UN Interviews

Amid a deepening humanitarian crisis in Gaza, where essential supplies and even body bags have reportedly run out, the UN’s top aid official insisted on Monday that reliable, dependable and constant supplies were needed immediately.

Martin Griffiths’ strong appeal comes as more than a million people have been uprooted from northern to southern Gaza since the Israeli military warned of an imminent offensive, prompted by Palestinian military group Hamas’s 7 October attack on Israel.

In an interview with UN News’s Daniel Johnson, the veteran humanitarian expresses hope for his upcoming diplomatic mission to the Middle East, beginning with Cairo on Tuesday. 

Just as the UN is calling for the unconditional release of hostages by Hamas, it’s crucial for Israel to give “immediate unconditional access” to humanitarian aid for desperate civilians forced to move south, the UN’s top official in the Occupied Palestinian Territory told UN News on Sunday.

Humanitarian Coordinator Lynn Hastings said the UN is in intensive discussions with Israeli authorities over humanitarian corridors and a vital ceasefire, to avert further castastrophe for civilians, with a million Palestinians already displaced amid the total “collapse” of Gaza’s already fragile health system.

Israel says “they want to destroy Hamas, but the current trajectory is going to destroy Gaza” she told UN News’s Reem Abaza.

Water is essential to produce food so it is no surprise to hear that a current global shortage threatens to push more vulnerable people into hunger. A frightening prospect, when you consider that more than 700 million already have too little to eat today. 

Ahead of World Food Day, observed on 16 October, the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) has shared information about the latest technical innovations that countries can implement to produce the food that they need.

With more, here’s FAO’s Deputy Director-General, Maria Helena Semedo, who’s been speaking to UN News’s Dominika Tomaszewska-Mortimer. 

With the Gaza Strip completely closed off, civilians there are in "desperate need" of humanitarian aid, the World Food Programme (WFP) Representative and Country Director in Palestine, Samer AbdelJaber, said on Friday.

In an interview with UN News's Ezzat El-Ferri, Mr. AbdelJaber discussed the unique complexities of the situation, warning that Israel has threatened to shut off Internet access on Saturday.

He underscored the vital need for unimpeded corridors to transport humanitarian aid into the enclave and highlighted the dedication of WFP staff who remain on the ground.

Health care facilities in Gaza are struggling to cope as attacks on healthcare targets increase in scale and intensity, and supplies dwindle amid overwhelming demand.

“My call again and again is to respect the international law when it comes to protecting the safety of healthcare facilities and the people inside these ambulances,” said Dr. Ahmed Al Mandhari, WHO Regional Director for the Eastern Mediterranean, in an interview with UN News. 

Mr. Al Mandhari emphasised to Abdelmonem Makki the heightened need for humanitarian assistance to Gaza and discussed ongoing WHO efforts to prevent a wider humanitarian disaster. 

As the Israel-Gaza crisis worsens, the UN Children’s Fund’s (UNICEF) Salim Oweis says that more than 500 children have already been killed and more than 1600 injured, leaving the two million overall trapped inside the Gaza Strip on the “brink of a humanitarian catastrophe.” 

Speaking from his headquarters in the Jordanian capital Amman, Mr. Oweis told UN News’s Khaled Mohamed about the huge scale of need and suffering, including the importance of creating a humanitarian corridor – as Israel demands over a million withdraw from the north of Gaza, in just 24 hours. 

Six days since violence erupted in Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories, UN human rights chief Volker Türk on Friday urged combatants to respect the Geneva Conventions – the rules of war. 

Countries with influence on both sides should take steps to defuse the “powder keg” situation, Mr. Türk has insisted, amid evidence of summary execution of civilians by Palestinian armed groups and of on-going Israeli airstrikes on residential towers in Gaza city. 

With more, here’s UN rights office, OHCHR, Spokesperson Ravina Shamdasani, who’s been speaking to UN News’s Daniel Johnson in Geneva. 

The UN appointed independent expert on the sale and exploitation of children is calling on governments to make so-called “voluntarism” – tourists who are ostensibly volunteering as charity workers – better regulated to prevent potential abuse and sexual exploitation. 

Mama Fatima Singhateh was at UN Headquarters recently and spoke to UN News’s Dina Neskorozhana about her report’s recommendations, stressing that the already vulnerable were most at risk, and that this pernicious abuse could damage children’s lives well into the future.

The humanitarian situation in Gaza is “indescribable” and “unprecedented” as the battle between extremist Palestinian armed groups and Israeli forces escalates.

That’s according to a senior UN official with humanitarian office OCHA inside the enclave, speaking to UN News on Wednesday.

“Every hour that passes brings more fighting and devastation,” Hamada El Bayari told us.

Mr. El Bayari described the latest situation on the ground to Khaled Mohamed, saying that there is currently no “safe passage” anywhere for civilians trying to find cover from Israeli airstrikes, with around 340,000 Palestinians now displaced.

The shutting off of all services, is making an already disastrous situation worse by the minute.

Families escaping the shelling and bombardment in Gaza have sought refuge in premises belonging to UNRWA, the UN agency that supports Palestine refugees across the Middle East.

Some of the agency’s 13,000 staff members are among them, said Juliette Touma, UNRWA Director of Communications, who is based in Amman, Jordan.

She told UN News's Ezzat El-Ferri that despite displacement and loss – of loved ones, neighbours and even colleagues – these “unsung heroes” continue to deliver, even while fearful for their own lives.

Ms. Touma began by outlining damage UNRWA has sustained four days into the conflict, which some of her colleagues said is the worst they have experienced by far.