Occupied Palestinian Territory, Syria & other topics - Daily Press Briefing (4 September 2024)
Highlights:
Secretary-General’s Travels
Occupied Palestinian Territory
Syria
Ukraine
Libya
Democratic Republic of the Congo
Bangladesh
Employment report
Financial Contributions
Secretary-General’s Travels
The Secretary-General is in the People’s Republic of China today, in Beijing, where he attended the welcoming ceremonies for the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation. Earlier today, he met with Ding Xuexiang, the Vice Premier of China and also met with the UN Country Team.
Tomorrow, he will speak at the Forum’s opening ceremony, where he will underscore that South-South cooperation is essential to build capacities and drive progress on our shared development goals. He will also reiterate the United Nations’ full engagement in support of a strong China-Africa partnership, towards a shared goal of peace, sustainable development and human rights on a healthy planet.
Occupied Palestinian Territory
This afternoon, the Security Council of the United Nations will meet at 3 pm to discuss the situation in the Middle East, following a request made in a letter from the Permanent Representative of Israel.
The Under-Secretary-General for Peacebuilding and Political Affairs, Rosemary DiCarlo, will brief. Also briefing will be Edem Wosornu, the Director of operations for OCHA.
Turning to the situation in Gaza – as you will have seen, the World Health Organization announced today that the first phase of the polio vaccination campaign in Gaza has now been completed. Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the head of the World Health Organization said over 187,000 children under the age of 10 were vaccinated. He added that preparations are underway to roll out the vaccination campaign in south Gaza, which will start tomorrow.
UNICEF said the pause must continue to implement the remaining phases of the campaign – otherwise, we will fail to protect the children of Gaza and place other children at risk.
Also on the health front, the Ministry of Health of Gaza announced earlier this week the completion of the New Emergency Department at the Al Shifa Hospital in the northern part of Gaza. However, health facilities in Gaza continue to be severely affected by the ongoing hostilities, access constraints and lack of supplies, including fuel.
Moving to the West Bank, the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs says the large-scale operations carried out by Israeli forces in the north of the West Bank are continuing. In just one week, many Palestinians civilians were killed, including seven children, making it the highest number of Palestinians killed in a single week in the West Bank since November of last year.
Our humanitarian colleagues remind us that, in the West Bank, Israeli forces must adhere to international law enforcement standards, where lethal force and firearms are a last resort and used only against imminent threats of death or serious injury. We also want to reiterate that humanitarian access must be allowed and unhindered.
Just a quick update on [UN Senior Humanitarian and Reconstruction Coordinator] Sigrid Kaag and her activities.
On Monday, she met with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, as well as Foreign Minister Israel Katz and Minister for Strategic Affairs, Ron Dermer. These meetings took place in Jerusalem.
She raised, among other topics, measures to address the dramatic humanitarian situation in Gaza, progress on implementation of the polio vaccination campaign, as well as the rehabilitation of essential services.
On Tuesday, she met Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammed Mustafa, and other senior officials of the Palestinian Authority in Ramallah, with whom she also discussed humanitarian issues and reconstruction of Gaza as well as the need for the Palestinian Authority to resume its responsibilities in the Gaza Strip.
Syria
On Syria, U.N. humanitarian colleagues tell us that half of all health facilities in the north-west of Syria are at risk of closure by the end of the year.
OCHA warns that health services are being scaled back due to underfunding. This year’s appeal has only received about 26 per cent of the $4.1 billion needed to help nearly 11 million people in need of assistance across the country. This is happening as hostilities continue to have an impact on civilians across Syria. We already updated you on the situation in the northeastern parts of the country yesterday. In the northwest, in Aleppo, several civilians – including six children and three women - were injured on Monday when hostilities impacted a market in Aleppo.
And of course, we continue to underscore that civilians and civilian infrastructure must be protected at all times by all combatants.
Full highlights: https://www.un.org/sg/en/content/noon...
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