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UN PhotoGENEVA / GAZA UPDATE
STORY: GENEVA / GAZA UPDATE
TRT: 02:52
SOURCE: UNTV CH
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH / NATS
DATELINE: 17 OCTOBER 2025 GENEVA, SWITZERLAND
1. Wide shot, exterior, UN flag alley
2. Wide shot, podium, journalists, press room
3. SOUNDBITE (English) Abeer Etefa, Senior Regional Communications Officer and Spokesperson for the Middle East, North Africa and Eastern Europe, World Food Programme (WFP):
“The ceasefire has opened a narrow window of an opportunity and WFP is moving very quickly and swiftly to scale up food assistance and reach families who have endured months of blockade, displacement and hunger.”
4. Wide shot, press conference room
5. SOUNDBITE (English) Abeer Etefa, Senior Regional Communications Officer and Spokesperson for the Middle East, North Africa and Eastern Europe, World Food Programme (WFP):
“With a daily average of around 560 tons of food every day. We're still below what we need, but we're getting there.”
6. Wide shot, TV screens, press room
7. SOUNDBITE (English) Abeer Etefa, Senior Regional Communications Officer and Spokesperson for the Middle East, North Africa and Eastern Europe, World Food Programme (WFP):
“We have right now five distribution points up and running, food distribution points closer to people, close to where they are, open to vulnerable women for children and our goal is to expand to 145 distribution points across all of Gaza. That's basically from 5 to 145, that's the scale we're aiming for.”
8. Wide shot, press conference room
9. SOUNDBITE (English) Abeer Etefa, Senior Regional Communications Officer and Spokesperson for the Middle East, North Africa and Eastern Europe, World Food Programme (WFP):
“The biggest challenge that is that we still have two crossings only operational and the northern crossings are yet to be opened, which is limiting the access to the most vulnerable areas. Roads are blocked and destroyed, which is a huge limitation to transport.”
10. Wide shot, TV screens, press room
11. SOUNDBITE (English) Jens Laerke, spokesperson, United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA):
“They're closed because the Israeli authorities have not opened them. So that's the first one. The second one is, as we've heard with other crossings, there may be a need for substantial road repairs and decontamination of unexploded ordnance before those roads can be used. But the first thing is that the Israelis open them. It is very important to have these openings in the north, as we've heard, as you mentioned yourself, that is where the famine took hold.”
12. Med shot, journalists, press room
11. SOUNDBITE (English) Abeer Etefa, Senior Regional Communications Officer and Spokesperson for the Middle East, North Africa and Eastern Europe, World Food Programme (WFP):
“As I mentioned 57,000 tons are prepositioned but we have to do the scale up. We need 170,000 which are already in the pipeline, they are in the corridors to cover three months for 1.6 million people. So that's already there. Now beyond this, the three months, we've already had support from donors. Beyond the three months, we need to continue to feed this pipeline to push food supplies to always have at least three months stocks on.”
12. Various shots, press room
The UN’s food agency says it has enough food to feed all the Gaza Strip for three months, but urgent action is needed for the opening of all border crossings, particularly to the North of the devastated enclave where famine was declared in August.
One week into the ceasefire, the United Nations World Food Programe (WFP) has brought around 560 tons of food every day on average into Gaza.
“The ceasefire deal has opened a narrow window of opportunity and the WFP is moving very quickly and swiftly to scale-up food assistance and reach families who have endured months of blockade, displacement and hunger,” said Abeer Etefa, World Food Programme (WFP) Senior Regional Communications Officer and Spokesperson for the Middle East, North Africa and Eastern Europe.
Speaking to journalists in Geneva today (17 Oct) Etefa confirmed the supplies, the teams and the networks are mobilized and there is progress.
“With a daily average of around 560 tons of food every day, we're still below what we need, but we're getting there,” she said.
Five food distribution points are up and running, close to where people are, open to vulnerable women for children.
“Our goal is to expand to 145 distribution points across all of Gaza. That's basically from 5 to 145, that's the scale we're aiming for,” she added.
In order to keep going, increase humanitarian supplies deliveries and reach all the population, aid agencies now need sustained and lasting access, multiple crossings opening, safe roads, and a stable operating environment to facilitate aid on the ground in Gaza.
Only two crossings are currently operational, and the northern crossings are yet to be opened, which is limiting the access to the most vulnerable areas.
Aid convoys need to move from the southern borders all the way to the north. This is extremely challenging as “roads are blocked and destroyed. This is a huge limitation to transport,” explained the WFP spokesperson.
This is why there has been no food distribution yet in Gaza city, only nutrition supplies for the most vulnerable, children and pregnant and breast-feeding mothers.
Road clearance and safety concerns were echoed by Jens Laerke, spokesperson for the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).
The border crossings in the north are “closed because the Israeli authorities have not opened them, that's the first one,” he said. “The second one is there may be a need for substantial road repairs and decontamination of unexploded ordnance before those roads can be used. But the first thing is that the Israelis open them. It is very important to have these openings in the north, as that is where the famine took hold,” he added.
His comments follow UN humanitarian chief Tom Fletcher’s visit to Rafah crossing yesterday, where he urged Israel to open more crossings into Gaza to allow a surge of aid in the territory as was guaranteed under the first phase of the ceasefire deal agreed on 11 October 2025.
One week into the ceasefire, Palestinians in the war-ravaged Strip continue to struggle to access food, water, and essential medical supplies.
The WFP has 57,000 tons of food supplies prepositioned to get in the enclave between Egypt, Jordan and from inside Israel and the agency intends to “scale-up to 170,000 tons to cover three months for 1.6 million people”, said Etefa from the UN’s food agency.
Asked about the commitment of donors to meet the extensive needs, she said that “we've already had support from donors. Beyond the three months, we need to continue to feed this pipeline to push food supplies to always have at least three months stocks on.”
To address famine conditions, thousands of aid trucks would need to get into the devastated enclave each week. Yesterday (16 Oct), 950 trucks crossed into Gaza according to OCHA.
That includes eight fuel trucks and three gas trucks. Approximately 1/3 of these trucks are through the UN coordinated mechanisms.
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