The United Nations Office at Geneva
Multimedia Newsroom
PRESS BRIEFING BY THE UNITED NATIONS INFORMATION SERVICE
12 December 2023
Rolando Gómez of the United Nations Information Service (UNIS) in Geneva, chaired the hybrid briefing, attended by the spokespersons and representatives of the World Health Organization.
Update on health issues in Gaza
Dr. Richard Peeperkorn, World Health Organization (WHO) Representative in the occupied Palestinian territory, speaking from Gaza, said in just 66 days, the health system had gone from 36 functional hospitals, to 11 partially functional hospitals; 1 in the north and 10 in the south. Just 29 percent of primary health care facilities were partially functional. Dr. Peeperkorn had visited most of the hospitals in the South, where WHO had delivered essential medical and trauma supplies, also al-Ahli Arab Hospital, in the north on December 9. The North of Gaza looked like a wasteland and the devastation was enormous. A convoy had come through with six Palestinian Red Crescent Ambulances, two UN vehicles, an OCHA [Office of the Coordination for Humanitarian Affairs] vehicle, and a truck filled with medical supplies. Al-Ahli Arab Hospital was the only partially functional hospital in the north. Mr. Peeperkorn said he had never seen scenes like this. Typically, this was an 80- bed hospital, yet there were more than 250 patients. The hospital grounds were full of internally displaced persons, with trauma patients and dead people on donkey carts. Every room, corridor and courtyard was filled with patients. It was utter chaos and a humanitarian disaster zone. The hospital was relying heavily on volunteers who were doing an amazing job. However, many of the seriously injured patients could hardly receive the nursing care they required. Many serious cases were being treated on the floors, in the corridor and in the chapel. Al-Aqsa Hospital was one of the better functional hospitals; usually it was a hospital for 200 patients but there were over 600 there currently, as well as internally displaced persons. WHO were trying to get more staff in to coordinate. All efforts needed to be made to keep current hospitals functional and to restore the health care system. It was important to get the primary health care system functional again.
Responding to questions, Dr. Peeperkorn, said the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian Refugees (UNRWA), together with WHO tried to get an assessment of the spread of disease. There was an enormous influx of internally displaced people, particularly in the Rafah area. The UNRWA shelters were completely full, and makeshift shelters could be seen everywhere. There had been more than 160,000 cases of acute respiratory infections, more than 60,000 cases of diarrhoea, and over 39,000 cases of skin diseases. There were also cases of jaundice, multiple traumas, spinal injuries and burns, among other injuries.
Providing aid in Gaza was incredibly complex and the needs were enormous. WHO was committed to stay and deliver and were doing everything possible to support the people of Gaza. 19 critical patients had been transferred from Al-Ahli Hospital, to the south of Gaza, where they could receive better treatment. The journey was extremely dangerous. On the way north, a Palestinian Red Crescent Society staff member was made to kneel at the checkpoint at gunpoint and taken out of sight. Finally, he returned, and the mission could move on. On the way south, the UN truck was again stopped at the Gaza check point and the same staff member was taken for interrogation. Numerous steps were taken to coordinate his release, but after over two and a half hours, a difficult decision was made to continue moving onwards without the staff member. The staff member was released later that night, following UN negotiations. He stated that he had been subject to humiliating and inhumane treatment.
Rolando Gómez for the United Nations Information Service (UNIS) drew attention to the latest UNRWA update which stated that 134 UNWRA colleagues had been killed, with 1.1 million internally displaced persons sheltering in 154 UNRWA facilities.
Responding to further questions, Dr. Peeperkorn said he could not give exact figures on the number of children who had had limbs amputated. WHO needed a better overview, in collaboration with UNICEF, to answer these questions. Among the fatalities, there were an enormous number of women and children.
Dr. Peeperkorn said he didn’t see many people moving up north, but rather many people moving down south. The WHO convoys had been completely swarmed whenever they drove through, by people thinking they had food and water. Before the crisis, Gaza had 3,500 beds and a reasonable functional health system; now there were less than 1,500. WHO was very concerned; they could not afford to lose any more hospital beds. The south was now the backbone of the health system. Al-Shifa needed to be functional again; there were still many people in the north. WHO needed to be expanded and restore the functionality of the system. There were concerning stories about sieges and attacks on hospitals. Healthcare should always be protected and should never be a target.
The delays had been at military checkpoints; humanitarian actors were there to assist and needed to do so in a much more effective way. It became difficult to move safely and swiftly, and the delays meant less time at the hospitals on the other side. WHO hoped to receive updates on the four people, three from the Ministry of Health and one from the Palestinian Red Crescent Society, who had also been detained during the Al-Shifa mission. The fact that their whereabouts were unknown was unacceptable and extremely concerning.
As of December 11, 18,209 had been killed and 49,645 injured with over 70 per cent being women and children. Kamal Adwan hospital had a limited number of patients and staff; WHO had not been ablet to access this hospital. Shifa Hospital was the best option to start functioning again and to expand the health services in the North for those in need.
Dr. Peeperkorn said WHO relied on figures from the Ministry of Health, and gathered their own statistics. From past experience, statistics had always been very well managed and reliable in Palestine. There was also a report and analysis on this topic in The Lancet. Hardly any hospitals were fully functional.
Responding to questions, Christian Lindmeier for the World Health Organization (WHO) noted that the Ministry of Health reported that the Kamal Adwan hospital was being forcefully evacuated. There were currently 68 patients inside the hospital, as well as 18 ICU patients, including six neonates. This put another hospital out of use and put patients out on the street. There was one partially functioning hospital in the north of Gaza and 10 in the South; there were no hospitals that were fully functioning.
Mr. Gómez remined the media that regular UNRWA updates and daily OCHA updates were being shared on the current situation in the occupied Palestinian territory, which should be consulted for the latest figures.
Announcements
Rolando Gómez for the United Nations Information Service (UNIS) said events were taking place in Geneva today to commemorate the 75th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of the Human Rights. A statement by the High Commissioner from the opening of the high-level event this morning had been shared with the media.
UN Secretary-General António Guterres was in Dubai, where he was attending COP28; speaking to the media yesterday, he said now was the time for maximum ambition and maximum flexibility. The COP was scheduled to finish today, and the Secretary-General would remain in Dubai for the closing.
A statement by the Security Council strongly condemned the violence in Warrap State in South Sudan which claimed approximately 75 lives in November and 10 lives already in December. The Security Council was meeting publicly at 3 p.m. New York time today, to discuss the situation of Sudan and South Sudan.
No human rights treaty body meetings were taking place today. The Global Refugee Forum would take place at Palexpo, tomorrow through to Friday. The Forum was convened by five States, Colombia, France, Japan, Jordan, and Uganda, and co-hosted by the Swiss Government.
Today at 1 p.m., the Permanent Mission of Israel would hold a press stake out with Ambassador Meirav Eilon Shahar.
Also today, there would be a press stakeout by the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) at 18:30 p.m. when UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk would deliver closing remarks to the press at the end of the two-day High-Level Event, marking 75 years of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
On Thursday, 14 December at 10:30 p.m, a European Union Press Conference would be held at Palexpo, at the Global Refugee Forum, to underscore the EU resettlement pledge 2024-2025.
Responding to questions, Christian Lindmeier for the World Health Organization (WHO), said there was no information about whether Dr. Tedros would address the human rights high-level event in Geneva.
Similar Stories
1
1
1
Press Conferences | WIPO , WHO , UNICEF , UNHCR , IOM , WFP , FAO
WIPO Global Innovation Index 2026 launch and press conference, WHO Composition of influenza vaccines for the 2027 Southern Hemisphere flu season, UNICEF Yemen hunger and malnutrition; UNHCR Sudan displacement into Chad; IOM Ebola and population movements in DRC; WFP emergency food assistance in Nepal; and FAO food loss and waste.
2
1
2
Press Conferences | UNCTAD
Gaza reconstruction needs reach $71.5 billion as Palestinian economy and public finances face severe strain. Latest UNCTAD report documents the loss of decades of development gains, economic collapse in Gaza and tightening economic constraints in the West Bank.
The report identifies three immediate priorities: transferring withheld Palestinian revenues, safeguarding the banking system and aligning reconstruction support with the documented scale of damage and economic losses.
1
1
1
Press Conferences | HRC
Press conference on the situation of human rights in Nicaragua by the UN Group of Human Rights Experts
1
1
1
Press Conferences | ITU , UNHCR , WHO , WMO
YEMEN - UNHCR: Escalating conflict in Yemen could fuel more displacement, refugee movement
CLIMATE - WHO / WMO: Health and Climate impact of El Niño
1
1
1
Press Conferences | HRC , OHCHR
Mariana Katzarova discusses human rights in Russia as a UN Special Rapporteur.
1
1
1
Press Conferences | IOM , OHCHR , UN WOMEN , UNFPA , UNHCR , UNOPS , WHO
UN Geneva briefing: Yemen crisis worsens, urgent aid needed across multiple sectors.
1
1
1
Press Conferences | HRC
Press conference on the latest report of the Independent International Fact-Finding Mission on the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela to the UN Human Rights Council
1
1
1
Press Conferences | OHCHR
Victims Still Waiting: A Global Briefing on Transitional Justice Around the World
2
1
2
Edited News , Press Conferences | WMO
As world’s water reserves change, countries must prepare for a new reality: WMO
New data showing that rivers were at their lowest level for decades last year provides further evidence that the climate crisis is real and countries must act immediately to protect themselves from the increasing threat to communities and livelihoods, the UN World Meteorological Organization (WMO) said on Thursday.
The key findings from WMO’s State of Global Water Resources 2025 report covering the hydrological cycle and extreme events in the five-year period to last year:
- 2025 was one of driest years for river discharge in 35 years
- Past seven years have seen abnorfmal river flows
- Water storage on Earth’s land surface has decreased in past decade
- Widespread glacier loss across all regions for fourth consecutive year
- Asia and Africa are regions most affected by water-related disasters
- Water data availability has improved, but gaps remain in hard-hit areas
Highlighting the long-term decline in the Earth’s freshwater storage and glacier melt, WMO Secretary-General Celeste Saulo explained that the planet’s water reserves used to act as a planetary “savings account” that absorbed the occasional dry season, avoiding a water crisis. “One of the central stories of the 2025 report is what is happening to that savings account? And the simple answer is that we are depleting it,” she told journalists in Geneva.
Groundwater reserves are equally stretched and have been in decline since 2014, WMO’s report states, with nearly two-thirds of monitored wells worldwide showing levels lower than the historical norm and indicating a shift “further toward deficit…not recovery”.
“At the same time, we are seeing more water-related disasters,” Ms. Saulo said, while also stressing that the currently strengthening El Niño “will increase the risk of drought in some areas, and flooding in others”.
Glaciers disappearing
In 2025, for the fourth consecutive year, every major glaciated region on Earth lost ice mass, leading to short-term hazards including floods and long-term water insecurity, according to WMO.
Responding to a question about whether the changing global water cycle might have contributed to the deadly Nepal-China flooding disaster, Ms. Saulo explained that melting ice and rock was just one factor in the chain of events that ultimately sent a massive and deadly wall of water and debris downstream on 26 August, killing at least 1,367 people.
“You asked if it could happen again? Absolutely; the problem in this region is that there’s 63,700 glaciers at the last count,” she told a Press Conference in Geneva. “Even if you’re looking with remote sensing with satellites at these glaciers, you might see some faults, you might see some slight shifting, that does not mean necessarily catastrophic collapse. So, in order to plan for this, it’s very, very difficult. But the international community is looking very hard at ways in which we can bring people together to solve some of these monitoring issues.”
Data indicates that glaciers shrank between 2023 and 2025 with cumulative losses of 1,400 gigatonnes of water – or about one third of annual fresh water needs.
Every major glacier region on Earth lost ice for the fourth consecutive year.
“All 19 glacier regions around the globe lost ice; in Central Asia, Iceland, the Russian Arctic and western Canada and the United States, it was among the three worst years on record,” said Wayne Jenkinson, WMO’s Director of Hydrology and Cryosphere.
Some regions with smaller glaciers such as Central Europe, the Caucasus, the western Canada and the United States may already have reached “peak water”, Mr. Jenkinson warned.
“After this point, the glacier gives less meltwater each year simply because there is less ice left to melt. That matters for every community downstream that relies on water during hot, dry summers,” he explained.
Narelle van der Wel, WMO’s Head of Cryosphere Monitoring, Predictions and Services, stressed that while some further glacier loss is unavoidable, the eventual scale of the decline is not predetermined.
“Some glacier loss is inevitable, but total loss of glaciers is not yet inevitable,” she said, pointing to emissions reductions as central to limiting future losses.
Preparing for moving baselines
The report does not attribute every observed change to climate change alone. WMO says pressure on water resources and natural variability also contribute.
Mr. Jenkinson said governments need to prepare for “moving baselines” as historical patterns become less reliable.
“The situation 30 years ago is not where we are today,” he said. Countries, he added, need to prepare “for those changes that have really already arrived”.
ends
1
1
1
Press Conferences | WMO , OCHA , WHO , UNICEF , UN WOMEN , OHCHR , IOM , UNHCR
Update on Ebola from WHO and OCHA, update on the situation of children with the beginning of school in Ukraine from UNICEF, UN Women on the impact of the settlers and restrictions on women and girls in West Bank, OHCHR on the recovery of extensive human remains in Gaza, IOM and UNHCR on the new wave of displacement in Yemen
2
1
2
Press Conferences , Edited News | WFP
‘Super El Niño’ and converging crises worsen hunger in South Sudan and across the region - WFP
South Sudan’s hunger crisis is becoming increasingly catastrophic as violence, extreme weather and dwindling aid leave millions without enough food, the UN World Food Programme (WFP) warned on Tuesday.
1
1
1
Press Conferences | HRC
Update on the human rights situation in Belarus by the UN Group of Independent Experts on the Human Rights Situation in Belarus