HIGHLIGHTS OF THE NOON BRIEFING BY FARHAN HAQ,
DEPUTY SPOKESPERSON FOR SECRETARY-GENERAL ANTÓNIO GUTERRES
THURSDAY, 24 JULY 2025
THAILAND/CAMBODIA
In response to questions about the situation between Thailand and Cambodia, the Deputy Spokesperson said that the Secretary-General is following with concern reports of armed clashes at the border between Cambodia and Thailand. The Secretary-General urges both sides to exercise maximum restraint and address any issues through dialogue and in a spirit of good neighbourliness, with a view to finding a lasting solution to the dispute.
AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL
Tomorrow morning, at about 10:00 a.m., the Secretary-General is scheduled to deliver remarks at Amnesty International’s 2025 Global Assembly.
In his remarks, which he will deliver virtually, the Secretary-General will highlight concerns about human rights challenges around the world and the importance of recognizing that human rights are the solution to those challenges.
The remarks will be shown live on UN Web TV.
INTERNATIONAL COURT OF JUSTICE/CLIMATE
Yesterday, in a message, the Secretary-General welcomed that the International Court of Justice has issued its historic advisory opinion. He noted that they made clear that all States are obligated under international law to protect the global climate system.
The Secretary-General underscored that this is a victory for our planet, for climate justice, and for the power of young people to make a difference. He pointed out that young Pacific Islanders initiated this call for humanity to the world, and the world must respond.
The Secretary-General stressed that as the ICJ has laid out, the 1.5-degree goal of the Paris Agreement must be the basis of all climate policies, under the current climate change treaty regime.
For his part, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker Türk, highlighted that the advisory opinion makes clear that human rights law and obligations apply in the context of climate change and must be taken into full account by States. He added that this includes the human right to life, as well as to a clean, healthy and sustainable environment, which the ICJ says is foundational for the effective enjoyment of all human rights.
OCCUPIED PALESTINIAN TERRITORY
The Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) reports that UN teams were able to collect food aid, mainly flour, from Kerem Shalom and Zikim crossings yesterday. But UN partners note that more than one million children are bearing the brunt of deepening starvation and malnutrition, with reports of death from malnutrition increasing by the day.
According to UN partners working in nutrition, in the first two weeks of July, nearly 5,000 of the 56,000 children under the age of 5 who were screened for malnutrition in the Gaza, Deir al Balah and Khan Younis governorates were found to be acutely malnourished. This is a staggering 9 per cent rate, up from 6 per cent in June and just 2.4 per cent in February.
Today, Philippe Lazzarini, the Under-Secretary-General of the United Nations and Commissioner-General of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) said that one in every five children in Gaza City is malnourished, according to the agency’s latest findings.
To give you some numbers on the facilitation of our movements inside Gaza: Yesterday, out of 16 attempts to coordinate such humanitarian movements, only eight were facilitated, including the collection and transfer of limited fuel. Two other movements were initially approved but then faced impediments on the ground, three were outright denied, including the retrieval of medical supplies, and the remaining three had to be cancelled by the organizers.
OCHA and our partners emphasize that the aid that they have been able to bring into Gaza over the past two months is nowhere near sufficient to meet people’s survival needs.
The UN and its partners are unable to bring enough aid into Gaza due to a number of interdependent factors, including: bureaucratic, logistical, administrative and other operational obstacles imposed by Israeli authorities; ongoing hostilities and access constraints within Gaza; and incidents of criminal looting, and more shooting incidents that have killed and injured people gathering to offload aid supplies along convoy routes.
Taken together, these factors have put people and humanitarian staff at grave risk and forced aid agencies on many occasions to pause the collection of cargo from crossings controlled by the Israeli authorities.
OCHA stresses that the little assistance that has been able to reach warehouses, distribution points and other humanitarian facilities inside Gaza is woefully insufficient to curb starvation or sustain life-saving operations, particularly as the Israeli military continues to issue new displacement orders.
So many families have been squeezed into just 12 per cent of Gaza area, while the remaining 88 per cent of the Strip now either falls within Israeli-militarized zones or has been placed under displacement orders.
Meanwhile, the entry of critical items such as tents – or any other shelter materials – has been banned by the Israeli authorities for over 20 weeks. And the trickle of fuel now let in is also wholly insufficient.
UN staff on the ground, who themselves are affected, displaced and going hungry, insist on staying and providing life-saving assistance. They, like the rest of the UN, continue to call for a ceasefire and an end to the devastation.
And I’d like to make a clarification to something we said yesterday, when we stated that 220 mothers died in Gaza from January to June 2025.
It has now been clarified that the 220 "pregnancy-related deaths before birth" which had been reported by the Palestinian Ministry of Health in fact refers to stillbirths and not maternal deaths.
SYRIA
The Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) today said that they led an interagency visit to Rural Damascus Governorate, where they assessed needs and provided assistance to more than 500 families displaced by the recent violence in As-Sweida Governate. They visited the Sayyeda Zeinab community, and in the coming days, OCHA is also planning to visit Dar’a Governorate, where humanitarians are working to support tens of thousands of displaced people.
In As-Sweida yesterday, the supplies brought in on the second convoy from the Syrian Arab Red Crescent are being distributed. They include food, wheat flour, fuel, medicines and health supplies, with UN agencies also providing support. Medical items were delivered to the As-Sweida national hospital, and the wheat flour was dispatched to bakeries.
The UN continues to engage with the Syrian authorities and partners to facilitate direct access to As-Sweida.
In Rural Damascus and Dar’a, our partners are scaling up protection services for displaced people – including psychosocial first aid and case management support for children. Community centres and mobile teams are providing legal and medical referrals.
In Rural Damascus, Dar’a and As-Sweida governorates, more than 1,600 dignity kits have been distributed to displaced women and girls, with our partners also providing recreational activities, awareness sessions on gender-based violence, and support for women and children.
DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF THE CONGO
The Peacekeeping mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (MONUSCO) strongly condemns the resurgence of violence in the Ituri Province, which has resulted in the deaths of dozens of civilians.
The mission is especially concerned by the repeated and deadly attacks carried out by the ADF - the Allied Democratic Forces, which have claimed the lives of 82 civilians in the provinces of Ituri and North Kivu.
MONUSCO also condemns the attacks on civilians that occurred earlier this week in Djugu territory, as well as the looting and desecration of the Catholic parish of Lopa, attributed to the CODECO armed group.
MONUSCO encourages provincial authorities to continue promoting dialogue among all communities in Ituri to reduce tensions.
The Mission reaffirms its unwavering commitment to dialogue, social cohesion, and the search for sustainable solutions for peace in eastern DRC. Our peacekeeping colleagues remain fully engaged alongside Congolese authorities and local communities to de-escalate tensions, protect civilians, and support stabilization efforts in affected areas.
SUDAN
The Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) is alarmed by the ongoing violence against civilians in the Kordofan region. In West Kordofan State, a professional association of Sudanese doctors reported yesterday that an attack on the Brima Rashid area, north of An Nuhud town, killed some 30 people and seriously injured more than 40 others. Reports from the ground indicate that fighters entered the centre of the village in combat vehicles and opened fire indiscriminately on homes and a market. Women, children and older people are reportedly among the casualties.
Medical sources say many of the wounded need urgent surgical care. OCHA stresses that events in Brima Rashid underscore the growing risks facing civilians in the Kordofan region and the urgent need for a cessation of hostilities, protection of civilians, and safe, sustained access to humanitarian assistanceand services.
OCHA is also warning about the impact of growing gaps in humanitarian assistance in the Darfur region. In North Darfur State, needs are mounting in the locality of Tawila – which is hosting hundreds of thousands of people who fled fighting in and around El Fasher. UN humanitarian partners report that just over half of water needs are currently being met, and latrine coverage has dropped to a critically low ratio of one latrine for every 150 people.
Many emergency latrines are collapsing, with no funding available for de-sludging or replacement. Hygiene support is minimal, particularly in remote areas, and distributions of dignity kits have been inconsistent, as funding constraints have led to supply shortages. A cholera outbreak in Tawila is compounding this already dire situation. As you know, the UN and its partners launched an operational response plan focusing on Tawila earlier this week, requesting $120 million to urgently scale up life-saving support in the area.
Meanwhile, in Northern State, a recent nutrition campaign led by the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and its partners reached more than 98 per cent of the targeted 135,000 children and 28,000 pregnant women across seven localities. Nearly 2,000 cases of acute malnutrition were identified, and mobile clinics have been dispatched to gathering sites in Ad Dabbah and Delgo, which continue to receive people fleeing conflict in North Darfur.
UKRAINE
The Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) says that attacks across the country have hit several regions today and yesterday. Kharkiv, Cherkasy, Odesa City, and the Kherson and the Donetsk Regions are among the impacted areas, with people killed and injured and damaged to civilian infrastructure, as reported by the authorities and aid workers.
Amid the ongoing hostilities, almost 600 people were evacuated from the Donetsk Region. Another two-dozen people were evacuated from the northeastern region of Sumy in the past day due to heavy fighting.
After the overnight attacks in Cherkasy and Odesa, aid workers helped first responders by providing first aid, meals, shelter materials, hygiene kits, emotional support and legal help to affected families.
RUSSIA
In response to questions about the crash of a passenger plane in Russia, the Deputy Spokesperson said that the UN sends its condolences to the families of the victims of the crash, as well as to the people and the Government of Russia.
SECURITY COUNCIL
This morning, Assistant Secretary-General for the Middle East, Asia and the Pacific, Khaled Khiari, briefed the Security Council on the Cooperation between the UN and Regional and Sub-regional Organizations.
He said that at a time of growing geopolitical complexity, cooperation with organizations such as the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) remains indispensable. He underscored that in the Middle East, the UN and the OIC have long shared common objectives in seeking a lasting and comprehensive resolution to the question of Palestine. Cooperation with the OIC is also evident in Lebanon, Syria, Afghanistan, Sudan and other parts of the region.
Mr. Khiari added that, guided by Chapter VIII of the Charter, such cooperation is a key priority for the Secretary-General and an important part of implementing the Pact for the Future.
AFGHANISTAN
Today, the UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan and the UN Human Rights Office released a report documenting the cases of individuals involuntarily returned to Afghanistan who have experienced serious human rights violations on the basis of their specific profiles.
According to the report, these violations have included torture and ill-treatment, arbitrary arrest and detention, and threats to personal security, at the hands of the de facto authorities.
The report found that groups of people returning to the country who were at particular risk of reprisals and other human rights violations by the de facto authorities were women and girls, individuals affiliated with the former government and its security forces, media workers and civil society.
The UN High Commissioner for Refugees, Filippo Grandi, concluded his travels to Afghanistan and Iran yesterday. He discussed the Afghan emergency with the authorities and the importance of safe, voluntary and dignified returns.
Mr. Grandi highlighted the need for more international support for the Afghans at a time of multiple challenges in the country, as well as for host communities in countries of asylum.
TIMOR-LESTE
The World Health Organization (WHO) today announced that it has certified Timor-Leste as malaria-free. WHO noted that this is a remarkable achievement for a country that prioritized the disease and embarked on a concerted, nation-wide response shortly after gaining independence in 2002.
Dr. Tedros Ghebreyesus, WHO Director-General, said that Timor-Leste’s success proves that malaria can be stopped in its tracks when strong political will, smart interventions, sustained domestic and external investment and dedicated health workers unite.
With today’s announcement, a total of 47 countries and 1 territory have been certified as malaria-free by WHO.
BRIEFING TOMORROW
Tomorrow, at 12:45 p.m., there will be a press briefing by Diego Pacheco, the Chair of the Landlocked Developing Countries and Chargé d´Affaires of the Bolivian Mission to the United Nations.
He will brief on the adoption of the General Assembly resolution "International Day of Awareness of the Special Development Needs and Challenges of Landlocked Developing Countries".
