GENEVA / GAZA HUMANITARIAN AID
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STORY: GENEVA / GAZA HUMANITARIAN AID
TRT: 02:44
SOURCE: UNTV CH
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH
DATELINE: 24 OCTOBER 2023, GENEVA, SWITZERLAND / FILE
FILE - GENEVA, SWITZERLAND
1. Wide shot, exterior, UN Flag Alley
24 OCTOBER 2023, GENEVA, SWITZERLAND
2. Wide shot, press room
3. SOUNDBITE (English) Tamara Alrifai, Director of External Relations and Communications, United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA):
“Since the 21st of October, three convoys of humanitarian supplies have gone into the strip with a total of 54 trucks. This breakthrough came after two weeks of full, full siege of the Gaza Strip with no water, no medical supplies, no humanitarian supplies, no food, and no fuel going in.”
4. Wide shot, press room with journalists
5. SOUNDBITE (English) Tamara Alrifai, Director of External Relations and Communications, United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA):
“Almost more important than anything else is fuel. So far, fuel has not been allowed into the strip. Fuel is extremely urgent because without fuel, the trucks themselves cannot move. Without fuel, the generators cannot produce electricity for hospitals, for bakeries and for the water desalination plants.”
6. Close up, journalist in the press room
7. SOUNDBITE (English) Tamara Alrifai, Director of External Relations and Communications, United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA):
“We see that the trucks that have come in so far are just a trickle in the face of the immense needs of people on the strip.”
8. Wide shot, press room with journalists
9. SOUNDBITE (English) Dr. Rick Brennan, Director for Eastern Mediterranean Region, Regional Emergencies, World Health Organization (WHO):
“One third of hospitals now are non-functioning just at the time when the medical burden is enormous. Around two thirds of clinics are non-functional.”
10. Med shot, press room with journalists
11. SOUNDBITE (English) Dr. Rick Brennan, Director for Eastern Mediterranean Region, Regional Emergencies, World Health Organization (WHO):
“We keep getting asked, are we delivering to the biggest hospital in Gaza, that's al-Shifa hospital in the North, which already has a centre, has a bed occupancy rate of 150 percent. We've been asked if we've been able to deliver to the Turkish hospital, which is perhaps the biggest provider of cancer services in Gaza. The answer is no. The answer is no because we do not have security guarantees to deliver that aid.”
12. Wide shot, press room with journalists
13. SOUNDBITE (English) Dr. Rick Brennan, Director for Eastern Mediterranean Region, Regional Emergencies, World Health Organization (WHO):
“We understand there's only between one and three litres of clean water per person per day available to the displaced right now. And by international standards, we would expect at the bare minimum 15 litres per person per day.”
14. Various shots, press conference room, UN Geneva.
Fuel is essential to bring water, food, and health care to Gazans in dire need, but supplies have not been provided in aid convoys to date, UN humanitarians warned today (24 Oct).
Since Saturday 21 October, three convoys of humanitarian supplies have reached the Gaza Strip from Egypt, a total of 54 trucks. “This breakthrough came after two weeks of full siege with no water, no medical supplies, no humanitarian supplies, no food and no fuel going in,” Tamara Alrifai, spokesperson of the UN agency for Palestine refugees (UNRWA) told reporters in Geneva.
Without fuel, “trucks cannot move, and generators cannot produce electricity for hospitals, bakeries and water desalination plants,” stressed Alrifai.
The 54 aid trucks contained a mix of food, medical supplies and non-food items. They are a small fraction of the 500 trucks that used to enter Gaza every day before Hamas’s deadly and unprecedented 7 October incursion into Israel, including commercial trucks and at least 100 aid trucks, some 45 of them carrying fuel. “We see that the trucks that have come in so far are just a trickle in the face of the immense needs of people in Gaza,” she emphasized.
Echoing those concerns, the UN health agency WHO warned that as hostilities continue, Gaza’s health system is disintegrating. “One third of hospitals now are non-functioning just at the time when the medical burden is enormous. Around two thirds of clinics are non-functional,” said Dr. Rick Brennan, WHO Emergencies Director for the Eastern Mediterranean Region.
Some WHO medicines and supplies from the three convoys allowed into the enclave through the Rafah crossing last Saturday have already been delivered to three key referral hospitals in southern Gaza and to the Palestine Red Crescent Society. But the UN health agency remains unable to distribute essential health supplies to key hospitals in northern Gaza due to the lack of security guarantees.
Awaiting WHO supplies are some of “the most important health centres in Gaza such as Al-Shifa hospital, which has a bed occupancy rate of 150 per cent, and the Turkish Hospital, which is the main provider of services for cancer patients. “We do not have security guarantees to deliver that aid,” explained Dr. Brennan.
WHO calls for an immediate humanitarian ceasefire, for protected humanitarian operations so these supplies can be delivered safely.
With 1.4 million displaced people across the territory - almost two thirds of Gaza's population-, overcrowding combined with poor sanitation and lack of access to clean water is a major challenge to the health system. Briefing reporters from Cairo, Dr. Brennan said “there's only between one and three litres of clean water per person per day available to the displaced right now. And by international standards, we would expect at the bare minimum 15 litres per person per day.”
As people turn to contaminated water, the UN health agency fears that the spread of infectious diseases is just a matter of time. Respiratory tract infections and cases of diarrhoea are already on the rise growing but chicken pox and skin infections including scabies and head lice are also expected.
More than 5,000 people are reported to have been killed across Gaza, according to the Hamas-run health ministry, since Israel began its bombardment in response to the Hamas attack. At least 1,400 people were killed and 222 taken hostage.