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Gaza: ‘Worst-case scenario’ unfolds as two-month aid blockade deepens suffering - OCHA
Two months into a devastating aid blockade of Gaza food has run out and people are fighting over water amid relentless bombing, the UN’s humanitarian affairs coordination office (OCHA) said on Friday.
Speaking from Gaza City OCHA spokesperson Olga Cherevko told journalists in Geneva that a friend of hers “saw people burning a few days ago from the explosions and there was no water to save them.”
Since all entry points into the war-torn enclave were “sealed by the Israeli authorities for the entry of cargo” in March , the “worst-case scenario” was triggered, Ms. Cherevko said: supplies are depleting while the conflict rages on.
“Food stocks have now mainly run out, water access has become impossible,” she told journalists in Geneva. As Ms. Cherevko spoke, she noted that a “very violent fight” for access to water was taking place downstairs from her, with people throwing rocks and firing shots at a water truck pulling away.
The OCHA spokesperson said that every day she was seeing children “who have been deprived of their childhood for many months,” and elderly people “rummaging through piles of trash” in search of food and of things to burn for cooking in the absence of fuel. During a visit Thursday to Patient Friends Hospital, a paediatric hospital in Gaza City which had been attacked several times during the war, she heard reports of rising malnutrition rates, she said.
“Hospitals report running out of blood units, as mass casualties continue to arrive,” Ms. Cherevko stressed, while precious fuel is being rationed.
“Gaza is inching closer to running on empty,” she added.
Ms. Cherevko said that UN humanitarians are “in constant contact” with the Israeli authorities and are advocating for border crossings to reopen. “We have mechanisms that mitigate diversion, ensure that aid reaches the people it’s intended to reach,” she said.
“We are ready to resume delivery at scale as soon as the crossings reopen, Ms. Cherevko insisted. “We stand by our pledge to remain principled and continue relieving people’s suffering, wherever they may be.”
In an appeal to the Israeli authorities on Thursday, the UN’s top humanitarian official and OCHA chief Tom Fletcher said, “Lift this brutal blockade. Let humanitarians save lives”.
Mr. Fletcher reaffirmed the urgent need for the release of hostages taken by Hamas on 7 October 2023, who “should never have been taken from their families” and stressed that “aid, and the civilian lives it saves, should never be a bargaining chip”.
Ms. Cherevko said that over the past one and a half months, 420,000 people have been “once again forced to flee, many of them with only the clothes on their backs, shot at along the way, arriving in overcrowded shelters, as tents and other facilities where people seek safety, are being bombed”.
“I worry that five, 10, 20 years from now, we will look at our children and grandchildren in shame and we will not be able to explain to them why we could not stop this horror,” she concluded.
“How much more blood must be spilled before enough becomes enough?”
-Ends -
STORY: Gaza two months blockade - OCHA 2 May 2025
TRT: 6:38”
SOURCE: UNTV CH
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH/ NATS
ASPECT RATIO: 16:9
DATELINE: 2 MAY 2025 GENEVA, SWITZERLAND and 1 MAY 2025, GAZA CITY
1. Exterior wide shot: Palais des Nations, Flag Alley.
2. Wide shot: Speakers at the podium of the press conference from rear; speaker on screens; journalists in the Press room.
3. SOUNDBITE (English) – Olga Cherevko, spokesperson in Gaza, UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA): “All entry points were sealed by the Israeli authorities for the entry of cargo triggering the countdown to the worst-case scenario – supplies becoming depleted while the war rages on. Food stocks have now mainly run out, water access has become impossible. In fact, as I speak to you, just below, downstairs from this building, people are fighting for water, there is a water truck that has just arrived.”
4. Wide shot: Speaker on screens; journalists in the Press room.
5. SOUNDBITE (English) – Olga Cherevko, spokesperson in Gaza, UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA): “I am seeing children and I’m seeing elderly people rummaging through these piles of trash not only in search of things to burn but also things to eat, daily. We are hearing reports from malnutrition colleagues that are saying, even yesterday, I was in a paediatric hospital here in Gaza City and they are all saying that malnutrition rates are going up.”
6. Wide shot: Speaker on screens; journalists in the Press room.
7. SOUNDBITE (English) – Olga Cherevko, spokesperson in Gaza, UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA): “Hospitals report running out of blood units, as mass casualties continue to arrive. Gaza is inching closer to running on empty as fuel also is being rationed to maintain only the most critical operations running.”
8. Close shot: Journalist in the Press room.
9. SOUNDBITE (English) – Olga Cherevko, spokesperson in Gaza, UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA): “A friend of mine from Gaza City recalled recently a harrowing memory. He said to me, ‘I saw people burning a few days ago from the explosions and there was no water to save them.’ “
10. Medium shot: Journalist in the Press room.
11. SOUNDBITE (English) – Olga Cherevko, spokesperson in Gaza, UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA): “We’re ready to resume delivery at scale as soon as the crossings reopen. We stand by our pledge to remain principled and continue relieving people’s suffering, wherever they may be.”
12. Wide shot: Speaker on screens; journalists in the Press room.
13. OCHA footage - Driving footage from the streets of Gaza City, 1 MAY 2025
14. OCHA footage - Patient Friends Hospital in Gaza City, 1 MAY 2025
15. OCHA footage - Driving footage from the streets of Gaza City, 1 MAY 2025
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