The United Nations Office at Geneva
Multimedia Newsroom
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
Similar Stories
1
1
1
Edited News | OHCHR , UNOG
The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk addressed the Human Rights Council during a meeting on the Israeli strike on negotiators in Qatar on Tuesday. “Israel’s strike on negotiators in Doha on 9 September was a shocking breach of international law, an assault on regional peace and stability, and a blow against the integrity of mediation and negotiating processes around the world,” he said.
1
1
1
Edited News | UNICEF
Gaza: Thirsty and starving, war-battered families face ‘inhumane’ evacuation
As bombs continue to fall on Gaza City as part of the intensifying Israeli military operation, families with starving children are being pushed southwards from one “hellscape” to another, the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) said on Tuesday.
1
1
1
Edited News | OHCHR , UNOG
New UN Human Rights report finds 10 years of increased suffering repression and fear
The UN Human Rights Office on Friday published a report on the human rights situation in the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) since 2014.
1
1
2
Edited News | UNICEF , UNHCR
The ongoing humanitarian response to the devastating Afghanistan earthquake disaster continued on Friday, although essential services have been cut for operational reasons following reinforced Taliban restrictions on women working with the UN, the global body said.
1
1
1
Edited News | OHCHR , UNOG
Un nouveau rapport du Haut-Commissariat des Nations Unies aux droits de l'homme sur la République démocratique du Congo évoque le spectre de crimes de guerre et de crimes contre l'humanité dans le Nord et le Sud-Kivu.,
2
1
2
Press Conferences , Edited News | HRC
A high-level independent rights probe into the Sudan crisis on Tuesday condemned the many grave crimes committed against civilians by all parties to the war, citing disturbing evidence indicating that they had been “deliberately targeted, displaced and starved”.
1
1
1
Edited News | WHO
Ukraine: ‘Relentless’ attacks rattle health system as winter approaches: WHO
Ambulances attacked, chronically ill patients lacking care and no peace in sight: for millions of Ukrainians, the run-up to another winter of war is just the latest life-or-death challenge they face, the UN health agency (WHO) said on Tuesday.
1
1
1
Edited News | OHCHR , UNOG
UN Human Rights Chief Volker Türk on Monday delivered his report on Sri Lanka to the 60th session of the Human Rights Council in Geneva.
1
1
1
Edited News | OHCHR , UNOG
UN Human Rights Chief Volker Türk on Monday delivered his global update to the 60th session of the Human Rights Council in Geneva.
1
1
1
Edited News | OHCHR
A UN report on the Democratic Republic of Congo raises specter of war crimes and crimes against humanity in North and South Kivu, according to UN Human Rights Spokesperson Ravina Shamdasani.
1
1
1
Edited News | WMO
As billions of people continue to breathe polluted air that causes more than 4.5 million premature deaths every year, UN climate experts on Friday highlighted how damaging microscopic smoke particles from wildfires play their part, travelling half-way across the world.
1
1
1
Edited News | OHCHR
UN Human Rights Office Spokesperson Jeremy Laurence made the following comment on the on-going presidential election process in Cameroon at the bi-weekly press briefing in Geneva.