Spokesperson's Noon Briefing

Department of Public Information • News and Media Division • New York

DAILY PRESS BRIEFING BY THE OFFICE OF THE SPOKESPERSON FOR THE SECRETARY-GENERAL

The following is a near-verbatim transcript of today’s noon briefing by Michèle Montas, Spokesperson for the Secretary-General.

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SECURITY COUNCIL TO DISCUSS LIBYAN REQUEST ON GAZA REPORT

  • The Security Council is holding consultations at 4:00 p.m., to discuss a letter from Libya’s Permanent Mission to the United Nations. That letter requests an urgent meeting of the Security Council to discuss the fact-finding commission headed by Justice Richard Goldstone that looked into the violence in Gaza.
     
  • Asked what the Secretary-General expects from the Security Council, the Spokeswoman made clear that it is up to the Security Council to decide on how to act in response to the report. She said that the Secretary-General would wait for the process to continue in both the Security Council and in the Human Rights Council, which is the body that authorized the report.

SOME MUCH-NEEDED GOODS ALLOWED INTO GAZA

  • The Office of the UN Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process (UNSCO) reports that, on Tuesday, sixty-nine trucks made it into Gaza from Israel through the Kerem Shalom crossing. More than half of those trucks were carrying fruit, sugar, dairy products and frozen meat.
     
  • In addition, more than 4,000 tons of wheat and animal feed made it though the Karni crossing. But the Nahal Oz fuel pipeline remained closed.
     
  • The day before that, Monday, eighty trucks passed through Kerem Shalom into Gaza. Two of those trucks carried industrial diesel for Gaza’s power plant. Karni and Nahal Oz were closed that day.
     
  • Asked about the amount of goods getting into Gaza, the Spokeswoman said that it is still insufficient and does not meet the needs of the people.

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For information media • not an official record 


Document Type: Briefing, Press briefing
Document Sources: Secretary-General, Security Council, United Nations Department of Public Information (DPI), United Nations Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process (UNSCO)
Subject: Access and movement, Gaza Strip, Human rights and international humanitarian law, Incursions, Legal issues
Publication Date: 07/10/2009