HIGHLIGHTS OF THE NOON BRIEFING BY STÉPHANE DUJARRIC
SPOKESPERSON FOR SECRETARY-GENERAL ANTÓNIO GUTERRES
MONDAY, 20 MAY 2024

IRAN 
The Secretary-General is saddened by the death of H.E. Mr. Sayyed Ebrahim Raisi, President of the Islamic Republic of Iran, H.E. Mr. Hossein Amir-Abdollahian, Minister for Foreign Affairs, and their colleagues in a helicopter accident on 19 May. 
The Secretary-General expresses his sincere condolences to the families of the deceased and to the Government and people of the Islamic Republic of Iran.  
 
OCCUPIED PALESTINIAN TERRITORY 
Turning to the situation in Gaza, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs say that Israeli bombardment continues to be reported across much of Gaza, as well as ground incursions and heavy fighting, especially in eastern Rafah in the south and Jabaliya in the north. 
More than 900,000 people – about 40 per cent of Gaza’s population – have been displaced over the past two weeks – including some 812,000 people from Rafah and more than 100,000 others in northern Gaza. 
To date, more than 75 per cent of the Gaza Strip – some 285 square kilometres – is under evacuation orders, amid escalating hostilities. Under international humanitarian law, civilians – whether they move or stay – must be protected. Wherever they are in Gaza, their essential needs, including food, shelter, water and health, must be met.
As the large-scale displacement of civilians in Gaza continues, hundreds of thousands of people are experiencing extremely poor living conditions. 
UN humanitarian partners - working to provide shelter to people in Gaza - report that there are no tents and very few shelter items left for distribution. 
OCHA says people displaced from Rafah are seeking shelter in Khan Younis and Deir al Balah on any open land available, including access roads and agricultural land, and damaged buildings that have not been structurally assessed. 
Meanwhile, the UN has been working to provide water, sanitation and hygiene support in Gaza say that there are shortages of hygiene kits and water containers for households to collect and store water. This is especially critical given ongoing displacement.
As more people move to areas lacking basic necessities such as water and food, the UN’s partners trying to maintain health care in Gaza are bracing for a further surge in communicable diseases and malnutrition. 
The escalating fighting in Rafah and in northern Gaza has severely disrupted nutrition services, according to the UN teams working on that part of the response.  
In Rafah, the World Food Programme’s partners have lost access to more than 100 distribution points for malnutrition prevention activities. 
 
SENIOR PERSONNEL APPOINTMENT
Today, the Secretary-General is appointing Jeanine Hennis-Plasschaert of the Netherlands as his new Special Coordinator for Lebanon, in the UN Office of the Special Coordinator for Lebanon, known as UNSCOL. 
Ms. Hennis-Plasschaert succeeds Joanna Wronecka of Poland, to whom the Secretary-General is grateful for her commitment and leadership of UNSCOL. 
Currently serving as the Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Iraq and Head of the UN Assistance Mission for Iraq (UNAMI) (since 2018), Ms. Hennis-Plasschaert brings to this position over 25 years of experience in diplomacy, international security and Middle East affairs.  Prior to that, she was Minister of Defence of the Netherlands (2012-2017) – the first woman to hold this position.  

TRIP ANNOUNCEMENT   
The Deputy Secretary-General, Amina Mohammed, is in Barbados to open the inaugural Global Supply Chain Forum alongside Prime Minister Mia Mottley and Rebeca Grynspan, the Secretary-General for UN Trade and Development.  
The forum brings together industry leaders, policymakers and experts to discuss policies that can support the global supply chain management in the face of increasingly frequent supply chain shocks, and the future of global trade. 
While in Barbados, the Deputy Secretary-General will also discuss the reform of the international financial architecture with Prime Minister Mottley, including the Prime Minister’s Bridgetown initiative.  

USG/QATAR 
The Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs, Martin Griffiths, is in Doha to hold talks with senior Government officials on ways to bolster the partnership between Qatar and the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs and to discuss ways to ensure the humanitarian system is better prepared to address crises. 
Today, Mr. Griffiths spoke at the Global Security Forum, where he noted that strategic competition has been the hidden – and not so hidden – hand behind the outbreak of seemingly endless conflicts.  
But he said that he has hope – because in the fiercest conflicts, humanitarian diplomacy has appealed to the common good, such as with the Black Sea Initiative.  
“Humanity will outlive the decisions of bad leaders,” Mr. Griffiths said. 

UKRAINE 
The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said that today and over the weekend, escalating hostilities in the Kharkiv Region have continued to cause multiple civilian casualties – including among children, first responders and health personnel – that’s according to local authorities and aid workers. Meanwhile, attacks in eastern and southern Ukraine over the weekend caused scores of civilian casualties and damage to homes and civilian infrastructure, according to authorities and humanitarian workers there.  
In the Kharkiv Region, aid organizations have registered nearly 8,500 people at the transit centre in Kharkiv City, where they are now receiving humanitarian assistance, including food, clothes, hygiene items and health services. Aid workers are also providing support in other parts of Ukraine that are impacted by the hostilities.       
 
SECURITY COUNCIL 
This morning, the High Representative for Disarmament Affairs, Izumi Nakamitsu, briefed Security Council members in an open meeting on ‘Threats to international peace and security’. She said that over the last months, transfers of arms and ammunition to the Ukrainian armed forces have continued. On the other side, there have also been reports of States transferring, or planning to transfer, weapons to the Russian armed forces and that these weapons have been used in Ukraine.  
She warned that the large-scale influx of arms and ammunition into any armed conflict raises significant concerns for peace and security including as a result of diversion and proliferation even after the conflict has ended. 
This afternoon Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process, Tor Wennesland, and OCHA’s Director of Operations and Advocacy, Edem Wosornu, are expected to brief the Council in an open meeting on ‘The situation in the Middle East including the Palestinian Question’.  
 
MYANMAR 
In Myanmar, the UN continues to follow closely the situation in Rakhine State, which is worsening the vulnerabilities of all communities in one of country’s poorest regions.   
The team on the ground is deeply alarmed by the latest reports of further escalating violence and destruction taking place in Buthidaung and Maungdaw townships.  
The capital of Rakhine State – Sittwe - also remains concerning, with reports of food shortages, unavailability of cash, soaring market prices, water scarcity and the spread of water-borne disease. Humanitarian assistance and essential services have been heavily interrupted across the states. 
Over the weekend, the High Commissioner for Refugees, Filippo Grandi, and the High Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker Türk, both called on all parties to pause the fighting, protect civilians, and allow immediate and unhindered humanitarian access.           
They also appealed to neighbouring countries to extend protection and allow safe access to refugees fleeing their lives.  
The UN calls on all military and political leaders, as well as community influencers to do their part to deescalate and defuse attempts to reignite inter-communal tensions, particularly between ethnic Rakhine and Rohingya, and avoid the repetition of past human rights atrocities in Rakhine State.  
 
ABYEI 
The peacekeeping mission in Abyei reports that over the weekend, the Ngok Dinka and Misseriya communities signed an agreement at a post-Migration Conference in central Abyei to foster peaceful farming and grazing and improve inter-communal relations. The gathering was a follow-on to the successful pre-migration conference held in Noong, which is located to the west of Abyei, in December of last year, and follows a welcome decline in clashes between the Ngok Dinka and Misseriya communities during the migration season.   
More than 140 community leaders and members from both communities, including 41 women, attended the four-day conference facilitated by the UN Interim Security Force for Abyei (UNISFA) and other UN and non-UN partners.       

NEW RESIDENT COORDINATOR 
The Secretary-General has appointed Kristèle Younès of Lebanon as the United Nations Resident Coordinator in Guinea, with the host Government’s approval. She started today. Ms. Younès brings more than 20 years of experience in humanitarian, human rights and development work in international organizations and academia.  She previously served as Director of the Human Rights and Humanitarian Policy Concentration at Columbia University’s Graduate School of International and Public Affairs (SIPA) in New York.  Her work experience has been in Sudan, Somalia, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Afghanistan, the Middle East and Bosnia and Herzegovina. 
 
WORLD BEE DAY 
Today is World Bee Day.  
Bees and other pollinators, such as butterflies and hummingbirds, have a fundamental role for the survival of our ecosystem.  
Unfortunately, they are increasingly under threat from human activities. 
 
GUEST - TOMORROW 
Tomorrow, noon briefing guest is Peggy Walters, the Spokesperson and Director of the Department of Media and Communications for the International Organization for Migration (IOM). She will brief on IOM’s International Dialogue on Migration.