SECRETARY-GENERAL TRAVELS
The Secretary-General arrived in Beijing at midday, as we announced yesterday. He is there at the invitation of the Chinese government and will take part in the Third Belt and Road Forum for International Cooperation.  
He began his day with a number of bilateral meetings, notably with China’s Foreign Minister, Wang Yi, and Xie Zhenhua, the country’s Special Envoy for Climate Change. 
In the evening, the Secretary-General attended a banquet for the Belt and Road Forum, hosted by the President of China, Xi Jinping.
Tomorrow he will deliver remarks during the opening ceremony of the Belt and Road Forum and he will also address a high-level forum on climate, and he is also scheduled to have additional bilateral meetings, including with the President of China and he will leave Beijing on Wednesday night.
And on Thursday, the Secretary-General will arrive in Cairo, in the Egyptian capital, to engage with the Egyptian leadership, including President Abdel Fattah Al Sisi and others on the current situation in the region. The Secretary-General will also speak at the international conference on Saturday that is being hosted by President Sisi on Saturday.
We will share with you more details as to his programme as they are confirmed both on travel and meetings.

GAZA
This morning, the Assistant Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs, Joyce Msuya, briefed the Member States on the humanitarian situation in Gaza. She said that the situation can only be described as an utter catastrophe. As every hour passes, she said the restoration of essential supplies and services and the need to get more humanitarian assistance into Gaza becomes ever more critical.
She said that the UN will continue to engage with the parties and States with influence to identify urgent solutions in terms of getting humanitarian aid into Gaza so we can deliver these supplies also to secure humanitarian access throughout the territory and to allow UN and NGO personnel in and out of the Gaza Strip. 
I just wanted to give you an update on the World Food Programme, which they tell us have more than 310 tonnes of ready-to-eat food either at the border or on their way to Rafah – enough to feed about a quarter-million people for about a week. More food supplies are arriving in Al Arish airport, in northeastern Egypt.
Meanwhile, the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) is supporting the overall UN efforts to provide much-needed support to Gaza through the Egyptian Red Crescent. UNHCR will be providing bottled water, blankets, mattresses, jerrycans, hygiene kits and clothing items.
Since 7 October, UNESCO has also confirmed the deaths of nine journalists in the line of duty during the Hamas terrorist attack and the Israeli military response in Gaza, but also on the Israeli-Lebanese border following the resurgence of tensions with Hezbollah. The death toll could rise further, UNESCO warns.

UN RELIEF AND WORKS AGENCY
Just to give you a little update on UNRWA, at least six people were killed this afternoon when an UNRWA school was hit in al-Maghazi refugee camp, in the middle area of the Gaza Strip.
Commissioner General Philippe Lazzarini said that this is outrageous, and it again shows a flagrant disregard for the lives of civilians. No place is safe in Gaza anymore, not even UNRWA facilities, he warned.
UNRWA also said today that water remains a key issue in Gaza, as people will start dying if they don’t get water. 
Concerns over dehydration and waterborne diseases are high, given the collapse of water and sanitation services, including today’s shutdown of Gaza’s last functioning seawater desalination plant.  
One water line was opened today for three hours only in the South of the Gaza Strip, feeding limited water to only half of the population of Khan Yunis that’s about 100,000 people. 
UNRWA says that 600,000 litres of fuel are needed in Gaza per day to operate water and desalinization plants.
Fuel reserves at all hospitals across Gaza are expected to last for an additional 24 hours only.
The shutdown of backup generators would place the lives of thousands of patients at serious risk.
So far, UNRWA tells us that 14 of their staff members have been killed since 7 October and there are 24 confirmed reports of UNRWA installations across the Gaza Strip impacted as a result of airstrikes and bombardment. The actual number is likely to be higher.

SUDAN
Turning to Sudan, the UN Refugee Agency released staggering numbers today, saying that nearly 4,000 civilians have been killed and thousands of others injured in Darfur, between 15 April and August of this year. The majority are believed to have been targeted mainly due to their ethnicity, and this is true particularly in West Darfur. 
At least 29 cities, towns and villages have been destroyed across Darfur after extensive looting and burning. In addition, schools in the area have been closed, cutting off access to education and safe spaces for millions of young children.
UNHCR and partners provided displaced families in North and West Darfur with core relief items. And of course, the agency, and all of us at the UN, continue to call on the parties to the conflict to guarantee the protection of civilians, including refugees and internally displaced human beings, and to ensure safe passage of humanitarian assistance wherever it’s needed.

GREAT LAKES
This morning back here, the Secretary-General’s Special Envoy for the Great Lakes Region, Huang Xia, briefed Security Council members. He said that since his last briefing to the Council about half a year ago, the humanitarian and security situation in the region has not improved. On the contrary, hostilities have resumed in North Kivu, and the risk of a direct confrontation between the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Rwanda remains very real.
The number of displaced people and refugees in eastern DRC has also continued to increase and the Special Envoy reiterated his appeal to the international community to strengthen humanitarian assistance and for urgent measures to be taken to facilitate the return of displaced people to their homes, the majority of whom are women and children.

CLIMATE CHANGE 
Our friends in Geneva at the World Meteorological Organization tell us that we just had the hottest September on record – putting this year on track to be the warmest year on record.  June, July, August and September all broke monthly records.
In addition, for the sixth consecutive month, September saw a record-high monthly global ocean surface temperature and Antarctica also had its warmest September with sea ice remaining at seasonal record lows.

ERADICATION OF POVERTY
Today is the International Day for the Eradication of Poverty. Nearly 700 million people barely make ends meet, living on less than $2.15 per day. In his message, the Secretary-General said that ending poverty is the challenge of our time, but it is a challenge we can win.