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STORY: UN / GAZA GUTERRES
TRT: 05:34
SOURCE: UNIFEED
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH / NATS
DATELINE: 22 DECEMBER 2023, NEW YORK CITY / FILE
FILE – NEW YORK CITY
1. Med shot, exterior, UN flag
22 DECEMBER 2023, NEW YORK CITY
2. Wide shot, UN Secretary-General walking to podium, press briefing room
3. SOUNDBITE (English) António Guterres, Secretary-General, United Nations:
“Some 1.9 million people – 85 percent of Gaza’s population – have been forced from their homes. The health system is on its knees.”
4. Wide shot, UN Secretary-General at podium
5. SOUNDBITE (English) António Guterres, Secretary-General, United Nations:
“More than half a million people – a quarter of the population – are facing what experts classify as catastrophic levels of hunger. Four out of five of the hungriest people anywhere in the world are in Gaza. And clean water is at a trickle.”
6. Wide shot, UN Secretary-General at podium
7. SOUNDBITE (English) António Guterres, Secretary-General, United Nations:
“In these desperate conditions, it is little wonder that many people cannot wait for humanitarian distributions and are grabbing whatever they can from aid trucks. As I warned, public order is at risk of breaking down. Humanitarian veterans who have served in war zones and disasters around the world – people who have seen everything – tell me they have seen nothing like what they see in Gaza today.”
8. Wide shot, UN Secretary-General at podium
9. SOUNDBITE (English) António Guterres, Secretary-General, United Nations:
“These violations of international humanitarian law can never justify the collective punishment of the Palestinian people, and they do not free Israel from its own legal obligations under International Law.”
10. Wide shot, UN Secretary-General at podium
11. SOUNDBITE (English) António Guterres, Secretary-General, United Nations:
“Many people are measuring the effectiveness of the humanitarian operation in Gaza based on the number of trucks from the Egyptian Red Crescent, the UN, and our partners that are allowed to unload aid across the border. This is a mistake. The real problem is that the way Israel is conducting this offensive is creating massive obstacles to the distribution of humanitarian aid inside Gaza.”
12. Wide shot, journalists
13. SOUNDBITE (English) António Guterres, Secretary-General, United Nations:
“An effective aid operation in Gaza requires security; staff who can work in safety; logistical capacity; and the resumption of commercial activity. These four elements do not exist.”
14. Wide shot, journalists
15. SOUNDBITE (English) António Guterres, Secretary-General, United Nations:
“We waited 71 days for Israel finally to allow aid to enter Gaza via the Kerem Shalom crossing. The crossing was then hit while aid trucks were in the area.”
16. Wide shot, UN Secretary-General at podium
17. SOUNDBITE (English) António Guterres, Secretary-General, United Nations:
“136 of our colleagues in Gaza have been killed in 75 days – something we have never seen in the history of the United Nations. Nowhere is safe in Gaza.”
18. Med shot, journalist
19. SOUNDBITE (English) António Guterres, Secretary-General, United Nations:
“Many of our vehicles and trucks were destroyed or left behind following our forced, hurried evacuation from the north, but the Israeli authorities have not allowed any additional trucks to operate in Gaza. This is massively hampering the aid operation.”
20. Wide shot, UN Secretary-General at podium
21. SOUNDBITE (English) António Guterres, Secretary-General, United Nations:
“Shelves are empty; wallets are empty; stomachs are empty. Just one bakery is operating in the whole of Gaza. I urge the Israeli authorities to lift restrictions on commercial activity immediately. We are ready to scale up our cash grant support to vulnerable families – the most effective form of humanitarian aid. But in Gaza, there is very little to buy.”
22. Wide shot, UN Secretary-General at podium
23. SOUNDBITE (English) António Guterres, Secretary-General, United Nations:
A humanitarian ceasefire is the only way to begin to meet the desperate needs of people in Gaza and end their ongoing nightmare.”
24. Wide shot, UN Secretary-General at podium
25. SOUNDBITE (English) António Guterres, Secretary-General, United Nations:
“I am extremely disappointed by comments from senior Israeli officials that put the two-state solution into question. As difficult as it might appear today, the two-state solution, in line with UN resolutions, international law, and previous agreements, is the only path to sustainable peace. Any suggestion otherwise denies human rights, dignity, and hope to the Palestinian people, fueling rage that reverberates far beyond Gaza. It also denies a safe future for Israel. The spillover is already happening.”
26. Wide shot, UN Secretary-General at podium
27. SOUNDBITE (English) António Guterres, Secretary-General, United Nations:
“It is imperative that the international community speak with one voice: for peace, for the protection of civilians, for an end to suffering, and for a commitment to the two-state solution – backed with action.”
28. Wide shot, UN Secretary-General at podium
Speaking to reporters on the situation in Gaza today (22 Dec), the UN Secretary-General, António Guterres, said, “More than half a million people – a quarter of the population – are facing what experts classify as catastrophic levels of hunger. Four out of five of the hungriest people anywhere in the world are in Gaza."
In his speech, Guterres said that over the last weeks, there has been no significant change in how the war has unfolded in Gaza and that there is no effective protection of civilians.
He noted that intense Israeli bombardment and ground operations continue, and that more than 20,000 Palestinians have reportedly been killed, the vast majority women and children.
Meanwhile, he said, Hamas and other Palestinian factions continue to fire rockets from Gaza into Israel.
Guterres added, “Some 1.9 million people – 85 percent of Gaza’s population – have been forced from their homes. The health system is on its knees.”
According to the UN, hospitals in the south deal with at least three times their capacity and in the north, they are barely operational.
According to the World Food Programme (WFP), widespread famine looms.
UNICEF found that displaced children in the south can access just 10 percent of their needed water.
The UN Secretary-General commented, “In these desperate conditions, it is little wonder that many people cannot wait for humanitarian distributions and are grabbing whatever they can from aid trucks. As I warned, public order is at risk of breaking down. Humanitarian veterans who have served in war zones and disasters around the world – people who have seen everything – tell me they have seen nothing like what they see in Gaza today.”
Guterres stressed that nothing could justify the attacks launched by Hamas on 7 October 2023 or the abduction of some 250 hostages and repeated his call for all remaining hostages to be released immediately and unconditionally.
He also stressed that nothing could justify the continued firing of rockets from Gaza at civilian targets in Israel or the use of civilians as human shields.
At the same time, he highlighted, “These violations of international humanitarian law can never justify the collective punishment of the Palestinian people, and they do not free Israel from its own legal obligations under International Law.”
Guterres also said, “Many people are measuring the effectiveness of the humanitarian operation in Gaza based on the number of trucks from the Egyptian Red Crescent, the UN, and our partners that are allowed to unload aid across the border. This is a mistake. The real problem is that the way Israel is conducting this offensive is creating massive obstacles to the distribution of humanitarian aid inside Gaza.”
He continued, “An effective aid operation in Gaza requires security; staff who can work in safety; logistical capacity; and the resumption of commercial activity. These four elements do not exist.”
He then explained that the intense Israeli bombardment and active combat in densely populated urban areas throughout Gaza threaten the lives of civilians and humanitarian aid workers alike.
He added, “We waited 71 days for Israel finally to allow aid to enter Gaza via the Kerem Shalom crossing. The crossing was then hit while aid trucks were in the area.”
He also said that humanitarian operations require staff who can safely live and work.
He stressed, “136 of our colleagues in Gaza have been killed in 75 days – something we have never seen in the history of the United Nations. Nowhere is safe in Gaza.”
According to the Secretary-General, most of the UN staff have been forced from their homes, and all of them spend hours each day simply struggling to survive and support their families.
He noted that it is a “miracle” that they have been able to continue working under these conditions.
And yet, he added, those same colleagues are expanding humanitarian operations in southern Gaza to support people living there while trying to assist the flood of displaced people who arrived from the north.
They are providing aid in Rafah, western Khan Younis, Deir El Balah, and Nuseirat in the south and doing their best to reach the north despite huge challenges.
The Secretary-General commented that they can only meet a fraction of the needs in these appalling conditions.
On logistics, he said, “Many of our vehicles and trucks were destroyed or left behind following our forced, hurried evacuation from the north, but the Israeli authorities have not allowed any additional trucks to operate in Gaza. This is massively hampering the aid operation.”
He noted that delivering in the north is extremely dangerous due to active conflict, unexploded ordnance, and heavily damaged roads.
He also noted Frequent communication blackouts make it virtually impossible to coordinate the distribution of aid and let people know how to access it.
The Secretary-General said that the resumption of commercial activities is essential.
He continued, “Shelves are empty; wallets are empty; stomachs are empty. Just one bakery is operating in the whole of Gaza. I urge the Israeli authorities to lift restrictions on commercial activity immediately. We are ready to scale up our cash grant support to vulnerable families – the most effective form of humanitarian aid. But in Gaza, there is very little to buy.”
He then stated that in these circumstances, “A humanitarian ceasefire is the only way to begin to meet the desperate needs of people in Gaza and end their ongoing nightmare.”
Looking at the longer term, he stated, “I am extremely disappointed by comments from senior Israeli officials that put the two-state solution into question. As difficult as it might appear today, the two-state solution, in line with UN resolutions, international law, and previous agreements, is the only path to sustainable peace. Any suggestion otherwise denies human rights, dignity, and hope to the Palestinian people, fueling rage that reverberates far beyond Gaza. It also denies a safe future for Israel. The spillover is already happening.”
The UN chief said that the occupied West Bank is at a “boiling point,” that daily exchanges of fire across the Blue Line between Lebanon and Israel pose a grave risk to regional stability and that attacks and threats to shipping on the Red Sea by the Houthis in Yemen are impacting shipping with the potential to affect global supply chains.
He stressed that beyond the immediate region, the conflict is polarizing communities, feeding hate speech and fueling extremism, and that all this poses a significant and growing threat to global peace and security.
He concluded, “It is imperative that the international community speak with one voice: for peace, for the protection of civilians, for an end to suffering, and for a commitment to the two-state solution – backed with action.”
