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STORY: UN / GUTERRES MIDDLE EAST SITUATION
TRT: 03:49
SOURCE: UNIFEED
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH / NATS
DATELINE: 08 OCTOBER 2024, NEW YORK CITY / FILE
FILE - NEW YORK CITY
1. Wide shot, United Nations Headquarters
08 OCTOBER 2024, NEW YORK CITY
2. Wide shot, Secretary-General António Guterres walks up to the podium
3. SOUNDBITE (English) António Guterres, Secretary-General, United Nations:
“UNRWA -- more than ever -- is indispensable. UNRWA -- more than ever -- is irreplaceable. That’s why I have written directly to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to express profound concern about draft legislation that could prevent UNRWA from continuing its essential work in the Occupied Palestinian Territory. Such a measure would suffocate efforts to ease human suffering and tensions in Gaza, and indeed, the entire Occupied Palestinian Territory. It would be a catastrophe in what is already an unmitigated disaster.”
FILE - NEW YORK CITY
4. Close up, camera
08 OCTOBER 2024, NEW YORK CITY
5. SOUNDBITE (English) António Guterres, Secretary-General, United Nations:
“The legislation would likely deal a terrible blow to the international humanitarian response in Gaza. UNRWA’s activities are integral to that response. It is not feasible to isolate one UN agency from the others. It would effectively end coordination to protect UN convoys, offices and shelters serving hundreds of thousands of people. Without UNRWA, the delivery of food, shelter and health care to most of Gaza’s population would grind to a halt. Without UNRWA, Gaza’s 660,000 children would lose the only entity that is able to re-start education, risking the fate of an entire generation. And without UNRWA, many health, education and social services would also end in the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem. If approved, such legislation would be diametrically opposed to the UN Charter and in violation of Israel’s obligations under international law.”
FILE - NEW YORK CITY
6. Close up, journalist taking notes on mobile device
08 OCTOBER 2024, NEW YORK CITY
7. SOUNDBITE (English) António Guterres, Secretary-General, United Nations:
“We are witnessing a clear intensification of military operations by Israel. Residential areas have been attacked. Hospitals ordered to evacuate. And electricity cut off – with no fuel or commercial goods allowed in. Around 400,000 people are being pressed yet again to move south to an area that is overcrowded, polluted and lacking the basics for survival.”
FILE - NEW YORK CITY
8. Close up, camera
08 OCTOBER 2024, NEW YORK CITY
9. SOUNDBITE (English) António Guterres, Secretary-General, United Nations:
“There is something fundamentally wrong in the way this war is being conducted. Ordering civilians to evacuate does not keep them safe if they have no safe place to go and no shelter, food, medicine or water. No place is safe in Gaza, and no one is safe. International law is unambiguous: civilians everywhere must be respected and protected – and their essential needs must be met, including through humanitarian assistance.”
FILE - NEW YORK CITY
10. Close up, camera
08 OCTOBER 2024, NEW YORK CITY
11. SOUNDBITE (English) António Guterres, Secretary-General, United Nations:
“The conflict in the Middle East is getting worse by the hour -- and our warnings about the horrific impacts of escalation keep coming to pass. Every air strike, every missile launch, every rocket fired, pushes peace further out of reach and makes the suffering even worse for the millions of civilians caught in the middle. That is why we cannot and will not give up on our calls for an immediate ceasefire both in Gaza and Lebanon, the immediate and unconditional release of hostages, and immediate lifesaving aid to all those who desperately need it.”
12. Pan right, Guterres walks away
Secretary-General António Guterres today (8 Oct) told journalists the United Nations Palestine refugee agency (UNRWA) “more than ever is indispensable” and “irreplaceable” and said he had “written directly to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to express profound concern about draft legislation that could prevent UNRWA from continuing its essential work in the Occupied Palestinian Territory.”
Such a measure, the Secretary-General said, “would suffocate efforts to ease human suffering and tensions in Gaza, and indeed, the entire Occupied Palestinian Territory,” and would be a “catastrophe in what is already an unmitigated disaster.”
Guterres said the legislation “would likely deal a terrible blow to the international humanitarian response in Gaza,” and “would effectively end coordination to protect UN convoys, offices and shelters serving hundreds of thousands of people.” Gaza’s 660,000 children, he said, “would lose the only entity that is able to re-start education, risking the fate of an entire generation.”
If approved, Guterres stressed, “such legislation would be diametrically opposed to the UN Charter and in violation of Israel’s obligations under international law.”
The Secretary-General said in Gaza’s north, “we are witnessing a clear intensification of military operations by Israel. Residential areas have been attacked. Hospitals ordered to evacuate. And electricity cut off – with no fuel or commercial goods allowed in.”
Around 400,000 people, he added, “are being pressed yet again to move south to an area that is overcrowded, polluted and lacking the basics for survival.”
Guterres said, “there is something fundamentally wrong in the way this war is being conducted. Ordering civilians to evacuate does not keep them safe if they have no safe place to go and no shelter, food, medicine or water. No place is safe in Gaza, and no one is safe. International law is unambiguous: civilians everywhere must be respected and protected – and their essential needs must be met, including through humanitarian assistance.”
He said, “the conflict in the Middle East is getting worse by the hour -- and our warnings about the horrific impacts of escalation keep coming to pass. Every air strike, every missile launch, every rocket fired, pushes peace further out of reach and makes the suffering even worse for the millions of civilians caught in the middle. That is why we cannot and will not give up on our calls for an immediate ceasefire both in Gaza and Lebanon, the immediate and unconditional release of hostages, and immediate lifesaving aid to all those who desperately need it.”
