STORY: Humanitarian situation in the Occupied Palestinian Territory – Lynn  Hastings

TRT: 3:01”
SOURCE: UNTV CH
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH
ASPECT RATIO: 16:9
DATELINE: 13 December 2023 - GENEVA, SWITZERLAND

SHOTLIST

1. Exterior wide shot: UN Geneva.
2. SOUNDBITE (ENGLISH) – Lynn Hastings, Humanitarian Coordinator for the Occupied Palestinian Territory: “We absolutely need a cease fire, this is the only way forward. Right now, what is happening on the ground is not going to bring peace and security to either the Palestinians or Israelis for many, many years, if not generations to come. So, a cease fire is in the interest of everybody at the moment.”
3. Cutaway: Wide shot, UN Geneva building exterior with flag alley
4. SOUNDBITE (ENGLISH) – Lynn Hastings, Humanitarian Coordinator for the Occupied Palestinian Territory: “Israel, as the occupying power, is responsible to protect the Palestinian civilian population. This means they have to provide for basic needs, they have to ensure that there is unimpeded humanitarian access to those in need. It's not just for the United Nations to do allowing trucks to get to the border.”
5. Cutaway: Medium shot, exterior UN building with UN flag
6. SOUNDBITE (ENGLISH) – Lynn Hastings, Humanitarian Coordinator for the Occupied Palestinian Territory: “We are now seeing some Palestinians being, I guess, arrested and detained. And as far as we know, that's without any sort of trial. This is of obvious concern to the United Nations. And then, of course, we're also continuing to be very concerned about the release of hostages, which would be able to happen if there were a cease fire. In the meantime, everybody who is in some sort of detention or a hostage, etc., they need to be given access to to make sure that their conditions are appropriate.”
7. Cutaway: Close up, UN Geneva building exterior with UN flag
8. SOUNDBITE (ENGLISH) - Lynn Hastings, Humanitarian Coordinator for the Occupied Palestinian Territory: “The health care system has collapsed. We've got a textbook formula for epidemics and a public health disaster. This is in part, of course, because these shelters have long ago exceeded their full capacity with people lining up for hours just to get to a toilet. One toilet available for hundreds of people, you can imagine what the sanitation conditions are like as a result.”
9. Cutaway: Medium shot, UN Geneva building exterior with flag alley
10. SOUNDBITE (ENGLISH) - Lynn Hastings, Humanitarian Coordinator for the Occupied Palestinian Territory: “97 per cent of households in the north and 83 per cent of households in the south have inadequate food consumption. So that means maybe one meal a day, maybe one meal every couple of days. In the north, it's almost 50 per cent of the households that have experienced severe levels of hunger and in the south, I think it's one third.”

11. Cutaway: Medium shot, UN Geneva building exterior with flag alley
12. Lynn Hastings, Humanitarian Coordinator for the Occupied Palestinian Territory: “We are seeing lots of reports on the potential of flooding of tunnels. We don't know if this is confirmed or if in fact it's happening yet. But we want to flag that if this is to take place, it's anticipated that it will cause severe damage to the already fragile water and sewage infrastructure that's in Gaza, and it could impact generations to come, rendering the aquifer, which is a crucial source of drinking water once it's been desalinated for people in Gaza.”
13. Cutaway: Medium shot, UN Geneva building exterior with flag alley

STORYLINE

Gaza ceasefire ‘in everybody’s interest’: UN humanitarian coordinator

Amid continuing heavy Israeli bombardments from air, land and sea across Gaza, the UN’s top aid official in the Occupied Palestinian Territory insisted that a ceasefire was “the only way forward” to help secure a peaceful future for all those involved in the conflict.

Speaking from Geneva via Zoom, Lynn Hastings, UN Humanitarian Coordinator in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, told journalists in Geneva that the situation in the enclave was dire.

This included the city of Rafah in the south, while intense sustained fighting has continued between Israeli forces and Palestinian armed groups in Khan Younis.

“We absolutely need a ceasefire, this is the only way forward,” she said. “Right now, what is happening on the ground is not going to bring peace and security to either the Palestinians or Israelis for many, many years, if not generations to come,” Ms. Hastings said. “A ceasefire is in the interest of everybody at the moment.”

According to the latest data from the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), which quoted the Ministry of Health in Gaza, between 7 October and 12 December, at least 18,205 Palestinians have been killed in the Strip. About 70 per cent were women and children and about 50,100 have been injured.

Many more people are missing, presumably buried under the rubble, waiting for rescue or recovery, OCHA said.  

The UN office noted that limited aid distributions are taking place in Rafah governorate. In the rest of the Gaza Strip, aid distribution has largely stopped, owing to the intensity of hostilities and restrictions on movement along the main roads, except for limited fuel deliveries to key service providers.

“Israel, as the occupying power, is responsible to protect the Palestinian civilian population,” Ms. Hastings stressed. “This means they have to provide for basic needs, they have to ensure that there is unimpeded humanitarian access to those in need. It's not just for the United Nations to do allowing trucks to get to the border.”

On the issue of Palestinians being arrested and detained, Ms. Hastings said that “as far as we know, that's without any sort of trial. This is of obvious concern to the United Nations.” She also stressed the need to allow international access to hostages taken during Hamas’s 7 October terror attacks in southern Israel that killed around 1,200 people and prompted Israeli Defense Forces retaliation, adding that a ceasefire might be conducive to the release of hostages.

The spread of diseases in Gaza has reportedly intensified, especially due to overcrowded living conditions which has added to the strain on an already overwhelmed health system, increasing the risk of people dying.

On Tuesday, the Ministry of Health in Gaza had documented 360,000 cases of infectious diseases in shelters, noting that the actual number is believed to be higher.  

“The healthcare system has collapsed, we've got a textbook formula for epidemics and a public health disaster,” said Ms. Hastings. “This is in part, of course, because these shelters have long ago exceeded their full capacity with people lining up for hours just to get to a toilet. One toilet available for hundreds of people, you can imagine what the sanitation conditions are like as a result.”

As of 11 December, according to the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA), almost 1.9 million people in Gaza, or nearly 85 per cent of the population, are estimated to be internally displaced, including people who have been displaced multiple times.  

A recent survey by the UN World Food Programme (WFP) showed that almost half of the population in the north and one third in the south are experiencing “severe levels of hunger”. Ms. Hastings said that “97 per cent of households in the north and 83 per cent of households in the south have inadequate food consumption. So that means maybe one meal a day, maybe one meal every couple of day.”

Addressing reports on the potential of flooding of underground tunnels in Gaza with seawater by the Israeli military, Ms. Hastings warned that it would cause “severe damage to the already fragile water and sewage infrastructure…and it could impact generations to come” by tainting the aquifer, a crucial source of drinking water.

Ms. Hastings also highlighted increased violence in the occupied West Bank where 464 Palestinians have already been killed, including 109 children, a record high since 2005. Since 7 October, 271 Palestinians have been killed with 69 children. Some 3,000 Palestinians have been detained and it remained unclear whether they were given a trial, she said.

With respect to incidents of settler violence in the West Bank, a total of 336 have been recorded since 7 October, representing five per day now, compared with two per day in 2022.

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