OCCUPIED PALESTINIAN TERRITORY
I’ll start with an update on Gaza. Our colleagues from the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) say that civilians displaced by escalating hostilities and evacuation orders in Gaza lack shelter, they lack food, they lack water and other supplies and services essential for human survival.  
This comes amid reports of the ongoing Israeli bombardment, as well as heavy fighting and ground incursions, particularly in eastern Rafah in the south and Jabalya in the northern part of the Gaza Strip.
Since 6 May, nearly 815,000 people have been displaced from Rafah, with about 100,000 others displaced in the north. 
Over the past 10 days, nearly 150,000 people have registered with UNRWA (UN Relief and Works Agency) in Khan Younis – they’ve registered to receive services from UNRWA - with a 36 per cent increase in the number of people at UNRWA facilities there.
The agency says that families are living among rubble in damaged schools, and they lack tents, essential services as well as vital supplies. 
Yesterday, supply shortages and insecurity forced UNRWA to suspend food distribution in Rafah. 
Every effort is being made to establish additional kitchens in Khan Younis, in Deir al Balah and Gaza City and scale up the distribution of hot meals. However, our partners working to get food to people in need warn that supplies for hot meals might soon be exhausted. Persistent shortages – including of cooking gas, which is essential – are hindering efforts to keep community kitchens and bakeries running.
UNRWA says the agency is working with communities in Khan Younis to provide water, sanitation and waste collection support. However, the challenges are immense, including scarce water, fuel and sanitary resources.
Meanwhile, as hostilities continue in northern Gaza, the World Health Organization says Kamal Adwan hospital – the largest partially functional hospital in the north – was reportedly hit four times yesterday. In a social media post, the Director-General of WHO, Dr. Tedros, noted that efforts were underway to evacuate 20 health staff and more than a dozen patients who were still inside the facility. 
And turning in the West Bank, the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs reports that 16 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli forces since 14 May, including nine in Jenin and four in Tulkarm governorate. 
 
HAITI 
Coming back to this hemisphere, in Haiti, our humanitarian colleagues say that violence continues to affect the health sector, further limiting people’s access to life-saving care in and around the capital, Port-au-Prince. 
According to our health partners, only 20 per cent of health facilities in Port-au-Prince are fully operational. The fact that 80 per cent of them are not fully operational is due to attacks and looting by armed groups.  
The resumption of some commercial flights at the Port-au-Prince International Airport at the beginning of the week is a positive development.  
Our humanitarian colleagues say it is critical for the airport to be fully operational but we also need the seaport to reopen to bring in a larger volume of supplies.
A lot of the seaport is crucial to ensure the entry of medicine and medical supplies into the country to replenish dwindling stocks. 
Since late February, the International Organization for Migration and its partners have supported the delivery of healthcare services to more than 21,000 displaced men, women and children, that is in Port-au-Prince and that is being done through mobile clinics. 
Meanwhile, UNICEF said yesterday that it facilitated the delivery of 38 tons of supplies, including health and cholera kits and other essential medical commodities.  
The delivery was made possible via an airbridge from Panama into Cap-Haïtien, and that is being supported by the European Union Aid Office and operationalized by the World Food Programme, who as you know deal with logistics among other things.
 
BURUNDI 
In Burundi, the Emergency Relief Coordinator, Martin Griffiths, has allocated $2.5 million from the Central Emergency Response Fund and that allocation was made to support the response to the floods impacting the country. 
With these new funds, the UN and its partners will provide life-saving assistance to more than 63,000 people, including water and hygiene kits, latrines, health support and cash assistance. 
Since the beginning of the year, heavy rains have caused severe flooding and landslides across the country, particularly by Lake Tanganyika, in the southwest. 
Nearly 300,000 people have been impacted, with more than 47,000 people displaced. Thousands of homes and schools, as well as 10 per cent of Burundi’s food crops, have now been damaged. And our humanitarian colleagues warn that the floods have also increased the spread of water-borne diseases.
 
CENTRAL AFRICAN REPUBLIC 
And moving north to the Central African Republic, our peacekeeping colleagues there tell us that work is ongoing in the Bamingui-Bangoran prefecture - in the country’s north - to rehabilitate roads and bridges, including, as part of the five main axes.  
The goal of this work is to better protect the population in the prefecture. The Mission reports that work on the Bamingui-Ndele axis is already helping improve the speed of response by UN peacekeepers and national security forces.  
The security situation there remains generally calm. However, the presence of armed groups in certain remote areas, particularly areas rich in natural resources and close to grazing routes, remains of concern.
At the start of the rainy season, roads that are already in poor state in those areas can soon become impassible, causing movement limitations and impacting prevention and rapid response to security issues.  
Beyond providing support to the national and local authorities in responding to violence, the peacekeeping mission says it is also helping to resolve local conflicts through mediation. 
 
BIOLOGICAL DIVERSITY 
Today is the International Day for Biological Diversity.  
In his message, the Secretary-General warned that we are contaminating land, oceans, and freshwater with toxic pollution, wrecking landscapes and ecosystems, and disrupting our precious climate with greenhouse gas emissions.  
He underscored that to protect and restore biodiversity, governments must take the lead. But we all have a role to play. 

GUEST TOMORROW 
Tomorrow, we will have a guest and that is the Director of Advocacy and Operations for OCHA, Edem Wosornu. She will be here to update you on her recent missions to Afghanistan and Pakistan last week, as well as to Sudan earlier this month.