UN Geneva Press Briefing on the Situation in Gaza- United Nations Office at Geneva

14 May 2024

(Excerpts)

Rolando Gómez, Chief of the Press and External Relations Section at the United Nations Information Service in Geneva, chaired a hybrid briefing, which was attended by the spokespersons and representatives of the United Nations Human Rights, the United Nations Trade and Development, the World Health Organization, the World Food Programme, the International Telecommunication Union, and the International Committee of the Red Cross.

Situation in Gaza

Jason Straziuso, for the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), informed that the ICRC and 11 Red Cross national societies had combined efforts to open a field hospital in Rafah to help address the overwhelming medical needs emanating from the ongoing conflict. Baby “Sanad” had been born on 10 May, the first trial day or soft opening. Those efforts aimed to complement and support the essential work performed by the Palestine Red Crescent Society (PRCS) in providing urgent care. Since the beginning of hostilities, PRCS staff and volunteers had continued to courageously provide emergency medical services to communities in Gaza, amidst unacceptably high levels of loss, said Mr. Straziuso.

The 60-bed field hospital was meant to complement and support PRCS work as the medical and humanitarian community attempts to meet vast health needs in Gaza. The field hospital would provide emergency surgical care; obstetric/gynecological, maternal, and newborn care; pediatric care; and outpatient department; mass casualty management and triage capacities were also included. The ICRC field hospital, implemented in coordination with the PRCS and supported by Red Cross Societies of Australia, Austria, Canada, Denmark, Finland, Germany, Hong Kong, Iceland, Japan, Norway, and Switzerland, would be able to provide medical care for roughly 200 people a day.

More information and a video showing construction of the field hospital can be found here

Responding to questions from the media, Elizabeth Throssell, for the United Nations Human Rights (OHCHR), stated that thousands of Palestinians had been killed and thousands more injured in Gaza. UN ground team in Gaza was trying to conduct their own verification of casualty figures, when conditions allowed, in line with the established global methodology. Figures did get revised and analyzed, stressed Ms. Throssell. Jens Laerke, for the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), explained that the Ministry of Health in Gaza had now provided more details on verified, identified victims, which had not changed the overall tally of overall reported casualties. Those two figures were not mutually exclusive, as one category included all reported casualties, and the other just the fully verified ones. Christian Lindmeier, for the World Health Organization (WHO), said that the most comprehensive update on casualty figures by the Ministry of Health specified that some 25,000 victims had now been fully identified, while 10,000 remained missing and were yet to be identified. Some 60 per cent of all casualties were women and children, and every single death was one too many, he said. Dead bodies were registered in morgues and hospitals when conditions allowed. As many as 8,000 dead people still lay under rubble and in active combat areas, their bodies could still not be collected and identified. The fact that there are now 25,000 identified victims was a step forward, reiterated Mr. Lindmeier. Such a slow process was typical in every conflict, with people on the move and limited healthcare facilities. Once everybody had been recovered and registered, we could expect to have comprehensive, definite figures.

On the death of an international staff member in Gaza, Rolando Gómez, for UNIS, said that a statement by the Secretary-General on this matter had been shared. The Secretary-General was deeply saddened to learn of the death of a UN Department of Safety and Security staff member, an Indian national, and injury to another staffer when their UN vehicle was struck as they had traveled to the European Hospital in Rafah. The Secretary-General condemned all attacks on UN personnel and called for a full investigation. No place in Gaza was safe, stressed Mr. Gómez. UN always informed Israeli authorities of all movements of its convoys, he reiterated. The hit UN vehicle had been clearly marked as such.

Mr. Straziuso, for the ICRC, said that the new field hospital, which was very close to the European hospital in Rafah, was well supplied for about a week; some 15 trucks with supplied had arrived a week earlier. Separate from the field hospital, the ICRC had a surgical team at the European hospital, which had about three days of supplies left.