Highlights of the noon briefing by Farhan Haq, Deputy Spokesman for the Secretary-General António Guterres (14 June 2024)

14 June 2024

(excerpt of the press briefing focusing on Gaza conflict)

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OCCUPIED PALESTINIAN TERRITORY

Turning to the situation in Gaza, the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs says that displaced families continue to face dire conditions and significant challenges in accessing basic services. That’s according to multiple humanitarian assessments carried out over the past month.

OCHA led two such assessments last week at informal displacement sites in Deir al Balah, where thousands of people are sheltering. Families there said that shelters are overcrowded and lack sanitation infrastructure. Food distributions are irregular, and residents reported a range of health issues, such as hepatitis A, skin diseases, and respiratory illnesses. Access to water is also critically low.

Our partners working on water, sanitation and hygiene in Gaza report that critical infrastructure continues to sustain significant damage. They say the recent intensification of military operations has resulted in additional losses of key water and sanitation assets, including five water production wells in Jabalya, in the north, as well as two water wells and two desalination plants in Rafah, in the south.

These partners estimate that over the past eight months, more than two-thirds of water and sanitation facilities and infrastructure in Gaza have been destroyed or damaged due to the conflict.  Once again, OCHA underscores that humanitarian operations in Gaza must be fully facilitated and all impediments must be lifted.

To give you just one example of these challenges – UNICEF’s spokesman, James Elder, said that one of the agency’s trucks carrying medicines and nutrition supplies for 10,000 children in Gaza was turned back on Wednesday – despite approvals for the mission. Mr. Elder says they were held for eight hours at checkpoints, and it took 13 hours to move just 40 kilometres.

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