UNRWA chief in Jordan talks, says hundreds of thousands of Palestinian children traumatized by war

(19 May 2024)
RESTRICTION SUMMARY:
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Amman, Jordan - 19 May 2024
1. Various of Philippe Lazzarini, Commissioner General of United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) meeting with Jordanian Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi
2. Wide of Lazzarini and Safadi at news conference
3. SOUNDBITE: (English) Philippe Lazzarini, Commissioner General of UNRWA:
“Today, we have again about half of the population of Gaza being on the road, forced to flee despite the fact that they have been moving or forced to flee at multiple time since the beginning of the war. Now, the question always is, where to go? And we keep saying there is absolutely nowhere to go because there is absolutely no safe place, in the Gaza Strip.”
4. Wide of news conference
5. SOUNDBITE: (English) Philippe Lazzarini, Commissioner General of UNRWA:
“We have seen over the last few months also that whenever places were vacated, they were used either by the Israeli forces, but also by the Hamas or by armed faction that they used UN premises for military operations. And we have also seen over the last few months a number of staff which have been rounded up, arrested, mistreated, tortured and forced to confession. And that means that not only the staff but the premises and also the operation. And when I talk about operation, I talk about convoys moving in the Gaza Strip have been despite deconfliction targeted over the last few months. And this is the reason why I have called, and I repeat it, it is time to investigate and to make accountable to those responsible behind it.”
6. Lazzarini and Safadi
7. SOUNDBITE: (English) Philippe Lazzarini, Commissioner General of UNRWA:
“We have today half a million girls and boys deeply traumatized, living in the rubble of destroyed Gaza, for which there is an urgency to bring back into an informal education setting and then to a formal education setting. And the more we will wait, the more we take the risk to sow the seeds for more hatred in the future and possibly more extremism.”
8. Lazzarini and Safadi
9. SOUNDBITE: (English) Ayman Safadi, Jordanian Foreign Minister:
“We all, support the exchange deal. We believe it will be important to get us to a truce but that's not what we want. There is an illegal, brutal, inhumane aggression continuing in Gaza, the victims of which are innocent civilians. Over 36,000 Palestinians have been killed, the majority of whom are children. There's a humanitarian catastrophe that the aggression continues to aggravate and that has got to stop. And we haven't wasted a minute trying to impress that upon the international community and to rally the support to bring enough pressure to bear to bring about a permanent ceasefire. Because without a ceasefire, you're not going to be able to stop the humanitarian catastrophe that continues to deepen in Gaza.”
10. Cutaway of media
11. SOUNDBITE: (English) Ayman Safadi, Jordanian Foreign Minister:
“We have another, you know, quite a war on the West Bank with security attacks on Palestinians, in Palestinian cities, refugee camps. We have settlers' terrorism that continues to terrorise Palestinians. We have settler terrorist attacks on aid convoys. We have a suffocation of the Palestinian economy. You have the Israeli government withholding the money it owes the Palestinians, which is making the Palestinian authorities unable to pay salaries. So, there's a catastrophe happening on the West Bank as well.”
12. Wide of Lazzarini and Safadi shaking hands, leaving news conference
STORYLINE:
Safadi described the situation in Gaza as a "humanitarian catastrophe."
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