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Gaza: As world waits for US peace plan news, UN aid teams stress need for ceasefire
UN agencies reiterated calls for an urgent ceasefire in Gaza on Tuesday to help alleviate Palestinian suffering, as a new US 20-point plan raised hopes of a halt to the fighting.
Winter is fast-approaching and heavy fighting in war-shattered enclave continues to drive mass displacement.
“It's important that we get that ceasefire and then we get aid flowing in not only to prevent the famine that continues to move to the south, but also to make sure that children and families are sheltered,” UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) spokesperson Ricardo Pires told reporters in Geneva.
Mr. Pires stressed that falling temperatures in the devastated enclave will create “a whole different range of issues”, including health challenges for children and their families.
He highlighted the “massive” displacement happening in Gaza, with ongoing Israeli military operations in Gaza City forcing people to flee from the north to the south. Conditions are dire in the overcrowded coastal tented settlement at Al-Mawasi which “can simply not absorb the quantity of people who are moving in”.
“We're talking about hundreds of thousands of people, an estimated 400,000 displaced,” he insisted.
According to the UN aid coordination office (OCHA), only about 18 per cent of the Gaza Strip is not subject to displacement orders or located within militarized zones.
People who have lost their homes need shelter desperately and UNICEF has 11,000 tents as well as tarpaulin sheets “waiting to get in” to the Strip, Mr. Pires said.
“We’re not being able to get those supplies in… It just shows how the conditions in terms of logistics and facilitation of aid continue to be very, very poor,” he concluded.
Echoing his comments, OCHA spokesperson Jens Laerke stressed that humanitarians’ ability to distribute aid within Gaza remains compromised. Some aid has been able to enter, he said, highlighting the fact that community kitchens have been “resupplied to some extent”, with some 660,000 meals prepared and delivered through 137 kitchens across the enclave last Sunday.
But the ability to get aid into people’s hands depends on humanitarians obtaining permission to collect and deliver it.
“Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't,” Mr. Laerke explained, either because of non-facilitation by the Israeli side or for other reasons.
The UN previously said that on Sunday more than 40 per cent of the humanitarian missions that require coordination with the Israeli military were denied.
“A lot of the aid that has come in recently, that has been picked up, has been taken off the trucks by desperate people and in some cases by armed groups,” OCHA’s Mr. Laerke added.
He called the current situation “chaotic” and underscored the “absolute” need for a ceasefire as soon as possible so that humanitarians can resume “a proper and well-coordinated, well-supplied aid operation”.
-Ends -
STORY Gaza aid update UNICEF – OCHA 30 September 2025
TRT: 2:38”
SOURCE: UNTV CH
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH/NATS
ASPECT RATIO: 16:9
DATELINE: 30 SEPTEMBER 2025 GENEVA, SWITZERLAND
1. Exterior wide shot: Palais des Nations, Flag Alley.
2. Wide shot: Speakers at the podium of the press conference; speaker on screens; journalists in the Press room.
3. SOUNDBITE (English) – Ricardo Pires, spokesperson, UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF): “It's important that we get that ceasefire and then we get aid flowing in not only to prevent the famine that continues to move to the south, but also to make sure that children and families are sheltered as we look at the winter coming and temperatures dropping, which will create a whole different range of issues, including health issues for children and their families.”
4. Wide shot: Speaker on screens; journalists in the Press room.
5. SOUNDBITE (English) – Ricardo Pires, spokesperson, UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF): “Right now, there is massive displacement happening in Gaza, from the north to the south, to Al-Mawasi, an overcrowded area where the conditions are already very, very dire and can simply not absorb the quantity of people who are moving in. And we're talking about hundreds of thousands of people, an estimated 400,000 displaced.”
6. Medium wide shot: Speakers at the podium of the press conference; speaker on screens.
7. SOUNDBITE (English) – Ricardo Pires, spokesperson, UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF): “UNICEF, we do have the urgent needed tents. We have 11,000 tents waiting to get in and over 7,000 tarpaulin sheets that are waiting to get in to help supporting these displaced populations that are going to the south, to help them set up temporary shelters - and we're not being able to get those supplies in. So it just shows how the conditions in terms of logistics and facilitation of aid continue to be very, very poor.”
8. Wide shot: Speaker on screens; journalists in the Press room.
9. SOUNDBITE (English) – Jens Laerke, spokesperson, UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA): “Community kitchens have been resupplied to some extent on Sunday, there were almost 660,000 meals prepared and delivered through 137 kitchens in Gaza.”
10. Close shot: Journalist in the Press room.
11. SOUNDBITE (English) – Jens Laerke, spokesperson, UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA): “Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. It can be either because of non-facilitation by the Israeli side. It can also be for other reasons. And as you know, a lot of the aid that has come in recently that has been picked up has been taken off the trucks by desperate people and in some cases by armed groups.”
12. Wide shot: Speaker on screens; journalists in the Press room.
13. SOUNDBITE (English) – Jens Laerke, spokesperson, UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA): “It is quite a chaotic situation and that underlines the absolute need for a ceasefire as soon as possible so that we can restart what amounts to what I would call a proper and well-coordinated and well-supplied aid operation.”
14. Medium shot: Journalists in the Press room.
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The key findings from WMO’s State of Global Water Resources 2025 report covering the hydrological cycle and extreme events in the five-year period to last year:
- 2025 was one of driest years for river discharge in 35 years
- Past seven years have seen abnorfmal river flows
- Water storage on Earth’s land surface has decreased in past decade
- Widespread glacier loss across all regions for fourth consecutive year
- Asia and Africa are regions most affected by water-related disasters
- Water data availability has improved, but gaps remain in hard-hit areas
Highlighting the long-term decline in the Earth’s freshwater storage and glacier melt, WMO Secretary-General Celeste Saulo explained that the planet’s water reserves used to act as a planetary “savings account” that absorbed the occasional dry season, avoiding a water crisis. “One of the central stories of the 2025 report is what is happening to that savings account? And the simple answer is that we are depleting it,” she told journalists in Geneva.
Groundwater reserves are equally stretched and have been in decline since 2014, WMO’s report states, with nearly two-thirds of monitored wells worldwide showing levels lower than the historical norm and indicating a shift “further toward deficit…not recovery”.
“At the same time, we are seeing more water-related disasters,” Ms. Saulo said, while also stressing that the currently strengthening El Niño “will increase the risk of drought in some areas, and flooding in others”.
Glaciers disappearing
In 2025, for the fourth consecutive year, every major glaciated region on Earth lost ice mass, leading to short-term hazards including floods and long-term water insecurity, according to WMO.
Responding to a question about whether the changing global water cycle might have contributed to the deadly Nepal-China flooding disaster, Ms. Saulo explained that melting ice and rock was just one factor in the chain of events that ultimately sent a massive and deadly wall of water and debris downstream on 26 August, killing at least 1,367 people.
“You asked if it could happen again? Absolutely; the problem in this region is that there’s 63,700 glaciers at the last count,” she told a Press Conference in Geneva. “Even if you’re looking with remote sensing with satellites at these glaciers, you might see some faults, you might see some slight shifting, that does not mean necessarily catastrophic collapse. So, in order to plan for this, it’s very, very difficult. But the international community is looking very hard at ways in which we can bring people together to solve some of these monitoring issues.”
Data indicates that glaciers shrank between 2023 and 2025 with cumulative losses of 1,400 gigatonnes of water – or about one third of annual fresh water needs.
Every major glacier region on Earth lost ice for the fourth consecutive year.
“All 19 glacier regions around the globe lost ice; in Central Asia, Iceland, the Russian Arctic and western Canada and the United States, it was among the three worst years on record,” said Wayne Jenkinson, WMO’s Director of Hydrology and Cryosphere.
Some regions with smaller glaciers such as Central Europe, the Caucasus, the western Canada and the United States may already have reached “peak water”, Mr. Jenkinson warned.
“After this point, the glacier gives less meltwater each year simply because there is less ice left to melt. That matters for every community downstream that relies on water during hot, dry summers,” he explained.
Narelle van der Wel, WMO’s Head of Cryosphere Monitoring, Predictions and Services, stressed that while some further glacier loss is unavoidable, the eventual scale of the decline is not predetermined.
“Some glacier loss is inevitable, but total loss of glaciers is not yet inevitable,” she said, pointing to emissions reductions as central to limiting future losses.
Preparing for moving baselines
The report does not attribute every observed change to climate change alone. WMO says pressure on water resources and natural variability also contribute.
Mr. Jenkinson said governments need to prepare for “moving baselines” as historical patterns become less reliable.
“The situation 30 years ago is not where we are today,” he said. Countries, he added, need to prepare “for those changes that have really already arrived”.
ends