Noon briefing of 17 November 2025

HIGHLIGHTS OF THE NOON BRIEFING BY STÉPHANE DUJARRIC

SPOKESPERSON FOR SECRETARY-GENERAL ANTÓNIO GUTERRES

MONDAY, 17 NOVEMBER 2025

SENIOR PERSONNEL APPOINTMENT 

Today, the Secretary-General, following consultations with the Executive Board of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), wrote to the President of the General Assembly requesting the General Assembly to confirm Alexander De Croo of Belgium as the new Administrator of UNDP for a term of four years. The General Assembly confirmed the nomination today.   

Mr. De Croo succeeds Achim Steiner of Germany to whom the Secretary-General is grateful for his leadership and commitment to the Organization. He also wishes to express his appreciation to Haoliang Xu, Associate Administrator of UNDP, who has been handling the interim and will continue to do so until Mr. De Croo’s arrival.                                                  

Just as background. Mr. De Croo has dedicated much of his career to public service advancing global solidarity, combining political leadership, development cooperation, and innovation. As former Prime Minister of Belgium from 2020 to 2025, he worked closely with multilateral institutions to steer structural change for people in some of the world’s most vulnerable regions, having consistently supported UNDP as a key partner. 

SECRETARY-GENERAL/COP30 

The Secretary-General has arrived in Belém, in Brazil, a few hours ago, where, as you all know, COP30 is currently under way. As mentioned last week, during the next few days, he will be meeting with negotiating parties, including various regional groups and ministers. He will also engage with civil society representatives, indigenous peoples and youth.    

OCCUPIED PALESTINIAN TERRITORY

Turning to the situation in Gaza, the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs warns that the humanitarian situation remains very difficult, with many people struggling to access the basics they need to survive.   

Following heavy rains on Friday, humanitarian teams carried out rapid assessments of impacted areas over the weekend and provided some initial aid. More than 13,000 families are estimated to have been impacted by the flooding.   

According to our partners working on shelter, over the weekend, they helped distribute at least 9,000 tents, 83,000 tarpaulins and 59,000 blankets, with thousands more planned in the coming days.  

While we and our partners have moved swiftly to respond to rain-affected areas, our efforts remain constrained by inadequate volumes of shelter and other necessary supplies allowed to enter through the UN-coordinated mechanism.                                                    

With temperatures dropping and winter fast approaching, we must be allowed to expand the shelter response to meet the vast scale of needs across the Gaza Strip. We continue to call for unrestricted, for rapid and sustained access; the opening of additional crossings; facilitation of entry of tents that are currently restricted, as well as critical equipment to maintain storm drains and repair sanitation networks; permissions for NGOs to bring in supplies; and the safe movement of humanitarian convoys. Since 10 October, at least nine attempts by the United Nations and our partners to bring in tents have been rejected.  

Our partners working on food security report that with the volume of food parcels entering Gaza having increased in recent days, they plan to resume the distribution of two food parcels and one bag of flour [per household] across the Strip.                                                                     

Earlier last week, distributions in the north had to be limited to high-energy biscuits and one bag of flour because partners working to bring supplies were facing impediments, including the de-prioritization of humanitarian cargo at crossings, customs clearance delays, and lack of access to northern crossings.  

Meanwhile, our colleagues working on efforts to remove rubble and debris from roads and communities tell us that they have cleared 100,000 tons of debris since the ceasefire came into effect. However, nearly 58 million tons of debris and rubble remain spread across the Gaza Strip – and only half of that amount is currently accessible. 

We and our partners continue to collect supplies daily from the crossings. Over the weekend, we and those working with us started collecting supplies that have been  offloaded at Zikim crossing and are bringing them into Gaza – this is after two months when that crossing had been closed. Our teams collected over 2,700 pallets of essential supplies.                                               

That’s about 2,600 metric tonnes. Overall, between Thursday and Sunday, we and partners collected over 5,400 metric tonnes of assistance from the crossings. That is what the UN 2720 Mechanism dashboard is telling us. Supplies included food, tents, tarpaulins, blankets, mattresses, medicine and animal fodder. 

LEBANON/ISRAEL

Moving north, to the latest developments in Southern Lebanon. The Secretary-General is deeply concerned by the increased frequency of incidents impacting the safety and security of our peacekeepers in Lebanon.

Yesterday, an Israeli tank near one of the IDF positions located north of the Blue Line opened fire towards northeast of Sarda in Sector East. Rounds of fire hit approximately five meters from our peacekeepers who were in the vicinity. UNIFIL requested the IDF to stop the firing immediately through our liaison channels. Thankfully, no UNIFIL personnel were injured.

The Secretary-General reminds all parties of their obligation to ensure the protection of UN personnel and property. Peacekeepers must never be targeted by attacks.

And in a separate incident also yesterday, a drone fell inside a UN position southeast of Marwahin in Sector West. A grenade was discovered beneath the drone and detonated by our explosive ordnance disposal team. Our peacekeeping colleagues are trying to determine the origin of the drone.

Also yesterday, a UNIFIL radar detected two separate shelling events where a total of four 120mm mortar shells impacted northwest of Sarda in Sector East. All shells were fired from south to the north of the Blue Line.

Meanwhile, UNIFIL peacekeepers continue to discover unauthorized weapons caches as well as unexploded ordnance in their area of operations. Yesterday, the peacekeepers found a Rocket-Propelled Grenade and ammunition in the vicinity of a 50-meter-long tunnel northwest of Frun in Sector East. UNIFIL marked the area and, as they do, they informed the Lebanese Armed Forces about the finding for disposal.

SECURITY COUNCIL/FOOD INSECURITY 

The Security Council is holding an open debate today on conflict-related food insecurity, a critical issue. Just in the past year, the Famine Review Committee has confirmed famine on three separate occasions: twice in Sudan (December 2024 and November 2025) and once in Gaza (August 2025. This marks the first time that conflict-driven famine has been confirmed more than once in a single year. 

Briefing the Council, our Deputy Secretary-General, Amina Mohammed, emphasized that war and hunger are intertwined, with starvation increasingly used as a weapon. She noted that while global military spending reached $21.9 trillion over the past decade, ending hunger by 2030 would cost $93 billion per year.  

For her part, Ms. Joyce Msuya, the Assistant Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs, urged Council members to use their leverage to address hunger in conflict, calling for stronger policies and practices to protect civilians and facilitating humanitarian action. 

Máximo Torero, the Chief Economist at the Food and Agriculture Organization, told the Council that food insecurity is no longer just a humanitarian challenge, but a matter of global peace and security. Waiting for famine to occur before acting, and before it is too late.  

UKRAINE 

Turning to Ukraine, our OCHA colleagues report that hostilities over the weekend caused dozens of civilian casualties and further disrupted critical services amid cold weather. 

According to authorities, widespread attacks between Saturday and this morning killed at least a dozen of civilians and injured more than 60, including five children. 

In the town of Balakliia, in the Kharkiv region, a missile strike killed three civilians and injured 15 more, among them five girls. Additional casualties were reported in Chernihiv, Dnipro, Donetsk, Kharkiv, Kherson, Sumy and Zaporizhzhia.  

Humanitarian organizations responded immediately after the deadly attack in Balakliia, where they delivered bottled water, snacks, hygiene items, blankets and construction materials, and also offered mental health support.                                           

Authorities and our partners report that residential buildings and critical infrastructure were damaged along the front line. In the region of Odesa, drone attacks left more than 30,000 households without electricity, while strikes in the Chernihiv region disrupted power in several communities. 

Scheduled power outages continued across much of Ukraine following recent attacks. Power disruptions remain particularly severe near the front line, where our partners report that nearly 70 per cent of locations they have assessed face frequent or prolonged outages, while some have no electricity at all. These outages continue to affect the water supply, heating and telecommunications, with direct consequences, as one can imagine, for civilians and our humanitarian operations. 

Meanwhile, OCHA says that evacuations from front-line areas continued over the weekend.                                                                

ABYEI 

The UN Interim Security Force for Abyei, UNISFA, reports that it has completed repairs and maintenance on the Banton Bridge over the River Kiir. This bridge is a vital link between Abyei’s central areas and southern villages, and an important route for trade with South Sudan. The bridge had been unsafe for months, restricting civilian movement, humanitarian access, and the patrols of our peacekeepers.  

Separately, UN peacekeepers also cleared the route from the Northern Check Point to Amiet Market by removing stranded vehicles and repairing rain-damaged road sections. 

And you will have seen, on Friday, the Security Council extended mandate of the peacekeeping force for another year.       

HURRICANE MELISSA 

UNICEF tell us that three weeks after hurricane Melissa hit the Caribbean, nearly 477,000 children are experiencing significant disruptions to their schooling, that is in Cuba, Haiti, and Jamaica. 

With many schools damaged or closed, children have been forced to miss classes or study in temporary spaces that may not be equipped for proper learning. In response, UNICEF is working with local governments and partners to deliver supplies and trying to rehabilitate damaged schools.  

In Cuba, UNICEF has prepositioned supplies to reach 21,000 students, including school kits. They are also supporting efforts for rehabilitation there.  

In Haiti, UNICEF provided 2,800 school kits in South and Nippes Departments and additional actions are planned in the coming weeks.                             

And in Jamaica, the agency has provided teaching and learning materials along with up to 100 temporary learning spaces to support 10,000 children.  

Our colleagues call on donors to protect education by mobilizing money to address the most urgent of the children's needs. More details online. 

SREBRENICA 

At 1:15 this afternoon, the Deputy Secretary-General will be one of the speakers at the dedication of the Flowers of Srebrenica memorial, just outside the building, in the garden overlooking the East River. You’re all invited to attend. 

Bosnia and Herzegovina donated the Flower of Srebrenica Memorial to the UN Secretariat earlier this year as part of the Srebrenica Genocide and the UN Outreach Programme. The Permanent Memorial forms an integral part of the Srebrenica Genocide and the United Nations Outreach Programme, which engages visitors in reflection and commemoration. 

This is part of our colleagues’ activities to mark the 30th anniversary of the genocide in Srebrenica.

ROAD TRAFFIC VICTIMS  

Today is the World Day of Remembrance for Road Traffic Victims. Every year, 1.2 million people are killed in road crashes, and another 50 million are left injured or disabled. Jean Todt, the UN Special Envoy for Road Safety, says that today we remember every life lost on the roads and stand with the families whose lives have been forever changed.  

And in his message for the Day, the Secretary-General notes that solutions exist; from improving infrastructure and legislation, to enforcing safety laws and sharing best practices across borders. 

**Briefings today and tomorrow

Tom Fletcher, the Emergency Relief Coordinator and Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs, briefed reporters on the humanitarian situation in Sudan. He connected to the briefing from Adré, the crossing between Chad and Sudan. 

Tomorrow, at 12:45 p.m., there will be a briefing here organized by the UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs to launch the World Urbanization Prospects 2025: Summary of Results.  

Speakers will be: Bjørg Sandkjær, DESA’s Assistant Secretary-General for Policy Coordination; along with John Wilmoth, whom you all know as DESA’s Director of the Population Division; and Sara Hertog, DESA’s Population Affairs Officer in DESA.