UN / GAZA PALESTINE ISRAEL

FILE - NEW YORK CITY

1. Wide shot, exterior United Nations Headquarters

13 MAY 2025, NEW YORK CITY

2. Wide shot, Security Council
3. Med shot, Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs Tom Fletcher addressing Council
SOUNDBITE (English) Tom Fletcher, Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and
Emergency Relief Coordinator:
“I ask you to reflect for a moment on what action we will tell future generations we each took to stop the 21st century atrocity to which we bear daily witness in Gaza. It is a question we will hear, sometimes incredulous, sometimes furious, but always there for the rest of our lives.”
4. Med shot, Fletcher addressing Council
5. SOUNDBITE (English) Tom Fletcher, Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and
Emergency Relief Coordinator:
“Israel is deliberately un unashamedly imposing inhumane conditions on civilians in the occupied Palestinian territory. For more than ten weeks. Nothing has entered Gaza. No food, medicine, water, or tents. Hundreds of thousands of Palestinians have again been forcibly displaced and confined into ever shrinking spaces, as 70 percent of Gaza's territory is either within Israeli militarized zones or under displacement orders.”
6. Med shot, FAO Liaison Office with the United Nations Director Angélica Jácome
7. SOUNDBITE (English) Tom Fletcher, Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and
Emergency Relief Coordinator:
“We have lifesaving supplies ready now at the borders. We can save hundreds of thousands of survivors. We have rigorous mechanisms to ensure our aid gets to civilians, and not to Hamas. But Israel denies us access, placing the objective of depopulating Gaza before the lives of civilians.”
8. Med shot, Israeli Ambassador Danny Danon
9. SOUNDBITE (English) Tom Fletcher, Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and
Emergency Relief Coordinator:
“So, for those killed and those whose voices are silenced. What more evidence do you need now? Will you act decisively to prevent genocide and to ensure respect for international humanitarian law? Or will you say instead that we did all we could?”
7. Med shot, Jácome addressing Council
8. SOUNDBITE (English) Angélica Jácome, Director, Liaison Office with the United Nations, Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO):
“Agrifood systems have collapsed in the Gaza Strip while food prices have soared. Local food production, the primary source of a healthy diet, have been decimated. Nearly 75 percent of cropland, which contributed to up to one third of daily consumption, has been damaged or destroyed since the escalation of hostilities. Animal production has been devastated, with almost 95 percent of cattle and more than half of sheep and goat herds now dead, and the prices of wheat flour has increased by 3,000 percent since February 2025. We are witnessing the systemic breakdown of conditions essential for survival. People in Gaza are not only experiencing lack of food, but they are going through a profound breakdown of health, livelihood, and social structures, leaving entire communities in a state of desperation, devastation and death.”
9. Wide shot, Palestinian Ambassador Riyad Mansour addressing Council
10. SOUNDBITE (English) Riyad Mansour, Permanent Observer to the United Nations, State of Palestine:
“93 percent of Gaza's children. 930,000 children are at critical risk of famine. Not because there is no food. Food is there. A few meters away. Rotting instead of reaching those who desperately need it. But because Israel has been openly and brazenly blocking humanitarian aid for over two months now. This is engineered starvation. It is the most inhumane form of torture and killing.”
11. Wide shot, Council
12. SOUNDBITE (English) Riyad Mansour, Permanent Observer to the United Nations, State of Palestine:
“Netanyahu, who was clear yet again about the goals of this war against our people. He said before the Foreign Affairs and Defence Committee of the Israeli Knesset on Sunday. And I quote, ‘we are destroying more and more homes. They have nowhere to return to. The only inevitable outcome will be the wish of Gazans to immigrate outside of the Gaza Strip.’ End the quotation.”
13. Wide shot, Danon addressing Council
14. SOUNDBITE (English) Danny Danon, Permanent Representative to the United Nations, Israel:
“We will not accept a humanitarian mechanism that props up the terror organization that butchered our people. We will not sit idly by as food, fuel and funds meant for civilians are funnelled into the Hamas terror machine. We will never allow our morality to be weaponized against us again.”
15. Wide shot, Danon addressing Council
16. SOUNDBITE (English) Danny Danon, Permanent Representative to the United Nations, Israel:
“The Secretary-General said he refused to engage in, and I quote, ‘any scheme’ - that's how he called it -that the, in his view, does not meet the principles of and I quote, ‘impartiality, humanity, independence and neutrality.’ The irony is unbelievable, as the previous mechanism made a mockery of every one of those principles. That is not diplomacy. That is not neutrality. That is sabotage disguised as principle.”
17. Med shot, Mansour
18. SOUNDBITE (English) Danny Danon, Permanent Representative to the United Nations, Israel:
“To Secretary-General Guterres I say this; the aid that ended up in Hamas hands did not bring hope. It did not bring progress. It brought death. That path leads nowhere, Mr. Guterres, you are invited to return to the table. But if you do come with open eyes, and open ears, something can be achieved.”
19. Wide shot, end of meeting
20. Wide shot, Ambassadors at the stakeout podium
21. SOUNDBITE (English) Barbara Woodward, Permanent Representative to the United Nations, United Kingdom:
“Israel has now fully blocked aid entering Gaza for over two months. Blocking aid as a pressure lever is unacceptable. And last week, the Israeli security cabinet approved plans to expand its military operations in Gaza. We strongly oppose both these actions, which will add to Palestinian suffering while doing nothing to serve the long-term interests of peace and security in the region, nor to secure the safe return of the hostages. Any attempt by Israel to annex land in Gaza would be unacceptable and violate international law.”
22. Wide shot, Ambassadors at the stakeout podium
23. SOUNDBITE (English) Barbara Woodward, Permanent Representative to the United Nations, United Kingdom:
“Without an urgent lifting of the aid block, more Palestinians are at risk of dying deaths that could easily be avoided. Humanitarian aid must never be used as a political tool or a military tactic.”
24. Wide shot, Ambassadors at the stakeout podium
25. SOUNDBITE (English) Barbara Woodward, Permanent Representative to the United Nations, United Kingdom:
“We have two clear messages for the government of Israel; lift the block on aid entering Gaza now and enable the UN and all humanitarians to save lives. Any model for distributing humanitarian aid must be independent, impartial, and neutral and in line with international humanitarian law and principles. We cannot support any model that places political or military objectives above the needs of civilians.”
26. Wide shot, ambassadors walk away