardship.
As people return to their home areas across Gaza, entire communities are coming back during the ceasefire to find their residences reduced to rubble. With nearly 90 per cent of homes destroyed, hundreds of thousands are left with nowhere to go. Families have been sleeping in makeshift shelters, bombed-out buildings, or out in the open—exposed to winter rain, wind, and cold. Adding to the misery, basic necessities and essential services have been scarce or non-existent.
“The scale of the destruction here is staggering. Families who have lost everything are facing the cold with no protection, no infrastructure or services, and no certainty about what tomorrow will bring,” said DG Pope. “I spoke with parents struggling to keep their children alive, using anything they can find to build makeshift shelters because there is simply nowhere else to go. That's why we must scale up operations to help the people here, so they can recover with dignity and live inside Gaza safely, as they have the right to do.”
IOM, alongside its UN and humanitarian partners, is working hard to increase the flow of emergency shelter assistance. Since 19 January, IOM has dispatched more than 325,000 shelter, water, sanitation, hygiene and non-food items to support people in Gaza. IOM has been using its global expertise in emergency response to deliver life-saving aid to people in Gaza through partners since October 2023.
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