DRC, Guest Tomorrow, Occupied Palestinian Territory & other topics - Daily Press Briefing

Noon Briefing by Stéphane Dujarric, Spokesperson for the Secretary-General.

- Democratic Republic of the Congo
- Guest Tomorrow
- Occupied Palestinian Territory
- Syria
- Sudan
- Libya
- Haiti
- Horst Köhler
- Ukraine
- Human Fraternity
- Honour Roll

DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF THE CONGO
The Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator for the DRC, Bruno Lemarquis, called today for the urgent reopening of the airport in Goma.
Mr. Lemarquis stressed that the airport is a lifeline and that the survival of thousands of people depends on its reopening to facilitate evacuation of injured people, delivery of medical supplies and arrival of humanitarian reinforcements.
The Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs reports that thousands of civilians are still on the move in and around Goma.
Figures remain difficult to verify, but reports indicate significant numbers of people have left displacement sites along the Kanyaruncinya road and moved towards the area of Rutshuru. Other displaced people are also moving towards the Minova area.
Hundreds of thousands of people remain displaced, living in displacement sites or with host communities in North Kivu, including on the Goma-Sake axis, where large numbers of displaced people remain in displacement sites.
OCHA and its partners have been visiting displacement sites outside Goma over the last several days to assess conditions. These efforts are ongoing.

GUEST TOMORROW
Tomorrow, the guest at the Noon briefing will be Vivian van de Perre, the Deputy Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Protection and Operations.
She will brief reporters live virtually from Goma.

OCCUPIED PALESTINIAN TERRITORY
Turning to the Middle East. Tom Fletcher, our Emergency Relief Coordinator and head of the Department of Humanitarian Affairs, is continuing his visit to Israel and the occupied Palestinian territory. Today, he was in Nir Oz in southern Israel, where one-quarter of all residents were killed or taken hostage in the Hamas-led attack on 7 October 2023.
In a social media post, Mr. Fletcher stressed that the ceasefire must hold, that all civilians must be protected, and that all hostages must be freed.
He also held several meetings with Israeli officials last night and again today.
They discussed ways to sustain the surge of humanitarian support to Gaza, as well as the ongoing challenges in the West Bank that we have been reporting.
As of earlier today, we and our our humanitarian partners estimate that more than 565,000 people have crossed from the south of Gaza to the north since 27 January. More than 45,000 people have been observed moving from the north to the south.
Meanwhile, the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs tells us that we and our partners are working to mitigate the impact of the widespread destruction of critical water, sanitation and hygiene infrastructure that is taking place throughout the Gaza Strip.
Some 40 new water points have already been established over the past week, and partners are now trucking water to 272 water points throughout North Gaza governorate alone. Through that, they were able to deliver more than 1,000 cubic metres of safe drinking water and nearly 900 cubic metres of domestic water to about 177,000 people each day.
To address the water shortages, our colleagues at UNOPS, the UN Office for Project Services delivered 40,000 litres of fuel to Gaza City yesterday to power water pumps and facilitate trucking – and we hope to have the Executive Director of UNOPS brief you on the situation in Gaza next week. Meanwhile, the World Food Programme is also expanding fuel storage capacity in the Strip.
Efforts are also ongoing to dispatch water pipes purchased by UNICEF to northern Gaza to prevent key facilities from overflowing before it rains.
We also have an update for you on the winter response in Gaza. Between Thursday and Sunday, our partners distributed tarpaulins and winter clothing to more than 2,000 households in northern Gaza.  In southern Gaza, 10,000 tarpaulins were distributed between 25 January and 2 February, with an additional 200 tarpaulins distributed in the Gaza governorate.
Over the past two days, one of our humanitarian partners also distributed 600 tarpaulins to 300 households in the Khan Younis area.

Full Highlights: https://www.un.org/sg/en/content/noon-briefing-highlight?date%5Bvalue%5D%5Bdate%5D=04%20February%202025