Occupied Palestinian Territory, Haiti, & Other Topics - Daily Press Briefing (4 March 2024)

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

Highlights: 
-Occupied Palestinian Territory
-Secretary-General
-Haiti
-Yemen
-Deputy Secretary-General/Kuwait
-Syria
-Ukraine
-Abyei
-Senior Personnel Appointment
-Resident Coordinator / DPRK
-Exhibition
-Financial Contributions

OCCUPIED PALESTINIAN TERRITORY
The Humanitarian Coordinator for the Occupied Palestinian Territory, Jamie McGoldrick, began a two-day visit to Gaza today. Earlier today, he was in Rafah, where he met with community leaders and others, who expressed their concerns over the impact of the crisis on women's health, as well as a potential lost generation of children, who have been out of school for months.
On Gaza, a team – comprising the World Health Organization (WHO), the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF)and the UN Population Fund (UNFPA) – visited the Al Awda and Kamal Adwan hospitals in northern Gaza yesterday to deliver fuel and essential medical supplies. The visits were the first to those hospitals since early October, despite our ongoing efforts to gain more regular access to the north of Gaza. The team delivered 9,500 litres of fuel to each hospital – but that is just a fraction of what is needed.
In a social media post, WHO’s Director-General Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus spoke of “grim findings” during the team’s visit, including severe levels of malnutrition, children dying of starvation, hospital buildings destroyed, and serious shortages of fuel, food and medical supplies.
Kamal Adwan Hospital is the only paediatrics hospital in northern Gaza – and it is overwhelmed with patients. Dr. Tedros said the lack of electricity poses a serious threat to patient care – and the lack of food led to the deaths of 10 children.
In a statement yesterday, UNICEF warned that the child deaths we have feared are now here, as malnutrition ravages the Gaza Strip. UNICEF’s Regional Director for the Middle East and North Africa, Adele Khodr, said the widespread lack of nutritious food, safe water and medical services is a direct consequence of the impediments to access, and that aid restrictions in the north are costing lives.
Meanwhile, in southern Gaza, OCHA says that airstrikes continue to be reported, including in Rafah, where on Saturday dozens of people were reportedly and injured when tents sheltering displaced people in front of Al Emirati field hospital were hit. Two of the fatalities were said to be health workers. WHO Director-General Dr. Tedros described the incident as “outrageous and unspeakable” and underscored that health workers and civilians must be protected at all times.
And in terms of our regular update on Sigrid Kaag’s work, I can tell you that she has just completed a two-day visit to Egypt, during which she met with the Foreign Minister of Egypt, Sameh Shoukry, as well as that Minister of Finance Mohamed Maait and the Minister of Social Solidarity, Nivine El-Qabbage. She also met with Ahmed Aboul Gheit, the Secretary General of the League of Arab States.
In her meetings, she discussed the urgency of the implementation of Security Council Resolution 2720 for the sake of all civilians in Gaza.

SECRETARY-GENERAL
Over the weekend, the Secretary-General visited - along with Prime Minister Ralph Gonsalves – several sites in Saint Vincent that were impacted by the eruption of La Soufrière volcano in 2021, as well as areas that have suffered from climate change.
The Secretary-General was able to see recovery efforts, including new housing in the Orange Hill resettlement area and the collection of volcanic ash and sediment that the Government now collects and reuses for infrastructure purposes.
The Secretary-General also visited the Georgetown Sea Defense in the Sandy Bay community, which is a sea defense wall that is helping the country combat the effects of coastal erosion and rising seas. In Sandy Bay, he also spoke to journalists and underscored the need to have
stronger support from the international community in the form of adequate financing at low cost to protect small island developing states.
"The people of the Small Island Developing States are on the frontlines of climate change,” he said. “They did not contribute to global warming, but they are paying the price.”
And today he is having a virtual meeting with the UN Country team in the Caribbean before heading back to New York.

Full highlights: https://www.un.org/sg/en/content/noon-briefing-highlight?date%5Bvalue%5D%5Bdate%5D=04%20March%202024