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STORY: UN / GAZA WOMEN GIRLS UNFPA PRESSER
TRT: 05:33
SOURCE: UNIFEED
RESTRICTIONS: PLEASE CREDIT UNFPA FOOTAGE ON SCREEN
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH / NATS
DATELINE: 22 OCTOBER 2025, NEW YORK CITY
FILE – NEW YORK CITY
- Med shot, UN flag
22 OCTOBER 2025, NEW YORK CITY
2. Wide shot, press briefing room
3. SOUNDBITE (English) Andrew Saberton, Deputy Executive Director for Management, UNFPA:
“In Gaza I was not fully prepared for what I saw, one can’t be. The sheer extent of the devastation looked like a set of a dystopian film, unfortunately it’s not fiction. There is no other way to put it, Gaza has been flattened mile upon mile with rubble and dust, with few buildings left intact. This is not collateral damage. And I cannot unsee what I have seen.”
4. Med shot, journalist
5. SOUNDBITE (English) Andrew Saberton, Deputy Executive Director for Management, UNFPA:
“Our own staff, the providers of care for the community are themselves are recipient of aid. Every single UNFPA staff member in the Gaza office has experienced the death or multiple deaths of family and relatives. And almost all have had their or their family’s home destroyed or damaged. And yet they turned up, they turned up every day for the two years. They had no escape, no time off.”
6. Wide shot, press briefing room
7. SOUNDBITE (English) Andrew Saberton, Deputy Executive Director for Management, UNFPA:
“Many women in Gaza lost everything, their family members, their homes, their colleges and their jobs. Women cannot even access the most basic personal hygiene supplies when they are menstruating.”
8. Wide shot, press briefing room
9. SOUNDBITE (English) Andrew Saberton, Deputy Executive Director for Management, UNFPA:
“Across Gaza, as you well know, one in four people is starving. That includes 11500 pregnant women for whom starvation is particularly catastrophic for both mother and the newborn. Premature and low birth weight babies now make up around 70 per cent of newborns, and one in three pregnancies is regarded as high risk.”
10. Wide shot, press briefing room
11. SOUNDBITE (English) Andrew Saberton, Deputy Executive Director for Management, UNFPA:
“We’ve all seen the alarming statistics: 94 per cent of hospitals in Gaza are damaged or destroyed. Maternal deaths are on the rise because the drugs that could save mothers are no longer available, and multiple newborns are often crammed into one incubator due to a lack of fuel and equipment.”
12. Wide shot, press briefing room
13. SOUNDBITE (English) Andrew Saberton, Deputy Executive Director for Management, UNFPA:
“Last week, UNFPA was able to bring in some assistance into Gaza through the Kerem Shalom crossing. And we have been distributing medical supplies and equipment, including incubators, delivery beds and fetal-monitoring machines, that are already pre-positioned in Gaza. We have been able to distribute them to hospitals now that we have more freedom of movement.”
14. Wide shot, press briefing room
15. SOUNDBITE (English) Andrew Saberton, Deputy Executive Director for Management, UNFPA:
“But the trickle of aid being allowed to enter Gaza after the ceasefire is nowhere near enough. UNFPA has much more assistance on all the crossings ready to enter, including more incubators, more heart monitors, beds and other supplies for safe births, as well as much needed hygiene items. But we need for all those crossings to be opened, all impediments to be removed, and full, safe and sustained humanitarian access to bring aid to all women and girls in Gaza, from the north to the south.:
16. Wide shot, press briefing room
17. SOUNDBITE (English) Andrew Saberton, Deputy Executive Director for Management, UNFPA:
“And I worry, particularly as an organization that is very much has mental health and well-being, of particularly women and girls, that there will be this period of elation when you know, ‘the ceasefire, the ceasefire holds,’ and then it may come this overwhelming downside when people take a look at their lives and realize they've lost everything, they've lost their families, they've lost their homes, they've lost their jobs, maybe they don't know, And that may actually lead to a kind of a bigger issue psychologically that we'll need to address. And on the same point from the other side of the coin, I don't want the world to forget, they are thinking that we can come along and celebrate ceasefire, that we can pronounce that a number of member states recognized Two State, and the job is done. The job is very much not done. The job is starting two weeks ago. It’s going to be a long job. And for the last two years many countries, nations, people have been saying, ‘what can I do? I want to do something.’ Now is the time.”
18. Wide shot, press briefing room
UNFPA - 06 OCTOBER 2025, WADI GAZA BRIDGE
19. Various shots, displaced people on the coastal road
20. Wide shot, a displaced man with his child on a cart
21. Close-up, a child on a cart
22. Wide shot, a displaced child on foot
23. Med shot, a displaced child on foot
24. Wide shot, a displaced young man carrying a mattress on his back
25. Med shot, a displaced young man carrying a mattress on his back
26. Med shot, a displaced young man carrying a mattress on his back
27. Wide shot, a displaced family with an injured child
28. Med shot, a displaced family with an injured child
“In Gaza I was not fully prepared for what I saw, one can’t be,” a UN top official for population said, describing the destruction across the enclave as “the set of a dystopian film.”
Speaking to reporters at UN Headquarters in New York today (22 Oct), Andrew Saberton, Deputy Executive Director for Management at UNFPA said, “There is no other way to put it, Gaza has been flattened mile upon mile with rubble and dust, with few buildings left intact. This is not collateral damage. And I cannot unsee what I have seen.”
He said many women in Gaza “lost everything, their family members, their homes, their colleges and their jobs,” adding that “women cannot even access the most basic personal hygiene supplies when they are menstruating.”
The UN official also said, “Across Gaza, as you well know, one in four people is starving. That includes 11,500 pregnant women for whom starvation is particularly catastrophic for both mother and the newborn. Premature and low birth weight babies now make up around 70 per cent of newborns, and one in three pregnancies is regarded as high risk.”
Maternal health services have collapsed under the strain of conflict. “Ninety-four per cent of hospitals in Gaza are damaged or destroyed,” Saberton said. “Maternal deaths are on the rise because the drugs that could save mothers are no longer available, and multiple newborns are often crammed into one incubator due to a lack of fuel and equipment.”
He noted that UNFPA recently managed to deliver some medical supplies into Gaza through the Kerem Shalom crossing. “We have been distributing medical supplies and equipment, including incubators, delivery beds and fetal-monitoring machines,” he said, “now that we have more freedom of movement.”
However, Saberton cautioned that “the trickle of aid being allowed to enter Gaza after the ceasefire is nowhere near enough.” He said UNFPA has “much more assistance on all the crossings ready to enter, including more incubators, more heart monitors, beds and other supplies for safe births, as well as much needed hygiene items.”
He urged the full opening of all crossings to ensure “safe and sustained humanitarian access to bring aid to all women and girls in Gaza, from the north to the south.”
Saberton also warned of the long-term psychological toll. “There will be this period of elation when you know, ‘the ceasefire, the ceasefire holds,’ and then it may come this overwhelming downside when people take a look at their lives and realize they've lost everything,” he said. “That may actually lead to a kind of a bigger issue psychologically that we'll need to address.”
Saberton concluded with a call for action: “For the last two years many countries, nations, people have been saying, ‘what can I do? I want to do something.’ Now is the time.”
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