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STORY: UN / GAZA HUMANITARIAN
TRT: 05:34
SOURCE: UNIFEED
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGES: ENGLISH / NATS
DATELINE: 18 MARCH 2025, NEW YORK CITY / FILE
FILE - NEW YORK CITY
1. Wide shot, exterior United Nations Headquarters
18 MARCH 2025, NEW YORK CITY
2. Wide shot, Security Council, Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs, Tom Fletcher on screen
3. Various shots, Palestinian and Israeli ambassadors
4. SOUNDBITE (English) Tom Fletcher, Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency
Relief Coordinator:
“Airstrikes resumed across the entire Gaza Strip. Unconfirmed reports of hundreds of people killed. New evacuation orders issued by Israeli forces and once again, the people of Gaza living in abject fear. Modest gains made during the cease fire destroyed. Humanitarian workers remain on the ground - I'm in close touch with them - ready to provide lifesaving support to survivors and carry out humanitarian mission. We must be allowed to do so.”
5. Wide shot, Council dais, Fletcher on screen
6. SOUNDBITE (English) Tom Fletcher, Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency
Relief Coordinator:
“A ceasefire was in place. Humanitarians were delivering hundreds of trucks every day, saving lives and restoring hope. We demonstrated that when we are allowed to do so, we can deliver aid at scale. Not anymore.”
7. Med shot, Council dais, Fletcher on screen
8. SOUNDBITE (English) Tom Fletcher, Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency
Relief Coordinator:
“Our repeated requests to collect aid sitting at Kerem Shalom Crossing have been systematically rejected. Food is rotting and medicines are expiring. No further hostages have been released.”
9. Med shot, Council dais, Fletcher on screen
10. SOUNDBITE (English) Tom Fletcher, Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency
Relief Coordinator:
“This total blockade of lifesaving aid, basic commodities, and commercial goods, will have a disastrous impact on the people of Gaza, who remain dependent on the steady flow of assistance into the Strip.”
11. Med shot, Council dais, Fletcher on screen
12. SOUNDBITE (English) Tom Fletcher, Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency
Relief Coordinator:
“First and foremost, humanitarian aid and commercial essentials must be allowed to enter Gaza. Blocking food, water, medicine for people who need them is unconscionable. It also goes against international humanitarian law and the provisional orders of the International Court of Justice. Second, we must renew the ceasefire. Over 48,000 Palestinians have been killed and thousands more are missing. Over 1,200 Israelis have been killed. Over 100,000 Palestinians are injured, many with life-changing wounds. The return to hostilities overnight must cease.”
13. Wide shot, Council, Fletcher on screen
14. SOUNDBITE (English) Dorothy Shea, Chargé d’Affaires ad Interim, Permanent Mission to the United Nations, United States:
“The blame for the resumption of hostilities lies solely with Hamas. This brutal terrorist organization has steadfastly refused every proposal and deadline they've been presented over the past few weeks, including a bridge proposal to extend the ceasefire beyond Ramadan and Passover to allow time to negotiate a framework for a permanent ceasefire. Hamas refused this offer, preferring still to hold hostages captive and hide amongst the people of Gaza, using them as human shields. It is the people of Gaza who will suffer further because of Hamas's disregard for human life.”
15. Med shot, Palestinian Ambassador Riyad Mansour speaking
16. SOUNDBITE (English) Riyad Mansour, Permanent Observer to the United Nations, Palestine:
“Palestinians are being killed indiscriminately, are being denied humanitarian aid indiscriminately, are being maimed and detained indiscriminately. We condemn these crimes in the strongest possible terms. This can never be justified and must stop immediately. Must stop immediately.”
17. Wide shot, Council dais, Fletcher on screen
18. SOUNDBITE (English) Riyad Mansour, Permanent Observer to the United Nations, Palestine:
“Act. You have resolutions. Act. You have power. Act. Or, as my friend, the ambassador of Slovenia said, you become irrelevant. Act according to the power given to you by the charter of the United Nations.”
19. Wide shot, Council, Fletcher on screen
20. SOUNDBITE (English) Jonathan Miller, Deputy Permanent Representative to the United Nations, Israel:
“We stand firm in our commitment to return the hostages and defeat Hamas, and it is time for the international community to take our commitment seriously. We will bring home every last hostage. Hamas has refused to release our hostages and repeatedly rejected all the offers, both by the US and the mediating countries, even for the period of Ramadan. And thus the return to fighting is a necessity.”
21. Wide shot, Miller speaking
22. SOUNDBITE (English) Jonathan Miller, Deputy Permanent Representative to the United Nations, Israel:
“Any discussion of humanitarian suffering that does not begin with the hostage release is not an honest discussion. For months, Israel took unprecedented steps to facilitate humanitarian aid into Gaza. Israel's war is against Hamas, not Gaza civilians. And yet, despite our efforts, Hamas refuses every opportunity for peace. It refuses to release the hostages.”
23. Wide shot, end of meeting
Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs, Tom Fletcher, today (18 Mar) told the Security Council that as airstrikes resumed across the Gaza Strip overnight and new evacuation orders have been issued by Israeli forces, “once again, the people of Gaza living in abject fear,” and modest gains made during the ceasefire are being destroyed.
Fletcher, who spoke by VTC from Brussels, said “humanitarian workers remain on the ground” and are “ready to provide lifesaving support to survivors and carry out humanitarian mission,” but “must be allowed to do so.”
He said, “a ceasefire was in place. Humanitarians were delivering hundreds of trucks every day, saving lives and restoring hope. We demonstrated that when we are allowed to do so, we can deliver aid at scale. Not anymore.”
Repeated requests to collect aid sitting at Kerem Shalom Crossing, Fletcher said, “have been systematically rejected. Food is rotting and medicines are expiring. No further hostages have been released.”
He told the Council that “this total blockade of life saving aid, basic commodities and commercial goods will have a disastrous impact on the people in Gaza who remain dependent on a steady flow of assistance into the Strip.”
The Under-Secretary-General said, “blocking food, water, medicine for people who need them is unconscionable. It also goes against international humanitarian law and the provisional orders of the International Court of Justice.”
He called for the renewal of the ceasefire and said, “over 48,000 Palestinians have been killed and thousands more are missing. Over 1,200 Israelis have been killed. Over 100,000 Palestinians are injured, many with life-changing wounds. The return to hostilities overnight must cease.”
Fletcher also told the Council that the humanitarian response must be funded.
In her address to the Council, United States representative Dorothy Shea said, “the blame for the resumption of hostilities lies solely with Hamas. This brutal terrorist organization has steadfastly refused every proposal and deadline they've been presented over the past few weeks, including a bridge proposal to extend the ceasefire beyond Ramadan and Passover to allow time to negotiate a framework for a permanent ceasefire.”
Shea said, it was “the people of Gaza who will suffer further because of Hamas's disregard for human life.”
Palestinian Ambassador Riyad Mansour said, “Palestinians are being killed indiscriminately, are being denied humanitarian aid indiscriminately, are being maimed and detained indiscriminately.”
He said, “this can never be justified and must stop immediately.”
Mansour told Council members to act. He said, “you have resolutions. Act. You have power. Act. Or, as my friend, the ambassador of Slovenia said, you become irrelevant. Act according to the power given to you by the charter of the United Nations.”
For his part, Israeli Ambassador Jonathan Miller said, “we stand firm in our commitment to return the hostages and defeat Hamas, and it is time for the international community to take our commitment seriously. We will bring home every last hostage.”
Miller said, “Hamas has refused to release our hostages and repeatedly rejected all the offers, both by the US and the mediating countries, even for the period of Ramadan. And thus the return to fighting is a necessity.
The Israeli Ambassador said, “any discussion of humanitarian suffering that does not begin with the hostage release is not an honest discussion. For months, Israel took unprecedented steps to facilitate humanitarian aid into Gaza. Israel's war is against Hamas, not Gaza civilians. And yet, despite our efforts, Hamas refuses every opportunity for peace. It refuses to release the hostages.”
Secretary-General António Guterres expressed his shock at the Israeli airstrikes and strongly appealed for the ceasefire to be respected, for unimpeded humanitarian assistance to be reestablished, and for the remaining hostages to be released unconditionally.
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