Polio vaccination campaign in North Gaza postponed due to escalation of violence, UN Report highlights Palestinian women’s challenges in Gaza conflict – Daily Press Briefing by the Office of the Spokesperson for the Secretary-General – 23 October 2024

(Excerpt)

The following is a near-verbatim transcript of today’s noon briefing by Farhan Haq, Deputy Spokesman for the Secretary-General.

Good morning, everyone.

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Occupied Palestinian Territory

Turning to the situation in Gaza, the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) warns that Palestinians in North Gaza Governorate are experiencing extreme suffering as the Israeli siege there continues.  OCHA says there are harrowing levels of death, injury and destruction in the north. Civilians are trapped under rubble. The sick and wounded are going without life-saving healthcare.  Families lack food.  Their homes have been destroyed.  They have no shelter.  And nowhere is safe.

International humanitarian law demands that civilians have the essentials they need to survive — that’s food, shelter, medical care, and other critical assistance.  OCHA appeals once again for rapid, unimpeded humanitarian relief — which must reach civilians in need.

Our partners on the ground report that two water stations in North Gaza have stopped operating due to the lack of fuel.  The suspension of service is affecting large areas, including the neighbourhoods of Al-Daraj, Al-Tuffah, Al-Zarga and Sheikh Radwan.  A request earlier this week to deliver 23,000 litres of fuel to North Gaza Governorate was denied by Israeli authorities. From 6 October through yesterday, several attempts to get fuel to Gaza Governorate were also denied.  Another mission was impeded and therefore unable to be accomplished.

The UN and our partners have also been compelled to postpone the polio vaccination campaign in northern Gaza due to the escalating violence, intense bombardment, mass displacement orders, and the lack of assured humanitarian pauses across most of the north.  This final phase of the vaccination effort was supposed to begin today, with the aim of reaching more than 119,000 children across northern Gaza.  The current conditions — including ongoing attacks on civilian infrastructure — continue to jeopardize people’s safety and movement in northern Gaza, making it impossible for families to safely bring their children for vaccination, and for health workers to operate.

It is imperative to stop the polio outbreak in Gaza, before more children are paralyzed and the virus spreads.  To interrupt transmission, at least 90 per cent of all children in every community and neighbourhood must be vaccinated.  The vaccination campaign must be facilitated in the north through the implementation of humanitarian pauses.

Our humanitarian partners say that all logistics, supplies and trained personnel were prepared to vaccinate children across the north with their second dose of the polio vaccine.  However, given that the area currently approved for temporary humanitarian pauses was substantially reduced in geographic size from the previous round of the vaccination campaign — and is now limited only to Gaza City — many children in northern Gaza would have missed out on a second dose.

We and our humanitarian partners continue our efforts to get assistance to people in northern Gaza.  On 15 October, the World Food Programme (WFP) was able to deliver one convoy into Gaza City.  However, the Israeli siege on North Gaza Governorate has prevented the agency from reaching people there for the past three weeks.  WFP warns that September and October saw some of the lowest levels of humanitarian aid entering Gaza since late 2023, alongside a drastic reduction in commercial cargo.

In October, to date, only 20 per cent of the agency’s operational food needs have entered Gaza.  A drastic shortage of supplies across Gaza has almost halted general food distribution.  WFP says very limited aid supplies have entered the south due to insecurity at the Kerem Shalom crossing point.  There is a critical need for a safe and enabling environment for humanitarian operations and convoy movements into and within Gaza.

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Women, Peace and Security

The latest report of the Secretary-General on women, peace and security was released yesterday evening.  The report says that the effects of war and conflict on women and girls are worsening.  Last year, the proportion of women killed in armed conflicts doubled compared to 2022 and four out of every ten people who died because of conflict in 2023 were women. The report also says that UN-verified cases of conflict-related sexual violence increased by 50 per cent.

These increases in deaths and violence against women are taking place against a backdrop of increasingly blatant disregard of international law designed to protect women and children during war.  The report, which was led by UN-Women, says that every day, 500 women and girls in conflict-affected countries die from complications related to pregnancy and childbirth.  By the end of 2023, 180 women were giving birth every day in Gaza — most without necessities or medical care.

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Questions and Answers

Question:  Thank you.  Thank you, Farhan.  There are very few journalists left in Gaza, particularly in the north.  How important is it that those journalists in the north of Gaza continue to be able to do their job to document what is happening there and who is responsible for their safety?

Deputy Spokesman: It’s crucially important for journalists to be able to do their job everywhere, including in Gaza.  We’ve seen over the past year a very large number of journalists, along with others such as medical professionals, humanitarian workers and our own UNRWA staff, face violence and be killed in alarmingly high numbers.  They need to be protected by all of the fighting forces on the ground.  And, of course, given the killings of the last year, we call on Israel and Hamas to make sure that reporters are spared.

Question:  Farhan, in late January, the Secretary-General called on Israel to take all measures within its power to prevent acts of genocide within the scope of Article 2 of the Genocide Convention.  That’s what the Secretary-General said in late January.  Nearly 11 months later, does the Secretary-General think Israel has done that?

Deputy Spokesman: He continues to have the same call as he did before.  And obviously the fact that the fighting goes on is a matter of concern.  Dezhi?

Question:  A follow-up on the situation in north Gaza.  We just saw this video that IDF gathering civilians to make them leave.  Here is what the IDF and Israel, they described this.  They said they allow civilians to leave Jabalya in a very safe manner.  Do you think this tank with gunpoint or the civilians leaving Jabalya is like an orderly, safely manner or is that just forced displacing?

Deputy Spokesman: We would need more information about exactly how this was carried out.  But obviously, we have our concerns to make sure that, in fact, those who are moving are doing so freely and of their own volition and that they have safe places where they can go.

Question:  Do you think they leave there freely and willingly?  You look at these photos.  Do you think those people are queuing up there to leave freely?

Deputy Spokesman:  I’m not going to play the game of judging based on a single photograph.

Correspondent:  Oh, there are lots actually.

Deputy Spokesman: But obviously our colleagues on the ground have expressed their concerns, as I’ve been telling you about regularly, and those concerns continue to apply.  Abdelhamid, and then you.

Question:  Thank you, Farhan.  Abdullah Hawash is a little boy of 11-year-old.  He was throwing a little stone on the Israeli jeep in Nablus, and they responded by a shot in the head and killed him right in front of the camera. And if you didn’t see the video, I will send it to you and to Tor Wennesland also.  Do you have any comment on that specific incident?

Deputy Spokesman: We are certainly… our hearts go out to the family members of this poor child who was killed, and his killing needs to be thoroughly investigated.

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