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STORY: UN / GAZA HUMANITARIAN PRESSER
TRT: 02:31
SOURCE: UNIFEED
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGES: ENGLISH / NATS
DATELINE: 19 DECEMBER 2024, NEW YORK CITY
FILE - NEW YORK CITY
1. Wide shot, UN Headquarters
19 DECEMBER 2024, NEW YORK CITY
2. Wide shot, speakers, journalists, press room
3. SOUNDBITE (English) Georgios Petropoulos, Head of Sub-office in Gaza, Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA):
“You could be a mother of six, you could be an injured person who's just been amputated in hospital, an aid worker, a small child, a Palestinian teacher or an Israeli hostage and dying hungry and in pain are frighteningly likely for you these days in Gaza.”
4. Wide shot, speakers, journalists, press room
5. SOUNDBITE (English) Georgios Petropoulos, Head of Sub-office in Gaza, Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA):
“We not allowed to do our jobs. Whether our response is impactful as it should be, cannot continue to be measured in the number of trucks that reach Gaza, but in whether people are safe from hunger, rain, disease, and if they have access to proper and appropriate health care facilities, protection and even to safe drinking water.”
6. Wide shot, speakers, journalists, press room
7. SOUNDBITE (English) Georgios Petropoulos, Head of Sub-office in Gaza, Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA):
“The opportunities for sustainable supplies are scarce, and the degree to which our operations in the Gaza Strip are supported by the Israeli authorities is almost zero. As the occupying power, it imposes blanket prohibitions on nearly everything. Commercial imports have been banned. Humanitarian equipment and supplies for Gaza are consistently blocked, and our own movements inside the Gaza Strip are most often denied.”
8. Wide shot, speakers, journalists, press room
9. SOUNDBITE (English) Georgios Petropoulos, Head of Sub-office in Gaza, Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA):
“The Israeli authorities and military seem unwilling to open multiple access points at once, which is important for the amount of supplies that we have. And the main crossing for the southern Gaza, which has most of the people in the strip Karen shalom, is exactly the place where criminals now stand ready to loot almost all of our convoys. This looting has become armed, it's become violent and it's systematic.”
10. Wide shot, speakers, journalists, press room
11. SOUNDBITE (English) Georgios Petropoulos, Head of Sub-office in Gaza, Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA):
“We are not able to solve the problem of the absence of rule of law at this point, it's just gotten too big for humanitarians to solve.”
12. Wide shot, speakers, journalists, press room
13. SOUNDBITE (English) Georgios Petropoulos, Head of Sub-office in Gaza, Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA):
“For where we are in Gaza, it looks like the aid system has been weaponized. And as a result of this, what we can provide to people is only a fraction of what they truly need. Every day as an aid worker in Gaza, you're forced to make horrible decisions: Should I let people die of starvation or of the cold? Do we bring in more food to ease hunger or more plastic sheets or some shelter from the rain at night?”
14. Wide shot, speakers, journalists, press room
Georgios Petropoulos, head of OCHA’s suboffice in Gaza, said, “It looks like the aid system has been weaponized.”
Briefing the press remotely from Jerusalem today (19 Dec) Petropoulos said, “You could be a mother of six, you could be an injured person who's just been amputated in hospital, an aid worker, a small child, a Palestinian teacher or an Israeli hostage and dying hungry and in pain are frighteningly likely for you these days in Gaza.”
He also said, “We not allowed to do our jobs. Whether our response is impactful as it should be, cannot continue to be measured in the number of trucks that reach Gaza, but in whether people are safe from hunger, rain, disease, and if they have access to proper and appropriate health care facilities, protection and even to safe drinking water.”
He continued, “The opportunities for sustainable supplies are scarce, and the degree to which our operations in the Gaza Strip are supported by the Israeli authorities is almost zero. As the occupying power, it imposes blanket prohibitions on nearly everything. Commercial imports have been banned. Humanitarian equipment and supplies for Gaza are consistently blocked, and our own movements inside the Gaza Strip are most often denied.”
He added, “The Israeli authorities and military seem unwilling to open multiple access points at once, which is important for the amount of supplies that we have. And the main crossing for the southern Gaza, which has most of the people in the strip Karen shalom, is exactly the place where criminals now stand ready to loot almost all of our convoys. This looting has become armed, it's become violent and it's systematic.”
He stated, “We are not able to solve the problem of the absence of rule of law at this point, it's just gotten too big for humanitarians to solve.”
He said, “For where we are in Gaza, it looks like the aid system has been weaponized. And as a result of this, what we can provide to people is only a fraction of what they truly need. Every day as an aid worker in Gaza, you're forced to make horrible decisions: Should I let people die of starvation or of the cold? Do we bring in more food to ease hunger or more plastic sheets or some shelter from the rain at night?”
