The United Nations Office at Geneva
Multimedia Newsroom
STORYLINE
Following the serious allegations that several staff working for the UN agency assisting Palestine refugees (UNRWA) in the Gaza Strip were involved in the 7 October terror attacks in southern Israel which has led numerous states to temporarily suspend their payment to the aid organization, the World Health Organization (WHO) today (30 January) appealed to donors “not to suspend their funding to UNRWA at this critical moment. Cutting of funding will only hurt the people of Gaza who desperately needs support”.
When briefing journalists at the UN in Geneva, WHO’s spokesperson Christian Lindmeier said that “criminal activity can never go unpunished. But the discussion right now is much of a distraction from what's really going on every day, every hour, every minute in Gaza. It's a distraction from close to 27,000 deaths by now, out of which 70 per cent are women and children.”
Mr. Lindmeier added that “it's a distraction from preventing an entire population from access to clean water, food, shelter. It's a distraction from preventing electricity to come into Gaza for more than 100 days.”
In addition to its programmes in the Gaza Strip, UNRWA provides vital humanitarian aid to Palestine refugees in Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, and in the West Bank including East Jerusalem.
In the Gaza Strip, the agency is providing lifesaving aid to over two million civilians, operating shelters for over one million and providing food, water and healthcare services.
Mr. Lindmeier reminded of a very dire situation where the “food and water situation is extremely bad, food cut off in Gaza since more than 100 days, fresh water supplies are cut off, water is mixed with wastewater”. Also, the pumping stations are not working because of a lack of fuel and the population is at the border of famine.
“We had a convoy just this morning trying to reach Nasser Hospital with patients, health care staff, everybody. They are needing food, but the very needy population already before basically took the supplies - as we can call it - this was a self-distribution of supplies, which only shows how dire the needs are,” said the WHO spokesperson.
According to the latest report of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), hostilities were particularly intense in Khan Younis, with heavy fighting reported near Nasser and Al Amal hospitals. There are also reports of Palestinians fleeing to the southern town of Rafah, which is already overcrowded, despite the lack of safe passage.
OCHA’s spokesperson Jens Laerke emphasized that “UNRWA has not stopped working, UNRWA continues to work. It's the pipeline of funding that is in danger while it’s irreplaceable in the humanitarian operation.”
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres will host a meeting today (30 January) with major UNRWA donors in New York to issue an urgent plea to keep lifesaving funds flowing.
-ends-
STORY: Gaza Update – WHO, OCHA
TRT: 2:09”
SOURCE: UNTV CH
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH / NATS
ASPECT RATIO: 16:9
DATELINE: 30 January 2024 GENEVA, SWITZERLAND
- Exterior medium shot: UN flag alley
- Wide shot: speakers at the press conference
- SOUNDBITE (English) – Christian Lindmeier, spokesperson for the World Health Organization (WHO): “Criminal activity can never go unpunished. But the discussion right now is much of a distraction from what's really going on every day, every hour, every minute in Gaza. It's a distraction from close to 27,000 deaths by now, out of which 70 per cent are women and children.”
- Wide shot: press room with journalists
- SOUNDBITE (English) – Christian Lindmeier, spokesperson for the World Health Organization (WHO): “It's a distraction from preventing an entire population from access to clean water, food, shelter. It's a distraction from preventing electricity to come into Gaza for more than 100 days.”
- Medium shot: journalist standing in press room
- SOUNDBITE (English) – Christian Lindmeier, spokesperson for the World Health Organization (WHO): “We appeal to donors not to suspend their funding to UNRWA at this critical moment. Cutting of funding will only hurt the people of Gaza who desperately needs support”.
- Close up: journalist typing in laptop
- SOUNDBITE (English) – Christian Lindmeier, spokesperson for the World Health Organization (WHO): “We had a convoy just this morning trying to reach Nasser Hospital with patients, health care staff, everybody. They are needing food, but the very needy population already before basically took the supplies - as we can call it - this was a self-distribution of supplies, which only shows how dire the needs are.”
- Wide shot: press room with journalists and speakers at the podium
- SOUNDBITE (English) – Jens Laerke, spokesperson for the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA): “UNRWA has not stopped working, UNRWA continues to work. It's the pipeline of funding that is in danger while it’s irreplaceable in the humanitarian operation.”
- Close up, journalist typing
- Close up, journalist listening
- Close up, journalist reading
Similar Stories
1
1
1
Edited News | IOM , OHCHR , UNFPA , UNOG , UNHCR , WHO
Yemen’s humanitarian crisis growing by the hour amid spike in displacement
Yemenis displaced by renewed fighting have described fleeing for their lives amid shelling and gunfire, aid agencies reported on Friday, while highlighting the dramatic increase in humanitarian needs in the country and in Djibouti, where thousands have sought shelter.
1
1
1
Edited News | OHCHR , UNOG
The UN Human Rights Office issued on Friday a report documenting a shocking pattern of sexual violence amid Russia’s full-scale armed attack on Ukraine.
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
Edited News | OCHA , WHO
The deadly Ebola virus outbreak in DR Congo continues to spread across the vast country despite some success in containing it, aid officials said on Tuesday, in a renewed call for international support to help responders on the ground.
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
Edited News | UN WOMEN
In war-torn Gaza, a growing number of women-headed households face “impossible decisions” every day, amid ongoing Israeli airstrikes and still-scarce resources, UN humanitarians said on Tuesday.
1
1
1
Edited News | OHCHR , UNOG
UN Human Rights Chief Volker Türk made the following remarks to the Enhanced Interactive Dialogue on the Independent Investigative Mechanism for Myanmar at the 63rd Human Rights Council.
1
Edited News | OHCHR , UNOG
UN Human Rights Chief Volker Türk today delivered an update on the global human rights situation to the 63rdsession of the Human Rights Council in Geneva.
1
1
1
Edited News | WHO
Repeated attacks on humanitarian warehouses put vital medical aid at risk in Ukraine - WHO
A new airstrike overnight damaged one of the main warehouses used by the UN health agency to store humanitarian medical supplies in the Kyiv region, the World Health Organization (WHO) said on Friday. This is the third attack to affect a WHO-used storage in the last three months.
2
2
2
Press Conferences , Edited News | WMO
Powerful El Niño heightens extreme-weather risks through 2027, as countries brace for impact - WMO
Fuelled by extraordinarily warm waters across the tropical Pacific Ocean, the El Niño climate pattern is expected to intensify in the coming months. Forecasters are almost certain that it will persist through February next year, with unusually warm conditions expected across the globe.
1
1
1
Edited News | OCHA , IFRC , UN WOMEN , WHO
Nepal flood deaths near 1,000 as those spared struggle to survive – UN humanitarians
With the death toll in Nepal’s catastrophic flash floods inching towards 1,000, rescue workers are facing harsh conditions while survivors lack access to food, safe water and health care, humanitarians said on Tuesday.
1
1
1
Edited News | OCHA , UNDRR , IFRC , WHO
Nepal: Flooding disaster “not over” as humanitarians work around the clock
While search and rescue efforts continued Friday following flash floods and mudslides in northern Nepal, UN humanitarians are taking stock of the devastation amid concerns over more flooding to come.