The United Nations Office at Geneva
Multimedia Newsroom
In Gaza, ‘every hour counts’, says UNRWA chief in ceasefire plea
The head of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA, repeated his urgent call for a ceasefire in Gaza on Friday, amid increased military Israeli activity in the enclave’s largest city.
“Every hour today counts, the more we wait, the more people will die,” said Philippe Lazzarini, UNRWA Commissioner-General, who highlighted the many lethal dangers confronting Gazans today.
“Either they will die because of the military operation under bombardment, or they die because they could not be assisted in time and they are silently dying because of hunger,” he told UN News in Geneva.
“They’re even dying because they try to desperately seek for food going to these infamous distribution places of the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation,” Mr. Lazzarini said, referring to the controversial non-UN aid hubs where supplies are distributed to those able to walk to them and carry away lifesaving relief.
According to the UN human rights office, OHCHR, since 27 May and until 17 August, 1,857 Palestinians have been killed “while seeking food”, including 1,021 killed near Gaza Humanitarian Foundation sites. Another 836 Palestinians have been killed on supply truck routes; “most of these killings appear to have been committed by the Israeli military”, OHCHR noted.
The UNRWA chief also echoed the UN Secretary-General’s appeal on Thursday for an immediate halt to the Israeli military escalation in Gaza City and the release of all hostages taken in Hamas-led terror attacks that sparked the war in October 2023.
The violence “has to stop immediately”, Mr. Lazzarini said. “People living in Gaza are now in a state of famine which has been declared about a week ago and now we are talking about a major military offensive, with a total evacuation of an extremely weakened population.”
Repeated mass displacement has become commonplace in Gaza, including for one UNRWA worker in the north of the enclave, reportedly uprooted for the nineteenth time and forced to seek shelter, the agency said earlier this week.
The problem is that nowhere is safe in Gaza, Mr. Lazzarini insisted, responding to reports of further bombing in the coastal shelter of Al Mawasi near Khan Younis.
Hundreds of thousands of Palestinians displaced to Al Mawasi have little or no access to essential services and supplies, including food, water, electricity and tents.
Despite this dire situation, “there is no other place than Al Mawasi for the people there to go because the rest of the Gaza Strip are in a military zone with active fighting taking place,” he explained. “But even Al Mawasi…is not safe for the people because it can also be the targeting of a bombing. It's just unspeakable.”
Despite ongoing Israeli restrictions on the amount of aid reaching Gaza reported by UN aid coordinators, the UNRWA chief insisted that the agency’s staff are still providing lifesaving support to Gazans.
In addition to dispensing at least 15,000 medical consultations a day at UNRWA primary health centres, the UN agency screens children for acute malnutrition, manages waste management to prevent communicable disease spread and works to give access to safe drinking water. Some 100,000 people still shelter in its schools.
“Where UNRWA cannot function for the time being is when it comes to food distribution, to the delivery of lifesaving items to the people, because we have been constrained and prevented to bring anything since the ceasefire broke down in March this year,” Mr. Lazzarini explained.
STORY: Gaza update – Philippe Lazzarini, UNRWA
TRT: 2’37”
SOURCE: UNTV CH
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH/ NATS
ASPECT RATIO: 16:9
DATELINE: 29 AUGUST 2025 GENEVA, SWITZERLAND
Speaker:
- Philippe Lazzarini, Commissioner-General, UNRWA
SHOTLIST
- Exterior wide shot: Palais des Nations, flag alley.
- SOUNDBITE (English) – Philippe Lazzarini, Commissioner-General, UNRWA: “It has to stop immediately. As you know, people living in Gaza are now in a state of famine which has been declared about a week ago and now we are talking about a major military offensive, with a total evacuation of an extremely weakened population.”
- Wide, Philippe Lazzarini sitting in UNTV Geneva studio.
- SOUNDBITE (English) – Philippe Lazzarini, Commissioner-General, UNRWA: “We have in Gaza nearly one million people between the city and the northern Governorate who basically have nowhere to go, have no resource even to move.”
- Medium, pan, UNTV Geneva studio monitors showing Philippe Lazzarini being interviewed.
- SOUNDBITE (English) – Philippe Lazzarini, Commissioner-General, UNRWA: “If the military operation takes place in the middle of this population this will add again even more suffering, kill even more people and it’s a total, total disaster.”
- Medium-wide, trucking, Philippe Lazzarini being interviewed.
- SOUNDBITE (English) – Philippe Lazzarini, Commissioner-General, UNRWA: “Today there is no other place than Al Mawasi for the people there to go because the rest of the Gaza Strip are in a military zone with active fighting taking place. But even Al Mawasi, as I said, is not safe for the people because it can also be the targeting of a bombing. It's just unspeakable.”
- Medium, UNTV Geneva studio control room monitors.
- SOUNDBITE (English) – Philippe Lazzarini, Commissioner-General, UNRWA: “Every hour today counts. The more we wait, the more people will die. Either they will die because of the military operation under bombardment, or they die because they could not be assisted in time and they are silently dying because of hunger, or they’re even dying because they try to desperately seek for food going to these infamous distribution places of the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation."
- Wide, UN Geneva flag alley.
- SOUNDBITE (English) – Philippe Lazzarini, Commissioner-General, UNRWA: “Where UNRWA cannot function for the time being is when it comes to food distribution, to the delivery of lifesaving items to the people, because we have been constrained and prevented to bring anything since the ceasefire broke down in March this year.”
- Wide, UN Geneva flag alley.
Similar Stories
1
1
1
Edited News | OHCHR
UN rights chief concerned by upheld convictions of Cambodian activists.
1
1
1
Edited News | UNHCR , OHCHR
Middle East crisis puts aid, food, fuel further out of reach for millions already struggling – UN agencies
As the Middle East crisis continues the humanitarian fallout is worsening, with aid route disruptions and food and fuel price hikes wrecking the lives and rights of the most vulnerable, UN agencies warned on Friday.
1
1
2
Edited News | UNMAS
Demining experts from around the world have been sharing their collective shock at the widespread and growing threat from unexploded ordnance, the new head of the UN Mine Action Service (UNMAS) said on Wednesday.
1
1
1
Edited News | OHCHR , UNOG
The UN Human Rights Office in Syria conducted a 5-day visit to the northeast of the country where they received accounts of human rights violations and abuses.
1
1
1
Edited News | UNICEF
Sudan: ‘History repeating itself’ for Darfur’s children - UNICEF
Mass atrocities in Sudan’s Darfur 20 years ago reverberated as far as Hollywood, but today, a new generation of children faces attacks, hunger and displacement in an emergency largely ignored by the outside world, the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) warned on Tuesday.
1
1
Edited News | WHO , UNMAS
Desperate and dangerous conditions in Gaza continue to hamper recovery efforts for the wartorn enclave's people, the UN health agency said on Friday, while demining experts warned that they’ve “barely scratched the surface” in assessing the level of contamination of unexploded ordnance.
2
1
2
Press Conferences , Edited News
The continued support of UN Member States to Lebanon will be “indispensable” to boost the country’s national armed forces and provide humanitarian assistance with more than one million people still uprooted by the Middle East war, the UN's peacekeeping chief said on Wednesday.
2
1
2
Press Conferences , Edited News | UNECE
Middle East war: After oil and gas shortages, concerns grow over critical minerals crunch
The shipping crisis in the Strait of Hormuz caused by war in the Middle East has exposed a new threat: a looming shortage of strategic minerals needed to drive economies all over the world and a race by countries to obtain them.
1
1
1
Edited News | IOM
Millions of desperate Sudanese return home amid dire conditions as war rages – IOM
Three years into the devastating conflict in Sudan, nearly four million displaced people have returned to their places of origin across the country, only to face “another struggle for survival”, the UN International Organization for Migration (IOM) said on Tuesday.
1
1
1
Edited News | UNESCO
UNESCO protects cultural sites in war-torn Middle East, confirming damage to key heritage.
1
1
1
Edited News | UN WOMEN
The war in Gaza has inflicted a far higher toll on women and girls than in previous conflicts in the Palestinian enclave, with more than 38,000 killed by Israeli air bombardment and land military operations since Hamas-led terror attacks in Israel sparked the war in October 2023, UN Women said on Friday.
1
1
1
Edited News | UNHCR
In 2025, nearly 900 Rohingya refugees were reported missing or dead in the Andaman Sea and Bay of Bengal, making it the deadliest year on record in South and Southeast Asia, the UN refugee agency, UNHCR, said on Friday.