Highlights of the noon briefing by Spokesperson for the UN Secretary-General (excerpt on UNRWA and Occupied Palestinian Territory) 6 June 2024

06 June 2024

(Excerpt)

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SECRETARY-GENERAL

This morning, the Secretary-General laid a wreath in remembrance of the 188 United Nations personnel who lost their lives in 2023, in the line of duty.

He said that among those personnel are 135 women and men who worked for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency UNRWA, in Gaza.

That, Mr. Guterres said, is by far the highest number of our personnel killed in a single conflict or natural disaster since the creation of the United Nations – a reality we can never accept. He repeated his call for a full accounting for each of these deaths.

The Secretary-General noted that, when seeking consent of family members for the inclusion of their loved ones’ names in today’s service, we were unable to contact many of the family members of the UNRWA staff because they have either been killed or forced from their homes by Israeli military operations.

He said that he is personally devastated that despite our best efforts, we could not protect our staff in Gaza.

And he added that, for all our fallen colleagues – in Gaza or elsewhere in the world – we recommit to continuing their essential work to build lives of dignity and hope for all.

UNRWA

Staying on the situation in Gaza you will have seen that Philippe Lazzarini, the Commissioner General of the UNRWA said that an UNRWA shelter was attacked today in Nuseirat, in the Middle Area of Gaza. It was hit overnight by the Israeli Forces without prior warning to the displaced people or to the UNRWA staff in the building.

At least 35 people were killed and many more injured, he said. The school was sheltering 6,000 men, woman and children who were displaced.

The Commissioner General added that attacking, targeting or using UN buildings for military purposes are a blatant disregard of international humanitarian law. UN staff, premises and operations must be protected at all times.

OCCUPIED PALESTINIAN TERRITORY

Further on Gaza and the deepening situation there, our colleagues from the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs say that fewer than 100,000 people remain in Rafah governorate following the flight of about a million people, who were again on the run, moving toward Khan Younis and Deir al Balah.

The military operations have significantly destabilized humanitarian aid flows forcing ourselves and partners to reorganize their entire operations. As things stand, aid convoys still need to navigate active hostilities, barely passable roads, unexploded ordnances and recurrent delays. Our humanitarian community is engaging with the Israeli authorities to ensure sustained, secure and unimpeded access for humanitarian aid into and within the Strip. It has also engaged with local communities to tackle the issue of law and order by protecting convoys from takeover.

The closure of Rafah has also reduced fuel supplies, affecting trucks, hospitals, sewage systems, and desalination operations as well as bakeries.

Meanwhile, the head of the World Health Organization, Dr. Tedros, warns that insecurity and the ongoing closure of the Rafah crossing continue to compromise efforts to get supplies and staff in and around Gaza. He says intense hostilities have severely crippled health care in Rafah.

The head of UNICEF, Catherine Russell also warned that yesterday that with the summer heat and lack of water, food and health care in Gaza, deadly diseases could soon run rampant. She said the children of Gaza are living alongside mountains of trash and raw sewage as basic services reach a breaking point, amid ongoing fighting and displacement.

Also in Gaza yesterday morning, a World Food Programme warehouse in Deir Al Balah sustained damage after an Israeli projectile missile hit the adjoining Palestinian Flour mill building – one of only two flour mills in Deir El Balah, where the warehouse is used as a main storage and transit hub for commodities in the Gaza Strip.

While all WFP and partner staff working in the warehouse at the time are accounted for, WFP was forced to suspend its operations at the warehouse and the missions to it yesterday, but it has now been able to resume its activities today. The World Food Programme plans to conduct an assessment on the extent of the damage. The food agency urges all parties to the conflict to uphold their obligation to respect the integrity of humanitarian premises and assets, as well as aid workers serving people in desperate need of help.

And just moving on to the West Bank, the Humanitarian Coordinator for the Occupied Palestinian Territory, Muhannad Hadi, said yesterday that although all eyes are on Gaza, the situation in the West Bank remains volatile – with houses demolished, infrastructure destroyed and health facilities attacked. Mr. Hadi was speaking during a visit to the central West Bank, where he and Member States representatives heard from Palestinian herding and Bedouin communities, as well as the organizations supporting them. They spoke of their concerns over the humanitarian impact of heightened violence, settler activities, access restrictions, demolitions and other coercive practices.

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