The United Nations Office at Geneva
Multimedia Newsroom
With the escalation of hostilities in Khan Younis, thousands of Gazans have fled intense bombardment to seek refuge in the overcrowded southern city of Rafah which UN humanitarians called on Friday a “pressure cooker of despair with people living in the open”.
“I want to emphasize our deep concern about the escalation of hostilities in Khan Younis, which has resulted in an increase in the number of internally displaced people seeking refuge in Rafah,” said Jens Laerke, spokesperson for the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said that. “In recent days, thousands of Palestinians have continued to flee to the south, which is already hosting over half the Gaza's population of some 2.3 million people.”
OCHA reported that Khan Younis has come increasingly under attack with reports of heavy fighting in the vicinity of Nasser and Al-Amal hospitals, jeopardizing the safety of medical staff, the wounded and the sick, as well as thousands of internally displaced persons seeking refuge.
“Our vehicles can hardly move simply because there are tents all over the place. So what I can say about that is we fear for what comes next,” said Mr. Laerke. “If we look at what has happened in the past when evacuation orders have been given, people move because of that. They also move because of the fighting moving closer. Then what? What happens next? Are they truly safe? No.”
According to the latest data of the UN World Health Organization (WHO), over 100,000 Gazans are either dead, injured, or missing and presumed dead as a result of bombing and fighting on the ground between Israeli soldiers and Palestinian militants.
The WHO further reported 27,019 fatalities of which 60 per cent are women and children.
The health agency raised concerns that “the lack of safety guarantees and humanitarian corridors in Gaza are making it increasingly challenging to safely and rapidly carry out humanitarian operations”.
Speaking from Gaza, Dr. Ahmed Dahir, Head of WHO’s Gaza Sub-office, confirmed that the hostilities had intensified in Khan Younis. “We are seeing thousands of people moving toward Rafah. Families are being displaced, over and over. Many just moving with clothes and their bags sheltering in makeshift plastic tents which are not enough to keep them safe from the harsh weather.”
OCHA highlighted how agencies have struggled to respond amid ongoing hostilities. Over the last couple of days, they managed to distribute more than 1,000 family tents in Mawasi on the coast for Internally Displaced People (IDP) living in the open. Some 1,450 bedding items, including blankets, mattresses, mats and 1,100 clothing kits were distributed to IDPs in Rafah.
Meanwhile, the UN Children’s Fund, UNICEF, reported that “at least 17,000 children in the Gaza Strip are unaccompanied or separated. Each one has a heartbreaking story of loss and grief,” said Jonathan Crickx, UNICEF’s Chief of Communication in the State of Palestine. “This figure corresponds to one per cent of the overall displaced population (of) 1.7 million people.”
Speaking from Jerusalem to journalists in Geneva, the UNICEF official described his meeting with children in Gaza earlier this week.
“Of 12 children I met or interviewed, more than half of them had lost a family member in this war. Three had lost a parent, of which two had lost both their mother and their father. Behind each of these statistics, it's a child who is coming to terms with a horrible new reality.”
UNICEF fears that the situation of children who have lost their parents is much worse in the north and the centre of the Gaza Strip where access is extremely difficult.
Most of the children who experienced trauma are still in shock.
“Palestinian children's mental health is severely impacted. They present symptoms like extremely high levels of persistent anxiety, loss of appetite. They can't sleep. They have emotional outbursts, or they panic every time they hear a bombing,” said Mr. Crickx
Before the war, UNICEF estimated that more than 500,000 children were already in need of mental health and psychosocial support in the Gaza Strip. Today, UNICEF estimates that almost all children, more than one million, need psychosocial support.
-ends-
STORY: Gaza Update – OCHA, WHO, UNICEF
TRT: 3:02”
SOURCE: UNTV CH
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH / NATS
ASPECT RATIO: 16:9
DATELINE: 2 February 2024 GENEVA, SWITZERLAND
- Exterior medium shot: UN flag alley
- Wide shot: speakers at the press conference with journalists in press room
- SOUNDBITE (English) – Jens Laerke, spokesperson for the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA): “I want to emphasize our deep concern about the escalation of hostilities in Khan Younis, which has resulted in an increase in the number of internally displaced people seeking refuge in Rafah. In recent days, thousands of Palestinians have continued to flee to the south, which is already hosting over half the Gaza's population of some 2.3 million people.”
- Medium shot: press room with journalist and speaker on screen
- SOUNDBITE (English) – Jens Laerke, spokesperson for the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA): “It's like a pressure cooker of despair, people living in the open, in the street, you know. Our vehicles can hardly move simply because there are tents all over the place. So what I can say about that is we fear for what comes next. If we look at what has happened in the past when evacuation orders have been given, people move because of that. They also move because of the fighting moving closer. Then what? What happens next? Are they truly safe? No.”
- Wide shot: speakers at the podium
- SOUNDBITE (English) – Dr. Ahmed Dahir, Head of WHO’s Gaza Sub-office (from Gaza): “The hostilities have intensified in Khan Younis. We are seeing thousands of people moving toward Rafah. Families are being displaced, over and over. Many just moving with clothes and their bags, sheltering in makeshift plastic tents which are not enough to keep them safe from the harsh weather.”
- Wide shot: speaker at the podium with journalists in press room
- SOUNDBITE (English) – Jonathan Crickx, UNICEF’s Chief of Communication in the State of Palestine (from Jerusalem): “At least 17,000 children in the Gaza Strip are unaccompanied or separated. Each one has a heartbreaking story of loss and grief. This figure corresponds to one per cent of the overall displaced population (of) 1.7 million people.”
- Close up: journalist typing in laptop
- SOUNDBITE (English) – Jonathan Crickx, UNICEF’s Chief of Communication in the State of Palestine (from Jerusalem): “Of 12 children I met or interviewed, more than half of them had lost a family member in this war. Three had lost a parent, of which two had lost both their mother and their father. Behind each of these statistics, it's a child who is coming to terms with a horrible new reality.”
- Wide shot, press briefing room with journalists and camerawoman
- SOUNDBITE (English) – Jonathan Crickx, UNICEF’s Chief of Communication in the State of Palestine (from Jerusalem): “Palestinian children's mental health is severely impacted. They present symptoms like extremely high levels of persistent anxiety, loss of appetite. They can't sleep. They have emotional outbursts, or they panic every time they hear a bombing.”
- Close up, journalist listening
- Close up, journalists listening
- Close up, journalist listening
Similar Stories
1
1
1
Edited News | OCHA , UNHCR , WHO
The past two months of intensifying Israeli bombardment in Lebanon have been the “deadliest and most devastating” in decades as communities uprooted from the front line have continued to flee across the border to Syria, UN humanitarians said on Friday.
2
1
3
Edited News | UNOG
“State of Silence”: Diego Luna brings the fight to protect the press to the UN in Geneva
Mexican actor, producer and director Diego Luna has brought his fight to protect journalists all the way to the United Nations, in Geneva. Together with documentary director Santiago Masa, he is putting a spotlight on the silencing of investigative journalism in his country, and on the incredibly high price that many journalist have to pay in pursuit of truth.
1
1
1
Edited News | OHCHR , UNOG
“Today marks the grim milestone of 1,000 days since the Russian Federation launched its full-scale armed attack on Ukraine. Our Office has verified that at least 12,162 civilians have been killed since 24 February 2022, among them 659 children. At least another 26,919 civilians have been injured,” UN Human Rights spokesperson Jeremy Laurance told the bi-weekly press briefing in Geneva.
1
1
1
Edited News | OHCHR , UNOG
With COP29 in Baku now in its second - and final - week, UN Human Rights Chief Volker Türk has reiterated his call for urgent human rights-based climate action.
1
1
1
Edited News | UNIFIL , UNICEF , WHO
Lebanon: Increased violence along Blue Line and ‘horrific new normal’ for children
In southern Lebanon, peacekeepers have witnessed “shocking” destruction of villages along the Blue Line and ever-deeper Israeli ground incursions, while the situation of children across the country is becoming increasingly desperate, the UN said on Tuesday.
2
1
2
Press Conferences , Edited News | UNRWA
The head of the UN agency for Palestine refugees, UNRWA, confirmed on Monday that a large convoy of humanitarian aid was looted inside Gaza at the weekend, amid a near-total a breakdown in law and order and harassment of the agency’s staff by Israeli soldiers.
1
1
1
Edited News | OCHA
In the nearly 1,000 days since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, thousands of civilians have been killed, the country’s energy infrastructure is on the brink and drones terrify communities on the front line, the UN’s top aid official in the country said on Friday.
2
1
2
Press Conferences , Edited News | OHCHR
Mexican actor, producer and director Diego Luna took a break from the big screen on Thursday to highlight the dangers faced by journalists in his country and beyond, condemning murders of reporters everywhere as “a scandal”.
1
1
1
Edited News | UNRWA
Gaza: ‘People are losing hope’ as aid access is refused to north, warns UNRWA
Besieged northern Gaza is a place of dead bodies lying in the streets and hospitals running out of blood packs – a situation that’s “nothing short of catastrophic”, the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) said on Tuesday.
1
1
1
Edited News | OHCHR
UN Human Rights Spokesperson Jeremy Laurence & Ajith Sunghay, Head of UN Human Rights Office in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, on Gaza
1
1
1
Edited News | UNHCR
Sudan’s displaced have endured “unimaginable suffering” in their search for shelter from the country’s ongoing war, UN humanitarians warned on Friday.
1
1
1
Edited News | WHO
‘Exceptional achievement’: Humanitarians reach over 105,000 with polio vaccine in north Gaza
Despite ongoing attacks and access challenges, humanitarians have managed to inoculate over 105,000 children in north Gaza with the second and final dose of the oral polio vaccine, the UN World Health Organization (WHO) said on Tuesday.