Gaza: “There is no shortage of supplies, but the opportunity to get them where needed,” says WFP

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Bi-weekly press briefing - 17 October 2023

1:35:00

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17-10-2023

Press Conferences | IOM , OCHA , OHCHR , UNHCR , WFP , WHO , WMO

Gaza: “There is no shortage of supplies, but the opportunity to get them where needed,” says WFP

ENG

Shotlist Story

STORY: Israel and OPT - Humanitarian situation OHCHR, WFP, WHO

TRT: 3 min 55s

SOURCE: UNTV CH

RESTRICTIONS: NONE

LANGUAGE: ENGLISH / NATS

ASPECT RATIO: 16:9

DATELINE: 17 October 2023 GENEVA, SWITZERLAND

Exterior medium shot: UN flag alley, UN Geneva

Wide shot: speakers at the podium
SOUNDBITE (English) – Abeer Etefa, Senior Communications Officer of the UN World Food Programme (WFP): “So WFP, we call for unimpeded access, safe passage for desperately needed humanitarian supplies to Gaza. We've mobilized over 300 tons of food that are either at or on the way to the Egyptian border in Rafah. That's enough to feed around a quarter million people for one week.”
Wide shot, attendees at the press conference
SOUNDBITE (English) – Abeer Etefa, Senior Communications Officer of the UN World Food Programme (WFP): “There is no shortage of supplies. What's missing at the moment is this opportunity to get these supplies to the people who are just a few kilometers away from it and needed desperately and are unable to benefit from it.”

Wide shot, press room with attendees
SOUNDBITE (English) – Abeer Etefa, Senior Communications Officer of the UN World Food Programme (WFP): “At the moment, WFP has assisted and reached around just as of yesterday alone, 220,000 people who are displaced in the UN designated shelters. And we think, of course, you know, the waves of the displacement is manifesting itself in the number of people in these shelters.”
Wide shot, press room with attendees and speakers at the podium
SOUNDBITE (English) – Ravina Shamdasani, Spokesperson for the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR): “Military operations show no sign of abating. The continued siege on Gaza is affecting water supply, food, medicine and other basic needs. And there are daily indications of violations of the laws of war and of international human rights law.”
Wide shot, speakers at the podium
SOUNDBITE (English) – Ravina Shamdasani, Spokesperson for the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR): “We urge the Israeli forces to avoid targeting civilians and civilian objects or conducting area bombardments, indiscriminate or disproportionate attacks, and to take precautions to avoid and in any event, to minimize loss of civilian life, injury to civilians and damage to civilian objects.”
Medium shot, attendees
SOUNDBITE (English) – Ravina Shamdasani, Spokesperson for the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR): “The failure, you know, where armed groups carry out military operations within or in the immediate vicinity of civilian objects with the intent to use the presence of these civilians to prevent their military assets from being attacked. This would constitute a violation of the customary law prohibition to use human shields.”
Wide shot: attendees at the press conference
SOUNDBITE (English) – Ravina Shamdasani, Spokesperson for the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR): “International law requires that any lawful temporary evacuation by Israel as the occupying power of an area that on the basis of the security of the population, it imposes obligations on Israel to ensure their security. It imposes on them the obligation to ensure proper hygiene, health, safety and nutrition. And there appears to have been no attempt by Israel to ensure this for the civilians who are ordered to move.”
Wide shot: attendees at the press conference
SOUNDBITE (English) – Margaret Harris, Spokesperson for the World Health Organization (WHO): “So the numbers are an estimate, but it's around 2000 patients who we understand are still in those hospitals. And these are really, really people who need critical care, who really can't be moved. And also, babies and women have just delivered and people on life support or people on dialysis or needing dialysis. Remember, the north is where most of the hospitals are and most of the more advanced care has been available.”
Close up, UNHCR spokesperson
SOUNDBITE (English) – Margaret Harris, Spokesperson for the World Health Organization (WHO): “We're expecting large outbreaks of gastroenterological disease. We're also fear large outbreaks of respiratory disease like COVID 19 and influenza. Those are already circulating massively. And these respiratory diseases, particularly the respiratory diseases among small children, will kill them very quickly. It's not something we can just stand by and witness.”
Close up: Camerawomen writing on cell phone
Medium shot, attendees with photographer
Close up: journalist listening

PRESS BRIEFING BY THE UNITED NATIONS INFORMATION SERVICE

17 October 2023

Gaza: “There is no shortage of supplies, but the opportunity to get them where needed,” says WFP

With military operations showing no signs of abating in Gaza and with the continued siege on food, fuel and water, UN humanitarians kept up their call on Tuesday for urgent and unimpeded access to enable aid delivery to the civilian population to prevent further suffering.

“We call for unimpeded access, safe passage for desperately needed humanitarian supplies to Gaza,” said Abeer Etefa, Senior Communications Officer of the UN World Food Programme (WFP) when briefing reporters at UN Geneva. “We've mobilized over 300 tons of food that are either at or on the way to the Egyptian border in Rafah. That's enough to feed around a quarter million people for one week.”

With the shortage of electricity and goods, only five of the 23 bakeries contracted by WFP to provide fresh bread in shelters, are currently operational. As a result, WFP has been forced to reduce the food ration per person.

The UN agency hopes that within the coming days, the supplies could arrive where they are most needed.

“There is no shortage of supplies”, said Ms. Etefa. “What's missing at the moment is this opportunity to get these supplies to the people who are just a few kilometres away from it and needed desperately and are unable to benefit from it.”

Two planes arrived from Dubai to Al Arish airport carrying ready-to-eat food – 20 metric tons of high energy biscuits and two mobile storage units for warehousing. There are also food supplies on the way to the border procured from regional suppliers - mainly canned food and date bars.

“At the moment, WFP has assisted and reached around - just as of yesterday alone - 220,000 people who are displaced in the UN-designated shelters. And we think, of course, you know, the waves of the displacement is manifesting itself in the number of people in these shelters.”

WFP plans to provide a vital food lifeline to 805,000 people in Gaza and the West Bank who desperately need food, water and essential supplies that are running out fast. Despite immense challenges, WFP has been providing food and cash assistance each day in Palestine for a total of 522,000 Palestinians since the start of the crisis.

According to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), the UN’s top aid official Martin Griffiths was due to visit Egypt on Tuesday discuss sending relief supplies to the Gaza Strip through the Rafah border crossing. He also plans to visit Israel.

The UN human rights office (OHCHR) stressed on Tuesday, that “military operations show no sign of abating. The continued siege on Gaza is affecting water supply, food, medicine and other basic needs,” said its spokesperson, Ravina Shamdasani. “There are daily indications of violations of the laws of war and of international human rights law.”

In the latest report from the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) as of 16 October, citing the Palestinian Ministry of Health, 2,670 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza (an average of 267 per day, or 11 every hour) and 9,600 are injured. In Israel, 1,300 people were killed and at least 4,121 were injured.

“We urge the Israeli forces to avoid targeting civilians and civilian objects or conducting area bombardments, indiscriminate or disproportionate attacks, and to take precautions to avoid and in any event, to minimize loss of civilian life, injury to civilians and damage to civilian objects,” said Ms. Shamdasani.

Addressing a question about Hamas militants hiding in civilian houses which are then targeted by the Israeli military, Ms. Shamdasani condemned the “violation of the customary law prohibition to use human shields”.

And regarding the Israeli military’s order for 1.1 million people to relocate away from the northern to the southern part of the Gaza Strip, Ms. Shamdasani insisted that international law “imposes obligations on Israel to ensure their security. It imposes on them the obligation to ensure proper hygiene, health, safety and nutrition. And there appears to have been no attempt by Israel to ensure this for the civilians who are ordered to move.”

Echoing the extremely difficult humanitarian conditions of the displaced people in the Gaza Strip, Dr. Margaret Harris, spokesperson for the UN World Health Organization (WHO), said that around 2,000 patients were still in hospitals in northern Gaza. “These are really, really people who need critical care, who really can't be moved. And also, babies and women have just delivered and people on life support or people on dialysis or needing dialysis. Remember, the north is where most of the hospitals are and most of the more advanced care has been available.”

According to WHO, 20 hospitals are treating more than 2,000 in patients in Gaza City. Four hospitals are no longer functioning.

There is a lack of drinking water and people have started to drink unsafe water. “We're expecting large outbreaks of gastroenterological disease. We also fear large outbreaks of respiratory disease like COVID 19 and influenza. Those are already circulating massively”, said Dr. Harris. “These respiratory diseases, particularly the respiratory diseases among small children, will kill them very quickly. It's not something we can just stand by and witness.”

-ends-

Teleprompter

[Other language spoken]

Sorry for this delay, which is really technical and welcome to the press briefing of the Information Service here in Geneva.

Today is Tuesday, 17 October, again a day with a very heavy news horizon that we are going to explore together with our colleagues.

We are waiting for one briefer on the issue of the Middle East.

So I would probably start now just with the Claire who has an announcement and she's online and then we will move to the situation in the Middle East.

Claire, you want to give us your announcement, please?

Yes, good morning, everybody.

I will be very brief because I know you've got a lot, a lot on your plate just to say that the World Climate Research Programme, which is Co sponsored by the World Meteorological Organisation, has a big open science conference next week.

This is a thing which takes place once a decade.

So there'll be about 1200 scientists talking about, you know, greenhouse gases, the state of the climate and much, much more.

I will physically be there to, to help them out.

And obviously, I know you're busy with the, with the Middle East and other humanitarian crises.

But if you are interested in following it, please register online.

I'll, we, we sent out a media advisory last week.

There's, there's, there's no, there's no card charge.

It's, it's straightforward.

But if you, you know, want interviews, if you want to follow any of the hybrid, hybrid sessions, please, please register online and I'll put the link in the, in the chat for you.

And we will be sending out a press release on that probably Thursday with, with more information and quotes.

And as I said, if you want interviews, just let me know.

Then secondly, we are releasing a press release.

I think it'll be the middle of next week on the annual airborne dust Bulletin.

And this shows details of sand and dust storms around the world, which are becoming an increasing problem because of climate change, land use changes, etcetera.

So that will be coming your way in all languages.

As I said, I think it'll be the middle of next week.

That's all from me.

[Other language spoken]

Thank you very much.

Claire, any question to WMO from this announcement?

I don't see any.

[Other language spoken]

So thank you very much for for giving us this announcement.

Let's go now to the situation in the Middle East.

We have the pleasure to welcome Abir Etefa, who is the World Food Programme Regional Communications Lead for MENA.

Abir, you are connecting from Cairo, I understand, and will be updating us on the situation of food in the State of Palestine.

We will have afterwards also our colleague Itaii Viriri.

I'll introduce you in a moment, Itaii, for those who don't remember you and then Ravina Shamdasani for OHCHR will also join us to tell us more about the situation of on the point of view of human rights.

Just before we start, I would like to call your attention to the 7th situation report that our colleague of UNRWA have published this morning.

They give you a situation report for with figures to the 16th of October yesterday as of 6:00 local time.

And you have all the information and numbers that our colleague of have been collecting.

So let's start now and go to you Abea, you have the floor and for introductory remarks and then we will listen from the other briefer and then open the floor to questions.

[Other language spoken]

Good morning, everyone.

Well, the situation is about that is getting worse really by the minute.

It's the humanitarian situation, but also of course the food security situation.

The current stocks of essential food commodities are sufficient for only two weeks and that's at the wholesalers level.

But at the shops, inside the shops, I think the stocks that we're getting close to less than a few days, maybe 4-5 days of food stocks left in the, in the these shops, the warehouses are usually located in Gaza City and that there are huge difficulties facing the shops to be able to get the supplies, replenish the supplies from the warehouses.

Also in terms of the the mills which are very much needed for the production of bread in Gaza, in Gaza Strip, there's only one mill that's currently working, of course because of shortage of fuel or because they have sustained damage or because of security concerns.

So the breast supply is running low and people are lining up for hours to get bread.

There are currently only 5 bakeries out of 23 ingas that are still operating.

The primary challenge remains as the physical access to the shop.

So and again, there are some commodities that are still left and retailers are facing these big challenges of restocking their food supplies.

There's also an assumption that probably 25% of the stocks that were in the warehouses or in the shops are either lost or left behind or have have actually, you know, been spoiled because of the shortage of fuel and electricity.

And there is like heavy of course movement of of populations internal displacement at the moment WFT is has assisted and reached around just as of yesterday, on yesterday alone 220,000 people who are the space in the UN designated shelters.

And we're think of course, you know, the waves of the displacement is manifesting itself in the number of people in these shelters.

So in the beginning we used to assist around 170,000 people in around you know, you know, on daily basis across the 92 shelters these days were like about 180,000 on baby basis are being assisted with fresh bread in only 30 shelters.

So this, this, this shows you the congestion that we are starting to see in these shelters and the average, as the average number of people have tripled.

And also, you know, right now, of course, that means that what we are doing is is basically stretched with our food supplies inside Gaza are running really short.

And but in the meantime, food supplies are being stockpiled in the Egyptian city of Elarish and close to the Gaza border to be detached as soon as the border, you know, access is granted.

So WFP, we called for unimpeded access, safe passage for desperately needed humanitarian supplies into Gaza.

We've mobilised around 300 / 300 tonnes of food that are either at who are on the way to the Egyptian border in Rafa.

That's enough to feed around quarter million people for one week.

2 planes have arrived in the last two days from Dubai to Alaric carrying ready to eat food, around 20 tonnes of **** energy biscuits and two mobile storage units.

There are also food supplies that are on the way to the border that have been procured from regional suppliers, mainly cans and ready to eat food.

Finally, I think the plan for the work food programme is to provide this vital lifeline to around 800,000 people in Gaza and the West Bank.

If the access is open and we're able to get food supplies inside Gaza and, and and and in also into the West Bank.

We've so far the, we've reached around half a million people in palace in, in, in Gaza since the beginning of the crisis and we urgently need around 74,000,000 U.S.

dollars to run this operation for the next three months.

[Other language spoken]

Thank you very much.

And I'm now calling to Sheeta please, to distribute the notes, your notes, you're briefing notes to our journalist either directly or through us before.

I see there are a lot of questions, but I would like to give a chance to other colleagues that are also briefing you on the situation in the Middle East.

And I'll go to Ravenna for the human rights and go perspective in briefing.

[Other language spoken]

Thanks, Alessandra.

Good morning, everyone.

With a staggering 4200 people killed, over 1,000,000 people displaced in just ten days, and large areas in the Gaza Strip reduced to rubble, we have grave fears about the toll on civilians in the coming days.

Military operations show no sign of abating.

The continued siege on Gaza is affecting water supply, food, medicine and other basic needs, and there are daily indications of violations of the laws of war and of international human human rights law.

The death toll includes a large number of women and children, as well as at least 11 Palestinian journalists, 28 medical staff and 14 UN colleagues.

It remains unclear how many more bodies may be buried in the rubble, with many families missing, loved ones terrified about their uncertain fate.

With numerous health facilities hit by bombardment and others beyond breaking point, there are serious concerns about the accessibility of medical care for the many thousands injured and for the estimated 50,000 pregnant women, as well as people with chronic physical and mental health issues.

The current hostilities are compound, compounding already limited enjoyment of the right to health resulting from the ongoing blockade of Gaza.

Attacks against medical facilities, medical personnel and the wounded and sick are prohibited under international humanitarian law.

Appalling reports that civilians attempting to relocate to southern Gaza were struck and killed by an explosive weapon must be independently and thoroughly investigated, as must all allegations of serious violations of international humanitarian law.

We urge the Israeli forces to avoid targeting civilians and civilian objects or conducting area bombardments, indiscriminate or disproportionate attacks, and to take precautions to avoid and in any event to minimise loss of civilian life, injury to civilians and damage to civilian objects.

Those who managed to comply with the Israeli authorities order to evacuate are now trapped in the South of the Gaza Strip with scant shelter, fast depleting food supplies, little or no access to clean water, sanitation, medicine and other basic needs.

So far, around 400,000 ID PS are sheltered in various locations, several in UNRWA buildings.

International law requires that any lawful temporary evacuation by Israel, as the occupying power of an area on the basis of the security of the population or imperative military reasons, must be accompanied by the provision of proper accommodation for all evacuees undertaken under satisfactory conditions of hygiene, health, safety and nutrition.

There appears to have been no attempt by Israel to ensure this for the 1.1 million civilians ordered to move.

We're concerned that this order combined, combined with the imposition of a complete siege on Gaza, may not be considered as lawful temporary evacuation and would therefore amount to a forcible transfer of civilians in breach of international law.

We echo the UN call for a humanitarian pause to enable aid delivery and to prevent further suffering and deaths of the already much beleaguered civilian population of Gaza.

Urgent, immediate, unimpeded humanitarian access needs to be insured.

The latest reports indicate that around 119 Israelis are held hostage by Palestinian armed groups in Gaza.

Once again, we urge Palestinian armed groups to immediately and unconditionally release all civilian hostages and to halt the use of inherently indiscriminate projectiles against Israel.

We're also concerned at increased violence in the occupied West Bank, including E Jerusalem.

Since the 7th of October, 52 Palestinians have been killed in the West Bank by Israeli security forces, and five more have been killed by settlers.

We urge Israeli authorities to ensure that Israeli security forces refrain from the use of live ammunition except as a last resort to address an imminent ****** to life or serious injury.

And we urge them to take immediate steps to end settler violence against Palestinians and to ensure the protection of the Palestinian population.

Every effort must be made to ensure the strict compliance by all parties to the laws of war, both in the conduct of hostilities and in the treatment of civilians and persons of the combat, and to ensure that life saving humanitarian assistance is able to reach civilians in the Gaza Strip to prevent further unnecessary loss of life.

Yes, thank you very much, Ravina.

And let me turn now to Italy.

We really, some of you may remember Italy.

[Other language spoken]

Ready.

[Other language spoken]

And now you are in charge of communications for IOM, please.

Thank you very much, Alessandra.

Good to be back and see some familiar faces.

I mean, I won't go through what obviously has already been said by sister UN agencies, but just to reiterate calls and support the calls by the UN Secretary General and the rest of the UN family for an immediate end to the escalation in violence to avert a humanitarian, humanitarian catastrophe, which can have the potential to reshape the region for many years to come.

I think what we are also calling for now, seeing the data situation on the ground is safe access in opening of humanitarian corridors that are urgently needed to provide life saving aid and assistance to the people of Gaza.

So in that regard today with our team in Egypt, IOM, Egypt, we are taking the next step in our response efforts to make sure that the needs of the people of Gaza are met.

So we have together with UNICEF, WFP and the Egyptian Red Red Crescent sending non food items in medical supplies to Al Arish in a convoy that hopefully should, should, should get there later today.

We also stand ready to deploy staff within hours to support any humanitarian efforts, including third country nationals who may have to leave.

And this is an issue, as you know, that comes up in any conflict where you have third country nationals who need to be evacuated.

So, so far, we've received requests from several embassies, several governments, totalling a number of 45450 individuals.

This number was actually 417 this morning.

So as you can tell, it's climbing up very rapidly.

IOM is very experienced in doing this.

Unfortunately, it's something that we have to do whenever there's a there's a conflict supporting governments to remove their nationals, especially where the capacity may, may, may not be there.

So just to reiterate, 450 received as of now.

In fact, I'm sure I'll be getting updates as I'm sitting here in terms of the numbers.

We have a team on the ground in Ismailia and we're running our TCN operations from there and taking in the request as they come in.

But what is essential for us to be able to do our job and, and, and, and I'm sure this applies for all the other UN agencies have access an, an impeded access and opening of humanitarian corridors that will allow us to support the third country nationals who need to, to exit Gaza.

So that's our our main ask at this point.

In terms of supplies, as I mentioned, we also working with the ERC to make sure that the relevant immediate needs are met when it comes to to to the aid requirements of the population affected.

I think I'll stop there.

[Other language spoken]

Thank you very much and welcome back.

So we have a very large number of questions.

I'll start with the room.

I saw a lot of hands.

[Other language spoken]

ASI works for Almaydin.

[Other language spoken]

Yeah, I will try or I can translate that away.

Well, my first question for WFP.

The European Union announced yesterday that it will organise A corridor to deliver humanitarian aid to Gaza via Egypt.

Is there any development about that?

And my second question about for Ravina, maybe the the truth about the 40 children killed by Hamas.

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I would like now to switch back to English and go to Cairo for Abir's answer.

Abir we it's it's a press conference.

We answer every question after it's been asked.

[Other language spoken]

So on the question of the humanitarian corridor by the European Union, I think they'll be in a better position to respond to this question.

But in general, what I can say is that there are so many convoys or like trucks and humanitarian supplies that are stockpiled now in the Egyptian city of Elarish, which is like just a few kilometres away from the borders with Gaza.

And all of these supplies, whether it is from UN agencies, from WFPWHO, UNICEF, you know, all the sister agencies as well as humanitarian organisations and, and the Egypt, the Turkish Rep Crescent, the Egyptian Rep Crescent, all of these, you know, supplies, medical foods, water is like on standby on the border and awaiting this like the the possibility to get into Gaza.

I think there was an attempt yesterday which was not completed.

So, you know, I think that there there is no shortage of supplies.

What's missing at the moment is this opportunity to get these supplies to the people who are just few kilometres away from it and needed desperately and unable to benefit from it.

[Other language spoken]

I, I first have to correct myself, I'm afraid.

I was told that I misread the numbers of hostages that are being held by Hamas.

So I'm going to read out that part again.

The latest report indicate that around 199 Israelis are held hostage by Palestinian armed groups in Gaza.

And once again, we call for their immediate unconditional release.

Musa on your question on, on the children harm by Hamas.

Now we we don't have specifics.

What is clear is that a large number of civilians were brutally killed by Hamas militants who entered Israel.

What is unclear is the exact circumstances of what happened and there's a lot of information circulating on that, which it would be, it would not be right for us to comment on.

There need to be investigations into each allegation of a serious human rights violation or a violation of international humanitarian law.

Investigations, credible investigations and individual criminal responsibility needs to be established.

This is essential because we cannot have collective punishment of an entire population on the basis of attacks carried out by militants.

There needs to be investigations and individual criminal responsibility for the perpetrators of these horrific attacks on the on the killing of the journalist.

And we're deeply distressed.

Our office in the Manor region, our office in Beirut also issued a statement on this.

We are deeply distressed by news that that this journalist was killed.

And he is, of course, among many other journalists, I mean, at least 11 journalists who have already lost their lives in just the past 10 days of this conflict, again, driving home the horrible toll on civilians of this completely unnecessary conflict.

And let me and let me add you and of course, that we extend our deepest condolences to the family of the journalist fallen.

Sorry, I've got a lot of events up if I've seen, well, Christian and then Jamie, hopefully in the right order, Christian.

Eric for Abir is our correspondent of the German News Agency.

[Other language spoken]

I'm afraid because we have so many briefers, there is also more than one question if we don't take one moment.

[Other language spoken]

So my first question to Abea is what is the reason you are given by Egypt for not opening the border?

Is that worry about the safety of the truck drivers or why is that border crossing not opened?

And my other question goes to Ravina and also to OSHA.

That was in the briefing notes of OSHA that were published just after midnight.

There's a paragraph on Israel holding civilians from Gaza who had been working in Israel at the time of the attack and were not allowed to return.

Do you know anything about that, Ravina or maybe Ocha?

How many people are involved?

I asked my colleagues in Israel this morning and they said there are allegations that they were not actually civilians, but, you know, people who are providing details about about the kibbutzis that were then later attacked.

But in the ochre note, it says these are people who were working in Israel and who were not allowed to return.

And my last question goes to Ravina.

Israel says they are they are avoiding civilian targets in Gaza.

But because Hamas is hiding behind civilians, there are casualties.

Is this a valid point?

You know, can can you carry out military attacks when civilians are in danger because your opponent is hiding behind them?

Or is it a very good tactic to hide behind civilians because then the other party, no matter what, is not allowed to attack?

[Other language spoken]

Thank you very much.

So I'll start with a bear and maybe in the meantime I look at the ends if he wants to come for an answer from March, a bear.

I think what we heard from the Egyptian side is the security situation on the border was not did not allow for these trucks and convoys to move and was also seen on the screens last night strikes on the border area.

So I think it's we're not very clear 100% on what is the bottom neck, but I think it is mainly the safety and security of the and and the operations that are happening on the border area.

Thank you very much Yens and then Ravina.

Good morning everyone.

I thank you for the question.

Christian first, let me let me just read out what what it actually says in in this report.

It's just that people from Gaza working in Israel were not able to return, return home.

Hundreds have been detained by Israeli authorities while over 1000 were transferred to the West Bank.

So people who don't specify them as civilians, but people working in Israel, what I'm told from our from our colleagues on the ground that these are reports that are based on Israeli media reports that have been retained.

We do not know the, the the grounds for them being detained or or transferred at at this point.

[Other language spoken]

On that point, I have nothing further to, to what Jens just read out.

That's the information that I was sifting through my papers to find as well.

On air strike, you know, Hamas is use of facilities.

Let's be clear.

International humanitarian laws are the laws of war.

These are compulsory and their obligations, actions of one party in violation of international humanitarian law does not absolve the other party of the need to respect it.

It's an obligation no matter what.

Now, international humanitarian law does clearly say that parties to the conflict should take all feasible precautions to protect the civilian population and civilian objects under control under their control from the effects of attacks and to the maximum extent feasible, avoid locating military objectives within or near densely populated areas.

This obligation is not absolute.

And even if there are areas that are not residential Gaza small size and it's population density does make it particularly difficult for armed groups to always comply with these requirements.

But again, let's be clear, these are obligations and the failure, you know, where armed groups carry out military operations within or in the immediate vicinity of civilian objects with the intent to use the presence of these civilians to prevent their military assets from being attacked.

This would constitute a violation of the customary law prohibition to use human Shields.

So this is this is me reading out the law to you, how it applies to the situation on the ground.

The parties to the conflict need to ensure that international humanitarian law is fully respected, no matter how complex the situation on the ground is.

These are laws that were crafted for exactly these kinds of circumstances, for exactly an armed conflict.

[Other language spoken]

My question for them is Atifa.

It just had to do with following up a little bit on what Christiana had asked.

If you could just tell us what the latest to your knowledge, what the latest state of discussion is about the possibility of an opening of the Rafa crossing?

Just what are you hearing from authorities in terms of the prospects of that actually taking place?

And maybe I just add a question for Ravena.

Ravena, this morning we heard about, of course, some strikes that may have been in the southern part of Gaza, and you made a reference to that.

Could you just tell us a little bit more about what it means for an area in which civilians have been encouraged to flee to come under bombing?

[Other language spoken]

This Let's start with you.

Jamie Keaton is our correspondent of Associated Press.

OK, Thank you On the latest.

I think that everyone is still very hopeful that we will be able to get inside and This is why more supplies are on the way and we do have another flight that's coming today also with supplies from our humanitarian response depot in Dubai.

So what we're hearing is that we, you know, I mean, no one is giving up on the hope that this would be open.

The negotiations are happening.

It's, I think it's at the highest level.

There are no, as I explained before, there are no exact explanation on why or clear communication on why.

What is the bottleneck?

I, I think the Egyptian side is definitely explaining that, you know, sharing, you know, information that the issue is the safety and security of the, the border, the crossing point and the fact that, you know, you have to have, of course, you know, safe passage for these trucks.

So we haven't heard that this is going to be off the table.

So we're hoping that maybe today, maybe in the next few days, that will really go through.

[Other language spoken]

Again, to be clear, we are asking Israel to seize the collective punishment of the population of Gaza, and those responsible for the indiscriminate attacks against Israeli civilians and the horrific killing of civilians in Israel must be held accountable.

But the collective punishment of the people of Gaza is not the solution.

As I pointed out in the note that I've read out, international law requires that any lawful temporary evacuation by Israel as the occupying power of an area that on the basis of the security of the population, it, it imposes obligations on Israel to ensure their security.

It imposes obligations on them to ensure proper hygiene, health, safety and nutrition.

And there appears to have been no attempt by Israel to ensure this for the civilians who are ordered to move.

Thank you very much, Muhammad.

[Other language spoken]

Muhammad is our correspondent of Anna Dulohan.

See the Turkish.

I think Alessandra, my question will be about Ravina.

[Other language spoken]

As you remember last week we talked about Israelis use of white phosphoric phosphorus.

I, I ask you this question to you and it was also published Human Rights Watch and then you on Friday you said we need time to talk about it.

It's a bit early on the weekend.

Amnesty International also documented this.

Has the United Nation start an investigation on this?

[Other language spoken]

Thanks for following up on this important issue.

It's very complicated.

No, once again, we, we do not have the information to be able to, you know, give a definitive answer on this question.

What we're really struggling with as well is even the human rights defenders, I mean, our own colleagues who remain in Gaza, plus other human rights defenders who are there, they're having a lot of trouble documenting, verifying information and collating and submitting this information because of electricity cuts and, you know, Internet connectivity issues.

So we are having a lot of trouble verifying information in line with our usual methodology.

[Other language spoken]

Yeah, I follow Robin, thank you for your answer.

And we also seen some footage from the international media and also different institutions was published about it.

Don't you think that it is too late for to investigate for United?

Thank you fully understand your frustration and believe me, we share this frustration, but particularly in the fog of war when there's a lot of information circulating, we need to be very careful as the United Nations, what we definitively declare ourselves on.

And on this one, we just don't have the information to be able to to be able to do that at this point.

But it is obviously a serious issue that we will be following up on.

[Other language spoken]

Let's go to the platform.

[Other language spoken]

Yes, Thank you, Alessandra, for taking my question.

[Other language spoken]

The first one is on the hostage.

You just say that it's 199 hostages.

We saw this report yesterday.

It was reporting by I-24 Telecanal from Israel media who said that it's from it's information from Israeli army.

I viewed the same sources of or you have other information.

So is this the same data by Israeli and army or you have others informations?

And my second questions, my second question is that yesterday the UN Commission of inquiry on the situation in Israel, Gaza and the occupied territories made it very clear that even before this new crisis, Israel and Hamas had committed act equivalent to war crimes.

Since then, dozens of schools and hospitals in Gaza have been bombed.

Even UN schools serving as refuge were bombed.

I don't think that we can say that Hamas was there.

It will be very surprising.

The population of more than 2.3 million inhabitants is literally starving and thirsty by a siege.

But when you are talking we heard about violation of humanitarian international law but never about war crimes.

These all elements even from others UN agencies as a showing for you that Israel is subjecting the population of Gaza to war crimes.

Thank you for your answer.

[Other language spoken]

Yes, it is on the Commission of inquiry on Gaza.

As you know, commissions of inquiry are independent.

They have a mandate that's completely independent of the work of the the UN **** Commissioner for Human Rights.

So you will often see statements where they come from their own perspective, from their own analysis of facts that they have collected that we may not always have had access to.

So they are fully independent.

What is clear is that this conflict did not come out of nowhere.

We have documented over many years many very serious violations of international human rights law and international humanitarian law by Palestinian armed groups and by the Israeli authorities.

We have documented these reports.

We have pleaded for accountability.

Unfortunately, we have not seen this.

In the vast majority of incidents, independent investigations were either not carried out or they were inconclusive and there was no ultimate accountability of the perpetrators of these violations.

This impunity has obviously fed into this current cycle of vengeance and bloodshed.

More vengeance and more bloodshed.

We are calling again for accountability, for individual criminal responsibility to be prioritised.

And I have been clear that the collective punishment of the population is prohibited by international humanitarian law and that the number of Palestinians killed in air strikes in Gaza since the 7th of October does raise serious concerns that the strikes may be indiscriminate or disproportionate.

Yan Yan Eberman, correspondent of several German speaking newspaper.

Yes, good morning, can you hear me?

[Other language spoken]

I have a question for WFP and I have a question for Orchard to WFP.

Given the unsufficient food supplies and the and the desperate situation in Gaza, do you think there's a big risk of looting of UN warehouses in Gaza?

And secondly, a question to Yens.

It's on the mission of the relief coordinator.

He announced a trip to the Middle East yesterday.

And I was wondering, has he arrived in in the region?

Has he started his talks and with whom?

Is he talking about possible access to Gaza?

[Other language spoken]

Thanks to you Abir.

OK, on the looting side that we did not see any of this happen in the last few days.

And anyways whatever we have left in, in the warehouses is so little.

When we started you know, 10 days ago with the the beginning of this crisis, we had food in our warehouses for around 44,000 people who've been like burning through the these stocks on daily basis.

So we really have very little left in our warehouses.

And so far we haven't seen any incidents of looting or like, you know, storming into warehouses or any kind of this, you know, behaviour.

[Other language spoken]

Thank you very much.

Yan, the emergency relief coordinator, is currently in transit to Cairo.

As he mentioned yesterday, he is going on a trip for several days which will take him to Cairo.

It will also take him to Israel.

And.

If conditions allow to the Occupied Palestinian territory.

[Other language spoken]

Gabriela to Sotomayor processor from Mexico.

[Other language spoken]

Thank you for the briefing.

[Other language spoken]

Ismail Haniyeh, the head of a political Bureau of Hamas, asked the people from Gaza to not leave the territory.

I think he was speaking from Qatar.

So my, my question is about what do you think about this call, maybe to IOM too, If people would like to live in any way, are they allowed to go?

And then I have a question.

I understand, fully understand, Israel is causing collective punishment against against the Palestinians and they are in breach of humanitarian law.

And I understand that.

But my question is, what is the responsibility of Hamas, of the authority of a Gaza Strip, of the protection of civilians, of their own people?

Thank you very much.

Sure, thank you.

All parties to the conflict have obligations to spare civilians.

This includes the Palestinian armed groups involved as well as the Israeli authorities.

That is clear.

On the evacuation of civilians, all parties again had the obligation to spare the civilian population to to take all measures, all precautions possible to minimise any loss of civilian life and any injury to civilians and any damage to essential civilian objects.

Unfortunately, what we saw was that the civilians were caught in a terrifying, desperate situation where they're being told by one party to flee and by another party not to flee.

This is an impossible situation.

Civilians should never be placed in such a situation on collective punishment.

I'm sorry, Gabrielle, I've your question was yes.

My question is what is the responsibility of Hamas, of the authority of of the Gaza Strip with their own people, the Palestinians?

What is the the responsibility of the of that state?

I don't know if it's a state, but it's the authority.

[Other language spoken]

So the responsibility of Hamas vis a vis the collective, they are the de facto authorities in the occupied Palestinian territory, in Gaza.

And they have all the responsibilities that come with being the de facto authorities under international human rights law and under international humanitarian law, because we are in the situation of active conflict.

So they have the obligation to ensure access to all the rights of the people of Gaza.

Thank you very much.

I still have John on the on the platform and Isabel here.

[Other language spoken]

And then we close because we have other other things to cover and we also have some guests who are waiting.

So let's go to John first.

John Zaracostas, Francois Cat and Lancet.

[Other language spoken]

Firstly, I have two questions to to the representative from the World Food Programme and also IOM, if their heads of agencies have reached out to the Israeli government, Miss Cindy McCain and Miss Pope to increase the pressure for the humanitarian corridor that everyone's been seeking since Doctor Tedros made the request last Monday to President Sisi.

And with reference to my colleagues question on the possible use of white phosphorus incendiary weapons, Human rights White said they had verified it.

The Israeli government said that they're not using these weapons.

Do you have any evidence from the medical authorities because these weapons have specific burns?

Have you had any evidence from medical authorities on treating these incendiary weapons as we've seen in the past they use in Syria and also in the Gaza Strip in the past?

[Other language spoken]

Maybe I'll start with you, but we also want to ask, maybe Margaret should be online if she has any input for the last on the last point.

[Other language spoken]

As far as I'm away, no, no contact has been made with the Israeli government, but I can obviously double check that.

Abir, what about Miss Mickey?

I'm, I'm not Privy to the information, so I don't know if she has made contact contact with the Israeli government.

I know she has spoken to a lot of the leaders in the region, but not sure about the Israeli government.

Margaret, would you like to say something on the on John's last point?

Yeah, with with John, would you mind repeating it?

I'm sorry.

I was just taking the call just as you spoke.

[Other language spoken]

My question was with reference to my colleagues question on reports by Human Rights Watch on the use of white phosphorus incendiary weapons, which the agency said they're very, the human rights have said they're verified.

The Israeli government said they don't use these weapons.

But I was wondering if you have any evidence from medical authorities because these weapons have specific damage to the human skin and if they have been used, medical authorities can detect the kind of burns they cause.

And if you have any evidence on that from your medical authorities in the field?

So currently we don't have have that, but we are certainly relying on on information.

But we don't have that at the moment.

[Other language spoken]

Isabel Sacco is our correspondent for the Spanish News Agents.

[Other language spoken]

My question is for WFP.

I would like to to understand well the situation of the food situation in in the South of Gaza.

You mentioned that you have stocks for food for only two weeks.

I, I would like to to know if you are referring to the stocks that you have in the South, because you said also that you don't have access to the main warehouses that were located in Gaza City.

And at the same time later you said that you anyway you had very few stocks in these warehouses.

So with more than one people displaced, this is a figure confirmed by by UNRWA with more than one people displaced in Gaza.

1,000,001 Sorry.

1,000,000 What is the is the population who is now displaced in this House is completely dependent on the on the humanitarian and the food aid that UN or other humanitarian organisations are given.

Exactly what is the stocks that you have for these people in that is now in the South of the of the territory and what is the stock What is the remaining if they there are no stocks coming from Egypt in the next 24 or 4048 hours?

[Other language spoken]

I already spoke about that, but I believe you want to give refunds for on this particular point.

[Other language spoken]

We can't see you anymore.

[Other language spoken]

So on the on the stocks that are left, I don't have this information.

I think also it's very difficult to be in touch on daily basis with our staff.

There's a communication breakdown.

There are no Internet connections.

[Other language spoken]

But I think I will have to get back to you through my colleague Yoshita on exactly the amount of stocks that are left inside Gaza for the world.

[Other language spoken]

I think it will be of interest to everyone.

Jeremy, launch, Radio France International.

[Other language spoken]

A quick one for both yes.

And and Margaret, I don't know, just yesterday, I think the regional director for WHO said that there's only 24 hours left of fuel, electricity and water in the Gaza Strip.

And if nothing changes, we will see more dead bodies in the next 24 hours.

So he said that yesterday around 4 PMI would like to know if that is the case.

Do you have any signs that something will change before the end of the day or indeed we will see more corpses?

And I was wondering if WHO has any indication of the number of people who are still left in hospitals who cannot move hospitals maybe or help centres in in North Gaza.

[Other language spoken]

It's you want to start?

[Other language spoken]

Indeed.

[Other language spoken]

There's no question about that.

I don't think that we said that we would see dead bodies within 24 hours.

[Other language spoken]

They do desperate things.

We know they drink unsafe water, things like that, that we know from experience tragically will come with all kind of of health issues.

Particularly is our concern, of course, for those who are already most vulnerable, people who may already be sick or weakened or injured and so on and so forth.

If you take away from them their basis for, for for survival, they are likely to die first, including children and infants.

[Other language spoken]

Sorry.

[Other language spoken]

Yes, indeed.

I do have some figures in Gaza City and northern Gaza, 20 hospitals treating more than 2000 inpatients.

We're asked to evacuate and what we understand is the four hospitals are no longer functioning as a result of damage and targeting.

The only hospital that actually removed that moved its patients is Aldora Paediatric Hospital in Gaza City.

So the numbers are an estimate, but it's around 2000 patients who we understand are still in those hospitals.

And these are really, really people who need critical care, who really can't be moved, and also babies and women who've just delivered and people on life support or people on dialysis or needing dialysis.

Remember, the North is where most of the hospitals are and most of the more advanced care has been available.

And, and so that's why it's so difficult to move people because you've got the people who were sickest who were in those particular hospitals.

You asked also about the effects of no food, no water.

But, and, and exactly as you've got more and more people think of it, they've been displaced, they haven't got shelter, They haven't they're incredibly anxious, terrified.

So they're in mental state is not contributing to a strong immune system.

They now don't have clean water or enough water.

So we're expecting larger outbreaks of gastroenterological disease.

We're also fear larger outbreaks of like COVID-19 and influenza, those are already circulating massively and these respiratory diseases, particularly the the respiratory diseases among small children will **** them very quickly.

It's not something we can just stand by and, and, and witness.

OK, Thank you very much, colleagues.

I see more hands on the line, but I, I have to ask you your indulgence because we have two guests from Kabul who needs to speak to you about the situation there.

I would propose that that the three people were still on the line with questions on the situation in the Middle East.

[Other language spoken]

Let's listen on Afghanistan situation in Afghanistan and we'll come back to that afterwards.

You have to leave, OK?

But you take it if, if the questions were for Ravina, please ask her separately because she needs to leave.

But I need to listen to our guests from Kabul who I've been waiting for one hour to brief you.

So thank you very much.

Those who can stay to answer further question on the situation in Gaza, please do I bear if you can stay with us a little bit more.

It would be really appreciated.

And I'll go now to Jens and to his guests.

We have, first of all, Daniel Andres, maybe you want to introduce her and also Kate, Kate Carey, please go ahead.

Yes, thank you very much and, and thank you for us to organise this.

I do understand you have a lot of questions on on OPT, but Afghanistan is very important humanitarian situation as well.

I will not say much just to announce that we have the acting humanitarian coordinator in Afghanistan, Daniel Andres on the line.

We also have my colleague, the deputy head of OCHA in Afghanistan, Kate Kerry, who will give you a few updates and a bit of news coming out this morning from Afghanistan.

[Other language spoken]

Let's start with Daniel then.

Thank you so much, Jens and colleagues and for this opportunity to also brief you on the situation here in Afghanistan.

As you know, I will brief with Kate.

So I will first give you an update on the overall situation and then Kate will talk about the appeal that we just come out with.

So in the last week on two days, western Afghanistan north of Iraq has been struck by three earthquakes of the magnitude 6.3.

And the that means the first one was on the 7th of October, the second one on the 11th, and last Sunday on the 15th there was the third one.

And so far what we have assessed is that we have about 63,066 thousand people who are affected.

This figure is going up as we continue our assessments.

The number of dead people from this earthquake is around 1500 and the number of injured people is around 2000.

So the the main, the main cause of under the main number of deaths occurred in the first earthquake.

This is a region that is not at all used to earthquakes and therefore the type of construction was done in a way that is very very fragile.

Once an earthquake strikes was mainly mud houses and so people were buried in the collapsing mud bricks and mud houses and suffocated most of them from the from the dust and from and as there were no red pockets.

The most impacted district is called in gaol.

It's about 40% of the affected people live there and we are especially rolling out our assessments in that district.

We also have by now established that at least 3700 homes have been completely destroyed, 5000 homes were severely damaged and about 2 1/2 thousand were moderately damaged.

So this means of course a lot of requirements on the reconstruction.

Another serious issue is of course the damage to infrastructure because the especially the water systems, the local Carrizas, the wells, the hand pumps, they have all been, most of them have been destroyed, especially in the heavily affected areas.

And that's a big problem because there is now no water for the people.

It needs to be tankered in and the water systems that are on the ground have been impacted by debris and there is a risk of diseases because the water is going to be contaminated.

So whilst we still are waiting for the full set of data, the humanitarian actors are now really in a race against time to meet the needs of affected communities before the winter sets in.

Temperatures at night time are getting cold and in addition the to the people whose homes have been completely destroyed.

Now most of the people, even the inhabitants of Herod that has almost 1,000,000 people population, most of these people stay outside their homes, especially at night.

So you see the roads in Iraq are lined with tents and that of course requires a huge amount of support of all kinds of shelter materials to the people.

In the past week I have visited Iraq three times and visited also the affected communities.

And to support the response effort, much has already been done, first by the local people and by the de facto authorities, and then, of course, in in a big bigger magnitude, partners providing emergency shelter, materials, water, food, health support, hygiene kits and all these to the most affected areas impacted by the earthquake.

There has been also a good response from the neighbouring countries.

Initially, Iran sent search and rescue teams.

That's now no longer required.

Unfortunately.

Then Turkey, Kazakhstan have sent emergency relief by planes and the UAE seems to be ready to establish a field hospital, which is particularly important because the existing hospital is is unsafe it seems.

So most of the patients are now cared for and accommodated in the garden of the main hospital.

So that's where main what the main services are being provided.

So we need to do a lot first of all in the initial humanitarian life saving and life sustaining phase.

But it's very, very important that we also are fully aware the the real, the bigger job of addressing an earthquake comes in the next 12 months in the reconstruction of the infrastructure, water in particular, and then of course, the destroyed homes.

I will now give the floor to Kate who will talk to us about what we have decided to do as the next phase.

Thanks, Samuel and good morning colleagues.

A pleasure to be with you this morning.

Maybe I'll just say a few words about our Iraq earthquake response plan that we launched last night at around 10:00 PM local time.

If you don't have the document already to hand the end, my colleague can share with you the link.

It will also be online on, on on Twitter and on especially your platforms within the next hour.

Maybe just to say and territory as as the humanitarian coordinator has already mentioned, this is an initial response plan based on the information that we have available to date.

So far we've assessed we think around 40% of the of the most impacted villages in Harat province.

Just to give you some some background, there are about 500 villages in Harap province according to satellite imagery that we have.

We we understand that there are around 289 villages that have been very severely affected, severely affected and moderately affected.

They are obviously are our priority in the first instance and, and so far we, we understand, we've, we've assessed about 30% of them.

So figures will, will increase over the coming days.

But but the response plan that we issued last night is really targeting in the first instance estimated 114,000 people who who we believe to be the most directly affected over the course of the next few weeks and beyond.

It is a plan that is primarily intended to support families that have been affected over the winter period.

So through to to March next year.

As as humanitarian coordinator mentioned, temperatures are beginning to fall, certainly in Kabul, the western region tends to to see temperatures dip a little bit later, but but nevertheless it will get cold very, very quickly.

And we already have thousands of people who are living in makeshift shelters and also residing in, in open areas as well.

And they remain obviously our priority.

[Other language spoken]

It just to sort of to clarify it, it is a plan that will be absorbed into the existing humanitarian response plan.

So the, the, the requirements that are attached to it and these total $93.6 million are, are already incorporated into our existing humanitarian response plan for 2023.

But obviously our, our current HRP remains severely underfunded.

We've only received 34% of requirements to date.

We have a gap of $2.2 billion, so and the people that we anticipated we will be able to support who are affected by natural disasters every year, we won't be able to do so without without additional resources.

In terms of, of, of the response to date, I can say a few words also about some of these systems that's been provided.

But in terms of resource mobilisation, it has been very encouraging.

We've had a number of Member States and donors step up over the last week and with contributions, we have received bilateral donor contributions from from 2 donors totalling 15.5 million.

We have also received an allocation from the from the UN Central Emergency Reserve Fund at $5,000,000 and from our own internal pools fund in country, the Afghanistan Humanitarian Fund.

We've already allocated $5,000,000 and we'll be making a further allocation this week of another $5 million.

But obviously, you know, the, the this sort of pales in comparison to the overall requirements across the country.

This remains a context in which we have 29.2 million people in need of humanitarian systems this year.

Obviously this population is a small subset, relatively speaking to the overall population.

But nevertheless, we're looking at already vulnerable communities who have depleted existing coping mechanisms and who will be left to their own devices to, to survive over the next few months if we're not able to, to stand up and support them alongside them.

Maybe just a couple of points on assistance providers.

And I would also encourage you to look to our updates.

We've issued 6 now over the last few days.

Last last night's came also around 10:00 PM local time.

We will be issuing another one also later this week.

But we have issued so far provided so far over 3000 tenths to affected families.

Over 500 tonnes of food and nutritional supplies have also been dispatched and distributed.

Affected population.

We are water trucking to thousands of communities in the affected villages.

These are also villages that are quite desperately located across the province as well.

[Other language spoken]

Fortunately, one sort of relative positive development compared to the earthquake we experienced last year has been that roads have not been too badly impacted.

This is always, this is also an area where we have existing hubs and partners in place.

So we have been able to move assistance much more quickly to the affected areas.

But of course, as, as, as Daniel mentioned, time is of the essence and we are really, you know, in a race against the clock here as well.

I will stop there, but happy to take any questions as is of course, Daniel.

Sure, thank you very much.

Thank, thank you very much for this extensive briefing.

[Other language spoken]

Let me see if there's any question in the room.

I don't see any hand dubs.

So I see Lisa Schlein, Voice of America, she has a question for you.

[Other language spoken]

Thank you, Alessandro.

[Other language spoken]

I'd like to know whether you are having any interference from the Taliban and getting aid through to the region.

And particularly I'd like to know what the situation of women is, whether they are allowed to participate in the relief effort, whether they're they are unable to get the kind of medical aid that they need because there may not be enough or perhaps not any, I have no idea female doctors there.

And so the situation of their ability to have male doctors treat them, I don't know what what that is, whether this is allowed or not.

And then you say that for fortunately the roads haven't been too badly damaged.

However, the the winter I believe is very severe.

There may be lots of snow, may be difficult to get aid through there.

So you do talk about a race of time, but I mean, are you seriously worried about the aid not getting through now?

How much time do you actually have in order to get the aid that you need through before and this will become impossible?

[Other language spoken]

Do we respond immediately?

[Other language spoken]

Well, thanks, Lisa, for the questions.

The, I think at this stage the Taliban have decided, or the de facto authorities as we call them, you know, have first of all committed their own resources.

Many ministers are on the ground.

The Minister of Health is coordinating in the hospital, moving patients from what, you know, one hospital to another.

And the so that collaboration has been positive.

They have virtually not restricted us in the outreach to the people in doing the assessments.

That includes access to women by women.

As you know, especially in the medical field, the work of women is permitted.

And so the women are of course only treated by female medical personnel and that's happening the.

So there is definitely a great, the greatest level of flexibility at this stage of the response in this earthquakes, earthquake, the yeah, the road damage, I don't think I can say something about the weather done if that's helpful.

So just to clarify that typically the western region doesn't see snow.

So normally the areas that get cut off in Afghanistan are the northern, north, eastern provinces, anywhere above the Slang pass, which is the main route connecting the northern provinces to Kabul and the South.

The western region see tends to see more temperate temperatures.

So, so we're not anticipating necessarily it will be exposed to snowfall and that we will be cut off physically from that area.

It's more a fact that that in reality, people can only really reside in tents for several weeks before and they do require some more sustainable form of shelter or transitional shelter to give them some better protection.

So, so really right now obviously that the priority is to ensure people are not living out in the open and they have some form of protection, even if it's, it's, it's minimal.

But of course, over the course of the next few weeks, we'll be looking to also move people back into a stage transitional support where whereby they have greater, greater support and stability around them.

And that really is the priority.

So it's tense in the immediate term that are already being delivered, but over the course of the next few weeks and and as we move into December and January, we'll be looking to house people in in traditional shelters as well.

And that's also incorporated into the earthquake response plan.

Thank you very much.

Of which Yance has put you the link in the in the chat.

[Other language spoken]

Margaret, you want to add something on, on Afghanistan, on WHO account?

[Other language spoken]

Just to on the medical side.

That was a good question from Lisa.

We actually sent A-Team and I'll get you the numbers of women.

It's a team that comprised of 11 midwives and 10 medical medical doctors, including one who specialises in obstetrics and gynaecology.

And we did this in collaboration with the Afghanistan Society of Obstetrics and Gynaecology.

And it was specifically so that there will be women doctors on the ground able to work with the women and children given specifically because of the, the restrictive issues.

And of course, we're doing other things like vaccinating and providing tents to replace the, the, the damaged health facilities.

But just wanted to make that point that in fact, a dedicated team of women doctors and midwives has been sent for that very reason.

That's very important.

Thank you very much to to all.

Any other question on the issue of Afghanistan?

I suppose, Gabriela, you're still, your hand is still up for the situation in Gaza, which, yeah, otherwise please put a note in the chat.

But I don't see other questions on this subject.

So I'd like to thank very much our guests from Kabul and the ends of for this briefing.

It's it's important as as you said, I mean, we, we really have to brief you on other crisis situation.

And then thanks again.

And I'll go now to UNHCR while colleagues are coming to the podium.

Maybe Gabriela, you want to ask your question while they reach me on the podium, please?

Yes, thank you very much.

Alessandra, I, I have two questions, one for gents maybe and I don't know for Margaret maybe Mr Blinken said that they are finishing the the mechanism to let go aid to open Egypt passage.

So my question is that is not clear to me.

Is this mechanism UN is is there is participating in this mechanism, but it's not clear to me if it's for people to leave the the strip or humanitarian aid to go in that is, but it's not clear to me.

And then for Margaret, there are 50,000 women pregnant in, in in the in the gases strip.

So my question is if you are in talks with Israel or with someone authorities to have a place, a safe place for pregnant women and also women that had just had their babies.

These are very vulnerable person.

So my question is exactly on that.

[Other language spoken]

It's very important to understand what pregnant women are going through right now.

Unable to get water, unable to get shelter, They often will be women who've also got other small children they're desperately worried about.

I think the answer is better placed to discuss all the many contacts and discussions and negotiations going on.

But what we have, what we really would like to see is the hospitals kept safe, the hospitals to be truly safe places not to be under attack.

If the hospitals are safe, then the women can deliver safely.

OK, let me leave the floor to to Jens.

[Other language spoken]

The UN is involved in so far as we have a lot of humanitarian assistance that is desperately needed inside Gaza.

As you heard the emergency relief coordinator saying yesterday, on the Israeli side, he's having very constructive, they're engaging constructively with him.

The same goes for the Egyptian.

The same goes for everyone who is trying to work on making this happen.

The the the bottom line is, of course, that there is a catastrophic need on the other side of that border and there is aid and relief available on the Egyptian side.

We need that passage open.

We needed to be safe and secure for those delivering the aid and certainly for those who receive it on the other end.

Thank you very much.

I'm asking courtesy of our colleagues of UNHCR.

I'll take the last two questions on Gaza and then we will go to UNHCR.

[Other language spoken]

I'm not sure I can hear you, but I'll ask my Yeah, go ahead.

My question, sorry if I if I change the topic a little bit, but there was a terror attack in Brussels last night where two Swedish nationals were killed by what's allegedly Islamic ISIS extremists.

This comes after an attack on a French teacher recently was stabbed to death also by a suspected Islamic extremist.

I wonder if maybe this question was to Ravina, but perhaps also Alessandra could ask or could answer your give me your reaction and view of this increase of Islamic radicalization in Europe.

That seems to be.

[Other language spoken]

Yeah, probably this would have been a question for Ravina and I, I recommend that you also ask it to her, Gunilla.

But I think I can also say that I would like to refer to what the secretary general said on Friday about the language that incites violence and should never be accepted everywhere.

We have to speak against all kinds of bigotry, extremism, hate speech, and this is whether it's at the political level or the OR the level of social media.

I think what we are seeing is spreading of hate and violence messages that incite people to to react the way you have described the gorilla.

I think to all this, to all this terrible actions and also others that we've seen in the last days in other sides of the world and also on other with other motivation, but still extremist motivations should be fought and we have, we have spoken against that.

Very lovely.

But please, if you want an answer from more human rights side, please, I invite you to ask it to Ravina.

She said she was available for questions, but she had to leave.

Dina, you've been patiently waiting.

[Other language spoken]

Actually, my question is about the children in Gaza.

I read this this week in one of the reports received from the UNI, can't remember which organisation, that around 8, around half of the population in Gaza are under 18.

I just just need to confirm this and my question was supposed to go to Robina but she needs left so maybe Jens can answer this.

Do you have any specific numbers about the killed children and women in Gaza during those attacks?

[Other language spoken]

I'm the, the numbers that I have that that we are reporting are the, the overall casualty figures.

They're in our our latest report, the one that came out overnight says that Palestinian casualties is 2808 fatalities and that's according to the Ministry of Health in Gaza.

According to the same source in Gaza, 10,850 injured in the West Bank, where we are also seeing violence, we have 58 fatalities and 1176 injuries.

We also put in our report Israeli casualties.

I just want to mention that Orcha OPT does not have a mandate in Israel.

So we do not have the same level of reporting and monitoring as we have in the areas where we do have a mandate.

However, we do put that in there in in that report and that's according to Israeli official sources.

There's 1300 fatalities and 4121 injuries on those numbers.

I want to to underline that these are numbers that we simply report at the time we have them available from the official Israeli sources.

These are not OCHA numbers and I will certainly refer you to those Israeli sources directly for any updates on that.

[Other language spoken]

Thank you very much indeed.

On the issue of the number of children, I'm sorry because James Elder is in a man, but he was connected with us.

He had to leave, but he said if you have any specific question, maybe UNICEF can answer more precisely, send it to her to him.

Sorry.

Thank you very much and thank you very much for your patient colleagues of UNHCR.

We have with us, Eugene, that you of course know here from From our colleagues here in Geneva who has brought us Valentine Tapsova, the Director of UNHCR, Regional Bureau for South and Africa.

And we will hear from him first about the situation in Eastern DRC and then everything.

I think you also have a point on Sudan.

Therefore, let's start with Valentin.

Thank you so much, Alexandra, and also Bonjour Monsieur in Madame le Journalist.

Thank you for coming.

This very much appreciated unit shared.

The UN refugee agency is sounding the alarm as escalating violence and pervasive human rights abuses in the eastern provinces of the Democratic Republic of the Congo DRC trigger a fresh wave of displacement both within and outside of the country.

Despite a recent ceasefire agreement in North Kivu, UNHR protection monitors have reported a staggering figure of over 9090 thousand people across the Uturu and Masisi territories were forced to flee their own during the first weeks of October.

Displaced families have urgently requested need for food, clean water and shelter, but humanitarian access to these affected population is severely restricted due to ongoing conflicts.

S Kivu, which sits on the periphery of the primary conflict which began in 2022, became home to 260,000 internally displaced people.

Protection monitoring has revealed A dramatic deterioration of the protection environment in the province, with 8243 human rights violation reported in September alone, September alone, including killings, looting and ****.

Disease outbreaks, particularly cholera and measles, continue to hit very hard.

IDP site in North Kivu exacerbated by overcrowding and lack of potable water resources.

Out of the 1,000,000 people urgently requiring shelter in the eastern provinces, only 150,000 have received assistance since June.

This is less than 1/5 of the requirement.

Meanwhile, children in dozen of schools in North Kivu remain out of school as their classroom, as used to shelter displaced families.

Because of the lack of shelter, people are being hosted in the schools and then it is becoming very difficult for children to go back to school.

And this is the starting, starting of the school year in October, but they're outside.

This could lead to a lost generation for the children.

Despite a joint declaration to ramp up the emergency response in June, humanitarian organisation working in eastern DRC have only received the funding required to reach 2.7 million of the 5.5 million people in most urgent needs.

UNHR itself required 232.6 million U.S.

dollars to adequately respond to the needs of the displaced people in DRC this year, yet to date only 40% of this amount has been received.

So, we are more or less two more months before year end and we haven't even received 50% of the required needs.

Face with this dire circumstances, displaced families who preferred to remain close to their extended family networks and livelihood are now crossing international borders.

From January to August 2023, approximately 45,000 new refugees from the DRC arrived in neighbouring countries in Uganda, Tanzania and Rwanda.

Across these countries, shelter and protection needs for the new arrival are acute.

The and the funding situation, which is critical, repeats itself in the neighbouring countries of asylum.

Medical referrals have been reduced to 70% in Burundi and the provision of all support beyond emergency referral to secondary care has been stopped in Rwanda.

UNHR has also seized all cash assistance programmes for refugees in Rwanda and the World Food Programme will reduce their cash assistance for food from November.

This will definitely lead to negative coping mechanism for refugees in Tanzania.

Assistance for individual with specific needs, survivors of gender based violence and sexual exploitation and ***** and at risk children has been drastically reduced.

[Other language spoken]

There has been a reduction in the availability and level of water, sanitation and hygiene services with with, which is attributed to the gap between the **** rate of arrival from the DRC and the resources available for infrastructure expansion for these new arrivals in settlements.

The 2023 Regional Refugee Response Plan for the DRC situation, which brings together 69 humanitarian and development partners in collaboration with the governments and UNHR, is currently funded at only 16 percent, 16% of the required 605 million U.S.

[Other language spoken]

UNHCR urgently calls upon the international community to step up efforts towards lasting peace for the DRC, as well as the needed resources to alleviate the suffering of displaced people in eastern DRC and Congolese seeking refuse in neighbouring countries.

Thank you for being the voice of the voiceless.

It's very much appreciated.

Over to you, Alejandra.

Thank you very much for briefing us on this situation.

Any question to HCR on DRC, don't see any in the room or online, but thank you very much.

I think it's important to continue underlining this difficult situation wherever they they are.

And we also have then as I was saying, Eugene with an update on that floor, please.

[Other language spoken]

So we're brought another humanitarian crisis that attacking civilian in this forum, especially the South Sudan as the Darfur region.

The escalation in fatality in severe human rights violation against innocent civilian including refugees and internally displaced people in Darfur is worsening 6 months into the deadly conflict in Sudan.

According to UNHCR their newly released protection brief, nearly 4000 civilians have been killed in Darfur between 15th of April and the end of August, with the majority believed to have been targeted mainly due to their ethnicity, particularly in West Darfur.

Additionally, over 8400 were also reportedly injured.

Tragically, displaced children, including refugees, have been caught in the crossfire, killed or injured as their schools were impacted by shelling.

Those who have been reached safe location are battling acute mental and psychosocial psychological distress.

Civilian property has also not been shared.

At least 29 cities, towns and villages have been destroyed or routed across Darfur after extensive routing and burning, indiscriminate shooting and heavy shelling in camp and gathering sites.

Shorter and displaced people have resulted in 100 of casualty.

139 civilian structures, including community water points, schools, market and hospital have either been destroyed, damaged, looted or occupied.

Medical staff attempting to operate ad hoc clinic in private residence have been targeted as well.

Schools in Darfur has been closed, cutting off access to education and safe spaces for millions of children and exposing them to serious risk of sexual violence, distress, trauma and family separation.

The number of unaccompanied and separate children is increasing as the conflict has destroyed the livelihood.

Refugee children remain at heightened risk of abduction into forced labour, recruitment into armed groups and even trafficking.

Civilians are trying to leave the region in search of safety, have reportedly been prevented from fleeing or face the challenges at checkpoint and have been arrested and detained.

UNHTCRM partner continue to monitor the situation including through a community protection network in all the food estates reaching over 90,000 people with information and services.

Where possible we have provided this place the family in north and West of food with the core relative items and have provided for generated to a health centre in north north of for legal assistance has also been provided to refugee including those in detention.

Security permitting awareness session on gender, gender violence and social activity to promote a cohesion among community have been organised.

However, more donor support is urgently required to ensure critical protection services are provided to those who need them in there for unity.

Sir continue to call up call upon the parties to conflict to guarantee the protection of civilian including refugees and internally displaced persons and to ensure safe passage to humanitarian assistance.

Ultimately, the conflict in Sudan, including in the food region must end funding chauffeur are still making it difficult to respond to the needs of a people both within Sudan any neighbouring country.

The Sudan Humanitarian Response Plan which aim to reach a 17 million people inside the country is only one third funded and Sudan Regional Refugee Response Plan which called for 1 billion U.S.

dollar to meet the needs of 1.8 million in Chad, Central African Republic, Egypt, Ethiopia and South Sudan is only 20% funded.

[Other language spoken]

Thank you very much, Eugene.

Questions on the issue of Darfur, I don't see any.

Just to remind you also that yesterday, sorry, 2 days ago, I think it was Martin Griffiths issued a statement on the situation in Sudan with very, very strong, very important information.

I also wanted to mention this.

I don't see any other questions.

So thank you very much and thanks for your patience.

Before I close the briefing, just let me remind you of a couple of points.

First of all, on the side of the Human Rights Committee, please be reminded that today the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women is reviewing the report of France.

The other countries to be examined are Albania, Malawi, Uruguay and Nicaragua.

The Human Rights Committee is beginning this afternoon the review of the report of the United States and the countries to come are the Republic of Korea, sorry, Trinidad and Tobago, then Republic of Korea.

And they will also have a meeting with state parties on Thursday, 26th of October.

And just a, a, a reminder that today, 17th of October, the international community comes together to commemorate the International Day for the Eradication of Poverty.

The theme for this year is Decent work and social protection, putting dignity in practise for all.

The Secretary General issued a statement of message for this important day where he said that as we mark the International Day for the Eradication of Poverty, nearly 700 million people are barely scraping by, living on less than $2.15 per day.

And of course, this is unacceptable and the Secretary General to remember to recall the importance of the SDGS implementation to ending poverty, which is a challenge of our time, he calls it.

But it's challenge that we can win on this important day.

Let's renew our commitment to a world free of poverty.

And that is what I had as final announcement.

I don't see other hands up.

So thank you very much for having followed this long briefing.

And I wish you bon appetit and I'll see you on Friday.

[Other language spoken]