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STORY: UN / ISRAEL PALESTINE
TRT: 05:49
SOURCE: UNIFEED
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGES: ENGLISH / NATS
DATELINE: 18 JUNE 2026, NEW YORK CITY / FILE
FILE - NEW YORK CITY
1. Aerial shot, exterior, United Nations flag outside UN Headquarters
18 JUNE 2026, NEW YORK CITY
2. Wide shot, Security Council
3. Med shot, Under-Secretary-General Tom Fletcher at the Council dais
4. SOUNDBITE (English) Tom Fletcher, Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator, United Nations:
“This resolution has brought results. It has reduced civilian harm from Israeli military strikes on Gaza. By that point over 67,000 Palestinians had been killed and over three quarters of Gaza’s buildings and roads damaged or destroyed: two years of sustained and high intensity bombardment of civilians and civilian infrastructure. It brought the return of the remaining hostages taken by Hamas following the horrific attacks of 7 October 2023, when over 1,200 Israelis and foreign nationals were killed.”
5. Med shot, delegates
6. SOUNDBITE (English) Tom Fletcher, Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator, United Nations:
“Six months after the ceasefire, denial rates for our missions had dropped from 31 percent to 11 percent. The share of households reporting going to bed hungry dropped from 92 percent to 36 percent. Gaza is no longer currently classified as being in famine, IPC Phase 5, though remains in severe crisis, IPC Phase 4.”
7. Med shot, Israeli Ambassador Danny Danon
8. SOUNDBITE (English) Tom Fletcher, Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator, United Nations:
“These fragile gains are the bare minimum of what Palestinians need, what we can provide, and what international law demands. They reflect movement away from a catastrophic baseline, not the fulfilment of fundamental needs. Gaza is being held together by humanitarian workarounds and Palestinian perseverance. And this is unsustainable.”
9. Wide shot, Council
10. SOUNDBITE (English) Tom Fletcher, Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator, United Nations:
“Civilians cannot wait for a more convenient diplomatic moment to receive the basics for survival. We cannot allow the summit of our ambition and our will to be a world where children have sufficient calories to survive and are spared constant bombing, yet remain hungry, bitten by rats, homeless, and out of school.”
11. Wide shot, Council
12. SOUNDBITE (English) Riyad H. Mansour, Permanent Observer to the United Nations, Palestine:
“You know exactly what needs to be done. We have known that for years. These demands are rooted in international law and IHL and the obligations of the occupying power, in new UN resolutions, in the provisional orders of the ICJ, and lie at the heart of the humanitarian principles and mission. The question is, are you going to act?”
13. Med shot, Council President
14. SOUNDBITE (English) Riyad H. Mansour, Permanent Observer to the United Nations, Palestine:
“Unfortunately, trying to reason with this Israeli government will clearly not work. They take note of what you say and your position and they continue breaching international law and making the life of the Palestinian the hell that we are living.”
15. SOUNDBITE (English) Riyad H. Mansour, Permanent Observer to the United Nations, Palestine:
“The fact that we must still state the following self-evident truths illustrates the depth of this tragedy. Denying humanitarian access and manufacturing a permanent humanitarian crisis is unacceptable under any pretext. Denying medicine, shelter, water, forcing families to live in makeshift tents amidst the rubble, the sewage, the garbage, and the rodents can never be justified. Collective punishment is prohibited and it should not be allowed at all, and those who conduct such illegal criminal behaviour should be held into account.”
16. Wide shot, Council
17. SOUNDBITE (English) Danny Danon, Permanent Representative to the United Nations, Israel:
“When Israelis temporarily restrict activity at a specific crossing, it does so because of a real security concern. We are doing everything possible to ensure that humanitarian routes remain humanitarian routes and are not exploited by terrorists. That is not opposition to aid. Is just common sense. And that's why we continue to open the checkpoints.”
18. Med shot, Mansour and OXFAM’s Bushra Khalidi
19. SOUNDBITE (English) Danny Danon, Permanent Representative to the United Nations, Israel:
“Israel welcomes legitimate humanitarian organizations. Every day we are working productively with over 30 of them. But we will not give a free pass to organizations that shelter terrorists behind a humanitarian logo. Look at what happened this week at this building. UNRWA fired 70 employees in Gaza, 70 in 1 day. UNRWA said the dismissals were necessary to, and I quote, mitigate safety and security risks. Safety and security risks. I ask you, Mr. Fletcher, maybe you can explain to us. It's not clear. Where these employees fired because they were not working hard enough. Were they fired because they were not meeting their targets? Or were they fired because there is terrorist infiltration inside UNRWA that can no longer be denied?”
20. Wide shot, end of briefing
Humanitarian Chief Tom Fletcher today (18 Jun) said the current ceasefire in Gaza established by a US-brokered plan and endorsed through resolution 2803 “has brought results,” but stressed that “these fragile gains are the bare minimum of what Palestinians need, what we can provide, and what international law demands.”
Six months after the ceasefire, Fletcher noted, there is “reduced civilian harm from Israeli military strikes on Gaza” and highlighted “the return of the remaining hostages taken by Hamas following the horrific attacks of 7 October 2023, when over 1,200 Israelis and foreign nationals were killed.”
Denial rates for humanitarian missions, he said, “dropped from 31 percent to 11 percent,” while “the share of households reporting going to bed hungry dropped from 92 percent to 36 percent.”
These gains, Fletcher said, “reflect movement away from a catastrophic baseline, not the fulfilment of fundamental needs,” adding that “Gaza is being held together by humanitarian workarounds and Palestinian perseverance. And this is unsustainable.”
The humanitarian official said, “civilians cannot wait for a more convenient diplomatic moment to receive the basics for survival. We cannot allow the summit of our ambition and our will to be a world where children have sufficient calories to survive and are spared constant bombing, yet remain hungry, bitten by rats, homeless, and out of school.”
Speaking directly at Council members, Palestinian Ambassador Riyad H. Mansour said, “you know exactly what needs to be done. We have known that for years. These demands are rooted in international law and IHL and the obligations of the occupying power, in new UN resolutions, in the provisional orders of the ICJ, and lie at the heart of the humanitarian principles and mission. The question is, are you going to act?”
Unfortunately, Mansour said, “trying to reason with this Israeli government will clearly not work. They take note of what you say and your position and they continue breaching international law and making the life of the Palestinian the hell that we are living.”
He said, “the fact that we must still state the following self-evident truths illustrates the depth of this tragedy. Denying humanitarian access and manufacturing a permanent humanitarian crisis is unacceptable under any pretext. Denying medicine, shelter, water, forcing families to live in makeshift tents amidst the rubble, the sewage, the garbage, and the rodents can never be justified. Collective punishment is prohibited and it should not be allowed at all, and those who conduct such illegal criminal behaviour should be held into account.”
Israeli Ambassador Danny Danon for his part said, “when Israelis temporarily restrict activity at a specific crossing, it does so because of a real security concern. We are doing everything possible to ensure that humanitarian routes remain humanitarian routes and are not exploited by terrorists. That is not opposition to aid. Is just common sense. And that's why we continue to open the checkpoints.”
Danon said, “Israel welcomes legitimate humanitarian organizations. Every day we are working productively with over 30 of them. But we will not give a free pass to organizations that shelter terrorists behind a humanitarian logo.”
