(8 May 2024)
RESTRICTION SUMMARY:
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Dikwaneh, Beirut – 8 May 2024
1. Exterior of World Food Programme (WFP) warehouse in Dikwaneh, an eastern suburb of Beirut
2. Various of food ration boxes stacked inside warehouse to be distributed to Gaza
3. Various of WFP Deputy Director Carl Skau assessing stacked boxes
4. SOUNDBITE (English) Carl Skau, WFP Deputy Director:
“I don’t know how much I can stress how deeply concerned we are about the announcement of operations beginning in Rafah, first and foremost of course for the 1.2 or 1.3 million civilians that are now in Rafah. I was there and it is a cramped place. People are sleeping and camping on the streets on the sidewalks and it’s people are everywhere. And to have a military operation in that environment is going to have a serious toll on the civilian population. But also our humanitarian operation, not only ours but also the entire humanitarian system, has been based out of Rafah, both for the crossings in Kerem Shalom and Rafah but also for our staff and our warehouses. So we are now trying to find ways to diversify, to put the warehouses and equipment elsewhere on the Strip and to look of course for other possibilities of entry beyond Rafah and Kerem Shalom.”
5. Various of food and ingredients in ration boxes
6. Wide of warehouse
7. SOUNDBITE (English) Carl Skau, WFP Deputy Director:
“Luckily, we have been able in the past week to use Erez (crossing) in the north. Both with convoys from Ashdod and from Jordan. And we hope that will be sustained and continue and that we would be able to bring also larger volumes but also diversify our assistance. To turn the tide on famine we cannot only bring food we need also to bring in nutrition supplements and restock the health system because the situation of malnutrition among children is really desperate.”
8. Various of food ration boxes in warehouse
9. SOUNDBITE (English) Carl Skau, WFP Deputy Director:
“Well overall it is a deeply concerning situation. We estimated about 25% of the Lebanese and refugees are acutely food insecure, and we assisted some 2.5 million people last year. Our funding is coming down, so this year we are estimating that we would be able to support maybe a million-and-a- half and we need to make sure that the money we have is used in the most efficient and targeted way possible.”
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Bourj Hammoud, Beirut – 8 May 2024
10. Pan of street and exterior of social development centre of Lebanese Ministry of Social Affairs
11. Various of meeting with Skau, World Bank Managing Director of Operations Anna Bjerde, as well as beneficiaries and social workers working on Emergency Social Safety Net Program funded by WFP and World bank
12. SOUNDBITE (English) Anna Bjerde, World Bank Managing Director of Operations:
“The World Bank and the World Food program have been working with the Ministry of Social Affairs to implement the project called the Emergency Social Safety Net Programme which is helping about a 100 thousand households here in Lebanon deal with the prolonged and severe economic and financial crisis.”
13. Various of meeting
14. Social development centre exterior
STORYLINE:
The United Nations food agency’s deputy executive director said on Wednesday that it is not prepared for the spike of needs in crisis-hit Lebanon that would come with an escalation of conflict in the Gazan city of Rafah.
U.N. World Food Programme (WFP) deputy executive director Carl Skau told The Associated Press that they were "deeply concerned" with the Israeli announcement of operations beginning in Rafah.
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