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STORY: GENEVA / GAZA UPDATE
TRT: 03:58
SOURCE: UNTV CH
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGES: ENGLISH / NATS
DATELINE: 31 OCTOBER 2023, GENEVA, SWITZERLAND
1. Med shot, exterior, UN flag alley UN Geneva
2. Wide shot, press room with speakers at podium, UN Geneva
3. SOUNDBITE (ENGLISH) James Elder, Spokesperson for the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF):
“Reportedly now more than 3,450 children have been killed. Staggeringly, this number rises significantly every single day. Gaza has become a graveyard for children. It's a living hell for everyone else.”
4. Wide shot, press room with journalists attending, UN Geneva
5. SOUNDBITE (ENGLISH) James Elder, Spokesperson for the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF):
“On average, 420 children in Gaza have been reportedly killed or injured every day. 420. Obviously, a ceasefire, if we had a ceasefire for some 72 hours that would mean a thousand children don't have to bear the brunt of mortars or shelling. That would mean a thousand children in 72 hours would be safe again. And that to us, to UNICEF, is all a cease ceasefire means. It simply means we would keep innocent children safe.”
6. Wide shot, press room with journalists and cameramen, UN Geneva
7. SOUNDBTE (ENGLISH) James Elder, Spokesperson for the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF):
“Gaza's water production now, its capacity is at 5%, 5% of its daily output. So, child deaths due to dehydration and particularly infant deaths to dehydration are a growing threat.”
8. Med shot, UN spokespersons at podium, UN Geneva
9. SOUNDBITE (ENGLISH) Christian Lindmeier, Spokesperson for the World Health Organization (WHO):
“We have 130 premature infants that are dependent on incubators of which 61 per cent approximately are in the north. These require again water and electricity to keep them alive. We have 50,000 pregnant women with an average of 180 plus births a day. We have 350,000 people with non-communicable diseases. That's diabetes, heart diseases, cancer, other thousands of patients in need of kidney dialysis.”
10. Med shot, journalists listening
11. SOUNDBITE (ENGLISH) Christian Lindmeier, Spokesperson for the World Health Organization (WHO):
“The fuel is not just a luxury commodity for fancy cars to drive around. It's vital for the water supply. It's vital for the ambulances. It's vital for the hospitals to operate and many other instances for to make the life in Gaza a little bit lighter in that ongoing humanitarian catastrophe.”
12. Wide shot, press room with journalists and speakers at podium
13. SOUNDBITE (ENGLISH) Liz Throssell, Spokesperson for the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR):
“Regardless of the actions of one side, so for example, using hospitals for military purposes, the other side most comply with international humanitarian laws on the conduct of hostilities and that, as I said, does extend special protection to medical units which must be protected and respected at all times.”
14. Med shot, camera technician in control room
15. SOUNDBITE (ENGLISH) Liz Throssell, Spokesperson for the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR):
“Where medical units lose their special protection as a result of being used outside their humanitarian function to commit acts harmful to the enemy, and where warning for the harmful use to cease has gone unheeded, still, any attack must comply with the principles of precautions in attack and proportionality.”
16. Wide shot, speakers at podium, UN Geneva
17. SOUNDBITE (ENGLISH) Jens Laerke, Spokesperson for the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA):
“Some of these buildings where people are sheltering in, many families crammed together are coming under attack and are being bombed. So, it's hard to find where to describe the horror from first fleeing a home that may have been bombed out, completely seeking shelter to family members who are themselves already wits end and then being bombed again and again and perhaps again.”
18. Med shot, journalists attending press briefing
19. Close up, cameraman
20. Wide shot, press room with journalists and cameramen, UN Geneva.
With the Israeli military advancing deeper into the Gaza Strip and the continued unprecedented hostilities, UN humanitarians reiterated on Tuesday their calls for an immediate humanitarian ceasefire and for unimpeded and secure access of urgently needed aid deliveries in the enclave.
“Reportedly now more than 3,450 children have been killed. Staggeringly, this number rises significantly every single day”, said James Elder, spokesperson for the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) when briefing reporters on Tuesday at the United Nations in Geneva. “Gaza has become a graveyard for children. It's a living hell for everyone else.”
UNICEF estimates that about 940 children are currently missing in Gaza. For Jens Laerke, Spokesperson for the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) “it’s unbearable to think that there is very little possibility for getting them out under the rubble of collapsed buildings.”
According to UNICEF, on average 420 children in Gaza have been reportedly killed or injured every day. “Obviously, if we had a ceasefire for some 72 hours that would mean a thousand children don't have to bear the brunt of mortars or shelling. And that to us, to UNICEF, is all a cease ceasefire means. It simply means we would keep innocent children safe.”
UNICEF informed that the threats to children go beyond bombs and mortars. There is the trauma that needs to be dealt with but for now, the water scarcity poses a massive problem, especially to smaller children.
“Gaza's water production now, its capacity is at 5% of its daily output,” said the UNICEF spokesperson. “So, child deaths due to dehydration and particularly infant deaths due to dehydration are a growing threat.”
OCHA stressed that the aid that is currently entering into Gaza through the Rafah crossing with Egypt is just a “drop”. The total number of trucks allowed from 21 to 30 October is 143 compared to 500 trucks daily on a working day, including 50 trucks of fuel, before the escalation.
Emphasizing on the importance to get fuel into the Gaza Strip, Christian Lindmeier, spokesperson for the UN health agency (WHO) said that “fuel is not just a luxury commodity for fancy cars to drive around. It's vital for the water supply. It's vital for the ambulances. It's vital for the hospitals to operate and many other instances for to make the life in Gaza a little bit lighter in that ongoing humanitarian catastrophe.”
Lindmeier added that “we have 130 premature infants that are dependent on incubators of which 61 per cent approximately are in the north. These require again water and electricity to keep them alive. We have 50,000 pregnant women with an average of 180 plus births a day. We have 350,000 people with non-communicable diseases. That's diabetes, heart diseases, cancer, other thousands of patients in need of kidney dialysis.”
The WHO reported on Tuesday about 200 attacks on health care of which 82 were in the Gaza Strip since the beginning of the hostilities. 491 people got killed in these attacks on health care, ambulances and health facilities with 16 health care workers who died on duty. 12 out of 35 health facilities are not functioning anymore.
UN human rights office (OHCHR) spokesperson Liz Throssell restated that hospitals are protected buildings under international humanitarian law.
“Regardless of the actions of one side, for example, using hospitals for military purposes, the other side most comply with international humanitarian laws on the conduct of hostilities and that does extend special protection to medical units which must be protected and respected at all times.”
Throssell added that “where medical units lose their special protection as a result of being used outside their humanitarian function to commit acts harmful to the enemy, and where a warning for the harmful use to cease has gone unheeded, still any attack must comply with the principles of precautions in attack and proportionality.”
According to OCHA, 1,4 million people in Gaza have been displaced since the start of this crisis.
Nearly 672, 000 are housing in 150 UNRWA schools which are designated shelters.
“Some of these buildings where people are sheltering in, many families crammed together are coming under attack and are being bombed. So, it's hard to find where to describe the horror from first fleeing a home that may have been bombed out, completely seeking shelter to family members who are themselves already wits end and then being bombed again and again and perhaps again,” said OCHA’s spokesperson Jens Laerke.
