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OCHA Press conference with Lynn Hastings 13.12.2023
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Press Conferences , Edited News
OCHA Press conference with Lynn Hastings 13.12.2023
STORY: Humanitarian situation in the Occupied Palestinian Territory – Lynn Hastings
TRT: 3:01”
SOURCE: UNTV CH
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH
ASPECT RATIO: 16:9
DATELINE: 13 December 2023 - GENEVA, SWITZERLAND
SHOTLIST
- Exterior wide shot: UN Geneva.
- SOUNDBITE (ENGLISH) – Lynn Hastings, Humanitarian Coordinator for the Occupied Palestinian Territory: “We absolutely need a cease fire, this is the only way forward. Right now, what is happening on the ground is not going to bring peace and security to either the Palestinians or Israelis for many, many years, if not generations to come. So, a cease fire is in the interest of everybody at the moment.”
- Cutaway: Wide shot, UN Geneva building exterior with flag alley
- SOUNDBITE (ENGLISH) – Lynn Hastings, Humanitarian Coordinator for the Occupied Palestinian Territory: “Israel, as the occupying power, is responsible to protect the Palestinian civilian population. This means they have to provide for basic needs, they have to ensure that there is unimpeded humanitarian access to those in need. It's not just for the United Nations to do allowing trucks to get to the border.”
- Cutaway: Medium shot, exterior UN building with UN flag
- SOUNDBITE (ENGLISH) – Lynn Hastings, Humanitarian Coordinator for the Occupied Palestinian Territory: “We are now seeing some Palestinians being, I guess, arrested and detained. And as far as we know, that's without any sort of trial. This is of obvious concern to the United Nations. And then, of course, we're also continuing to be very concerned about the release of hostages, which would be able to happen if there were a cease fire. In the meantime, everybody who is in some sort of detention or a hostage, etc., they need to be given access to to make sure that their conditions are appropriate.”
- Cutaway: Close up, UN Geneva building exterior with UN flag
- SOUNDBITE (ENGLISH) - Lynn Hastings, Humanitarian Coordinator for the Occupied Palestinian Territory: “The health care system has collapsed. We've got a textbook formula for epidemics and a public health disaster. This is in part, of course, because these shelters have long ago exceeded their full capacity with people lining up for hours just to get to a toilet. One toilet available for hundreds of people, you can imagine what the sanitation conditions are like as a result.”
- Cutaway: Medium shot, UN Geneva building exterior with flag alley
- SOUNDBITE (ENGLISH) - Lynn Hastings, Humanitarian Coordinator for the Occupied Palestinian Territory: “97 per cent of households in the north and 83 per cent of households in the south have inadequate food consumption. So that means maybe one meal a day, maybe one meal every couple of days. In the north, it's almost 50 per cent of the households that have experienced severe levels of hunger and in the south, I think it's one third.”
- Cutaway: Medium shot, UN Geneva building exterior with flag alley
- Lynn Hastings, Humanitarian Coordinator for the Occupied Palestinian Territory: “We are seeing lots of reports on the potential of flooding of tunnels. We don't know if this is confirmed or if in fact it's happening yet. But we want to flag that if this is to take place, it's anticipated that it will cause severe damage to the already fragile water and sewage infrastructure that's in Gaza, and it could impact generations to come, rendering the aquifer, which is a crucial source of drinking water once it's been desalinated for people in Gaza.”
- Cutaway: Medium shot, UN Geneva building exterior with flag alley
STORYLINE
Gaza ceasefire ‘in everybody’s interest’: UN humanitarian coordinator
Amid continuing heavy Israeli bombardments from air, land and sea across Gaza, the UN’s top aid official in the Occupied Palestinian Territory insisted that a ceasefire was “the only way forward” to help secure a peaceful future for all those involved in the conflict.
Speaking from Geneva via Zoom, Lynn Hastings, UN Humanitarian Coordinator in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, told journalists in Geneva that the situation in the enclave was dire.
This included the city of Rafah in the south, while intense sustained fighting has continued between Israeli forces and Palestinian armed groups in Khan Younis.
“We absolutely need a ceasefire, this is the only way forward,” she said. “Right now, what is happening on the ground is not going to bring peace and security to either the Palestinians or Israelis for many, many years, if not generations to come,” Ms. Hastings said. “A ceasefire is in the interest of everybody at the moment.”
According to the latest data from the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), which quoted the Ministry of Health in Gaza, between 7 October and 12 December, at least 18,205 Palestinians have been killed in the Strip. About 70 per cent were women and children and about 50,100 have been injured.
Many more people are missing, presumably buried under the rubble, waiting for rescue or recovery, OCHA said.
The UN office noted that limited aid distributions are taking place in Rafah governorate. In the rest of the Gaza Strip, aid distribution has largely stopped, owing to the intensity of hostilities and restrictions on movement along the main roads, except for limited fuel deliveries to key service providers.
“Israel, as the occupying power, is responsible to protect the Palestinian civilian population,” Ms. Hastings stressed. “This means they have to provide for basic needs, they have to ensure that there is unimpeded humanitarian access to those in need. It's not just for the United Nations to do allowing trucks to get to the border.”
On the issue of Palestinians being arrested and detained, Ms. Hastings said that “as far as we know, that's without any sort of trial. This is of obvious concern to the United Nations.” She also stressed the need to allow international access to hostages taken during Hamas’s 7 October terror attacks in southern Israel that killed around 1,200 people and prompted Israeli Defense Forces retaliation, adding that a ceasefire might be conducive to the release of hostages.
The spread of diseases in Gaza has reportedly intensified, especially due to overcrowded living conditions which has added to the strain on an already overwhelmed health system, increasing the risk of people dying.
On Tuesday, the Ministry of Health in Gaza had documented 360,000 cases of infectious diseases in shelters, noting that the actual number is believed to be higher.
“The healthcare system has collapsed, we've got a textbook formula for epidemics and a public health disaster,” said Ms. Hastings. “This is in part, of course, because these shelters have long ago exceeded their full capacity with people lining up for hours just to get to a toilet. One toilet available for hundreds of people, you can imagine what the sanitation conditions are like as a result.”
As of 11 December, according to the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA), almost 1.9 million people in Gaza, or nearly 85 per cent of the population, are estimated to be internally displaced, including people who have been displaced multiple times.
A recent survey by the UN World Food Programme (WFP) showed that almost half of the population in the north and one third in the south are experiencing “severe levels of hunger”. Ms. Hastings said that “97 per cent of households in the north and 83 per cent of households in the south have inadequate food consumption. So that means maybe one meal a day, maybe one meal every couple of day.”
Addressing reports on the potential of flooding of underground tunnels in Gaza with seawater by the Israeli military, Ms. Hastings warned that it would cause “severe damage to the already fragile water and sewage infrastructure…and it could impact generations to come” by tainting the aquifer, a crucial source of drinking water.
Ms. Hastings also highlighted increased violence in the occupied West Bank where 464 Palestinians have already been killed, including 109 children, a record high since 2005. Since 7 October, 271 Palestinians have been killed with 69 children. Some 3,000 Palestinians have been detained and it remained unclear whether they were given a trial, she said.
With respect to incidents of settler violence in the West Bank, a total of 336 have been recorded since 7 October, representing five per day now, compared with two per day in 2022.
-ends-
Teleprompter
OK, Uh,
it is 11 a.m. here in, uh, Geneva.
So we will start the press briefing, which is fully virtual,
uh, today
and we are very happy, uh, to have with us. And you can see her on on your screen.
Lynn Hastings, who is the, uh,
humanitarian coordinator in the occupied Palestinian territory?
She's also the resident UN, resident coordinator
and deputy
deputy special coordinator,
uh, for the Middle East.
Uh,
Lynn has some introductory, uh, remarks for you.
Uh, and then we will go as usual,
uh, to questions one at a time.
I want to tell you, uh, right here at the start, that, um she does, of course,
have some briefing notes.
And we will share
them with you to support your your reporting there.
Not for publication as such, but to support your,
uh, your reporting with numbers and so on. Just after, uh, the briefing.
When we get to the questions as usual,
just, uh, raise your hand and we will get you in the order that you raise your hands.
So
with that, I had to flow over, uh, to, uh, human
coordinator in Hastings overseas.
Jen, can you hear me?
I don't think they can hear me.
We
we can hear you. Ah, All right. OK, great. Thanks. Thanks a lot, Jansen.
Thanks to everybody who's online,
I just wanna start off with a couple of broader remarks.
The first, of course, is we absolutely need a cease fire.
This is the only way forward.
Uh,
right now what is happening on the ground is not going
to bring peace and security to either the Palestinians or Israelis,
um, for many, many years, if not generations to come.
So the a
cease fire is in the interest of everybody at the moment.
Um, I also want to highlight the fact that Israel, as the occupying power,
is responsible to protect the Palestinian civilian population.
This means they have to provide for basic needs.
They have to ensure that there is unimpeded humanitarian access to those in need.
It's not just for the United Nations to do,
uh, allowing trucks to get to the border of Rafah. Sorry. The border between Rafah
between Egypt and Gaza is insufficient.
They need to ensure that the conditions inside of Gaza are also such that
we will be able to provide assistance to everybody who is in need?
Um, we are now seeing some Palestinians being,
I guess, arrested and detained.
And as far as we know, that's without any sort of trial.
This is of obvious concern to the United Nations.
Um And then, of course,
we're also continuing to be very concerned about the release of hostages,
which would be able to happen if there were a cease fire.
In the meantime, everybody who is in some sort of detention or hostage et cetera,
they need to be given access to to make sure that their conditions are appropriate
with respect to the situation on the ground.
Um, we're over two months into the crisis, and of course,
it doesn't seem like there is going to be a let up.
just over the past couple of days, um, between the ninth and 10th,
297 Palestinians were killed,
the 10th and the 11th, 208 Palestinians killed
and, uh, 11th and 12th yesterday, 217 Palestinians killed. So
obviously the number of those Palestinians who are being
killed and injured is going up significantly every day.
We all know that the health care system
is or has collapsed. We've got a textbook formula for epidemics and
a public health disaster.
This is in part, of course, because the shelters have
long ago exceeded their full capacity.
Uh, with people lining up for hours just to get to a toilet.
One toilet available for hundreds of people. You can imagine what
the sanitation conditions are like. As a result,
almost half of Gaza's population is now in Rafah, which is the small
part of Gaza in the southeast corner.
Again, this is leading to nothing but a health crisis.
Um, and only one third of the hospitals are working.
And even those that are working, of course, are only partially functioning.
We're seeing infectious diseases, uh, breaking out
and that in
I think WHO is estimating about 360,000.
Let me just double check on exactly what those are. Meningitis, jaundice,
chickenpox, upper respiratory tract infections. They've all been recorded.
Uh, and of course, we have already referred to the outbreak of diarrhoea,
in particular amongst Children,
which globally is the number one,
child or
um, causes of death,
uh, amongst Children under the age of five. In situations like this.
Now we're seeing the winter.
It's raining, actually in East Jerusalem, so likely in Gaza as well,
without appropriate shelter available for people.
Um, just specifically on food and security.
WFP took the pause as an opportunity to do a survey,
uh, for people in terms of food insecurity.
They've recorded that 97% of households in the north and
83% of households in the South have inadequate food consumption.
So that means maybe one meal a day,
maybe one meal every couple of days.
In the north,
it's almost 50% of the households that have experienced severe levels of hunger.
And in the South, I think it's one third in the north.
People have access to about 1.8 litres of clean water per day.
The global standards are 15
litres per day. Now that includes to be able to wash.
So that's for sanitation hygiene,
but also to be able to cook and then, of course, clean drinking water.
So in the north,
it's 1.8 litres of clean water per person per day versus the global standard of 15.
And in the south it's about a third.
I'm sorry, it's about 1.5 litres of water per person per day.
And also in the south,
one third of the households have reported severe levels of hunger.
I think we all saw the bombing of the UN
school in Beta
noun.
Or maybe it shouldn't actually be bombing.
I shouldn't use that word because these were not airstrikes.
This was actual just destruction,
using explosives on the ground specifically to destroy
an unschool civilian infrastructure.
Um, without any justification for doing that, um, or at least none that we have seen.
We're now up to 1.9 million Palestinians internally displaced, as I say,
most from the North initially, then to
Khan Yunis and now to Rafah.
Um, this is obviously concerning all of us in terms of providing assistance.
Uh, not just because of the health outbreak that this is causing,
but also because the streets are full of
people either who have set up temporary shelters
on the streets, or simply just because
people are milling around on the streets, making it very,
very difficult for our trucks to be able to get through,
additional specific challenges. Of course. The ongoing fighting in
Kunis has been very intense.
I've cited the numbers of Palestinians that have been killed
in the recent couple of days,
and fighting is continuing on in the north as the Israelis circle Gaza City and
Jabalia more and more,
um, one issue that I do need to highlight.
And again,
this is in keeping with the government
of Israel's obligations as an occupying power,
but also as a warring
party to this war.
Um, it it's about deconfliction notification.
I'm not sure how many of you are aware of this, but
warring parties to any type of a conflict are obliged
to adhere to what we call deconfliction and notifications.
So number one, we tell the warring parties where civilian infrastructure is,
and in particular
where facilities of the United Nations is, and we do that repeatedly,
uh,
to the government of Israel.
Even if things haven't changed, we remind them where our premises are.
Uh, despite that, we have recorded 100 and 30 incidents that have impacted UN de
conflicted installations since the seventh of October,
and 62 of those incidents have resulted in casualties.
92 of those have resulted in physical damage to the facilities
and even more important,
UN R is estimating that at least 283 internally
displaced persons seeking refuge in their shelters have been killed
again. I just remind you these are in
de conflicted UN premises which should not be
hit, um,
or subject to any type of damage during
a conflict and then another 974 people injured.
This is not a final number. We expect it to rise.
Uh, but that is the number that we have currently.
Um And then, of course,
there is the issue of notification where we want
to be able to move to a certain area and
we notify to the government of Israel that we
are planning on delivering assistance in a certain area.
Let's just say tomorrow from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. and the again,
it's an obligation for the warring parties to ensure that
we're able to provide assistance to where we have identified.
There is a need.
So we have asked the government of Israel to work more closely with us on that.
So we are able to reach all of the populations who are in need throughout Gaza.
I've also repeated a number of times over the past past couple weeks that we need
to see the commercial sectors
having access to bring things into Gaza.
Yes, the United Nations is bringing in the bare minimum high energy biscuits.
Flour is the number one need on the ground at the moment.
Um so, uh, canned tuna, those sorts of things.
But we need the markets to be open for fresh vegetables.
Um, so we can avoid a malnutrition crisis.
We do welcome the fact that now Karem
Shalom has been identified and
operated yesterday
to verify United Nations trucks at
Karem
Shalom so they can reach Rafah crossing more quickly. But again, we need Karem
Shalom to be open so that
goods can be offloaded at Karem
Shalom and brought into Gaza.
Uh, so they can be distributed. And as I say
that we can work side by side with the commercial sector
with the public sectors which we do everywhere in the world.
The United Nations cannot support a population of 2.2 million people
with humanitarian assistance. It's a Band Aid.
We don't operate anywhere else in the world without going side by side
with other sectors in particular. the commercial sector and the
public sectors,
uh, fuel
it is inching up.
I understand that we may start seeing about 100 and 80,000 litres coming in.
This will enable us
to
use fuel not just for our own operations, but also some of the NGO community.
Some of the hospitals, desalination plants.
But of course,
it's nowhere near what will be needed for any type of a resumption of
a normal life and in particular the operation of basic services at hospitals,
wastewater treatment plants, desalination plants, et cetera.
I just wanna comment also briefly on the issue of
we see seeing lots of reports on the potential of flooding of tunnels.
We don't know if this is
confirmed, or in fact it's happening yet,
but we want to flag that. If this is to take place, this will.
It's anticipated that it'll cause severe damage to the
already fragile water and sewage infrastructure that's in Gaza,
and it could impact generations to come, rendering the aquifer,
which is a crucial source of drinking water.
Once it's been desalinated
for people in Gaza,
uh, it could jeopardise Gaza's already very fragile ecosystem,
and then there's even a risk to buildings and roads collapsing
because of the increased pressure and infiltration of seawater into Gaza.
So again, we don't have confirmation that this is going to happen.
But if it is, it would be considered to be a,
um
yet another issue with respect to people in Gaza having access to clean water.
And, of course, we can't forget the West Bank. Just a few numbers there.
464 Palestinians have been killed. We all know that's a record high
since 2005. So that's 464 Palestinians killed, including 100 and nine Children's.
And then since the seventh of October, it's 271 killed with 69 Children.
So more than half of the Palestinians killed since October 7th,
um sorry have been killed since October 7th. Um, for the entire year
2023
we are estimating that about 3000 Palestinians in the West Bank have been detained
and we do not have sight on where those Palestinians are
and whether or not they will be given a trial or if they will be held administratively
with respect to settler incidences,
we've recorded 336 since the seventh of October.
That's an average of five per day. Whereas last year it was
two per day.
And lastly, the economic situation. I think most of us on this call have seen
that the permits for West Bank workers inside of Israel and in settlements
their permits have been suspended.
There is, of course,
no trade with Israel and no trade within the West Bank amongst governance
inside of the West Bank due to the many closures that have,
um, been implemented since the seventh of October.
And the lack of revenue transfers
is of grave concern.
Palestinians working for the public sector have not received 100%
of their salaries for well over a year now.
So I'm sure you understand the precariousness
that that presents for people in Gaza.
Uh, sorry, people in the West Bank, but also for the Palestinian Authority itself.
Um, I will leave it there. Thank you.
Thank you very much, Lynn, for this, uh, sobering remarks. Uh, I might add,
we'll go to questions. Uh, the first up is
Yuri from RV.
And after that,
Abriel from Reuters. Over to you?
Yes, Thank you, Miss Hastings. Uh, for this briefing.
I have two questions, but they are short. The first one is that Thomas White from uni
spoke about the looting of humanitarian convoys a few days ago.
Is this trend continuing? Did you see any evidence of that?
And my second question is that you have also spoken
about the Palestinian arrested without any trials in recent days.
This is also the case of the director of the Al
Shifa Hospitals where
nobody knows where he is.
Uh, what is the status of these people?
What is the difference in statues with
the hostages regarding to the international law?
Thank you.
Uh
uh, Jen,
do you want me to go one by one?
One by one, please? Yeah. OK. Thanks. So, um,
given the fact that we're seeing people taking supplies,
that is continuing.
We prefer not to reference it as looting because most of these people are
very, very hungry, as I've already described.
Um, but that does continue.
Now, we are trying to work with communities to explain how we're distributing
and what the expectations of people should be in the hopes that we will be
able to have a more systematic distribution
of goods by ourselves and by the partners
with respect to the detention. We don't know where the director of
Shea
Hospital is either,
but this would I would also encourage that access by
the IC RC is given to him to determine his
conditions, but also to everybody.
And that includes the hostages and anybody who has been detained.
Thank you.
Thank you very much. Lynn. Uh, now we'll go to Gabrielle from Reuters.
And after that, Chloe from a FP.
M. Hastings.
Uh, just a question about your own personal situation if I can, uh,
given that your visa is not being renewed.
are there any talks with the Israeli authorities about, uh,
this in particular situation?
And, uh,
will you continue working
in the area? Uh, maybe from another country.
Just wondering, uh, where the things stand. There. Thank you.
Yeah. Thanks.
So, um, any of those discussions would be referred to headquarters,
so I'll let you do that.
And, um, I think Stefan de
Dure
has been very clear on my status, so I'll just refer you to his remarks. Thanks.
Thank you. Uh, very much. And Chloe from a FP.
Hey, uh, thank you for the brief.
Um, uh, I would like to ask you a question about the vaccines,
Uh, in the Gaza Strip, we have, uh,
a report from this morning from the Ministry of Health
announcing that Children's vaccination have been completely sold out.
I don't know if you've heard about it, and, uh,
if you could help us to confirm this Thank you very much.
Thanks. So, uh, yes.
In fact, this is something UNICEF is looking at in particular, and
we were able to get some vaccines distributed. Um, but it's not nearly enough.
So vaccinations are
one of the priority
items that we're trying to bring in to ensure that we're able to continue with the vac
vaccine campaign.
Thank you, Lynn. Uh, next up is, uh, Nick C
and Bruce from New York Times here in Geneva.
Yeah. Thank you for this. Um, a couple of questions, please. Um, in
relation to the school that was blown up.
I. I wonder if you could just shed a little bit more light on on.
Were there any particular circumstances around that school that you're aware of?
Were you given advance notice of the plans are destroyed.
can you shed any light on on the motivation for doing that? Um,
the second question is,
there have been repeated allegations about the diversion of aid,
uh, by Hamas to its own kind of military wing.
could you address that and just say,
are you Can you Can you say that there
has been any significant diversion of assistance going in
or not?
And thirdly, if I may have one last question
Karam
Shalom is supposed to be open.
I I'm not quite clear whether trucks are actually coming through that.
I don't see that in the
reporting for yesterday. Thank you.
Thanks, Nick.
Um, so yeah, I,
I guess you'd have to ask the Israelis what
their motivation is for blowing up a school.
so I'll leave it at that, um, diversion of aid.
There will always be those sorts of allegations. We haven't had any
concerns expressed to us by the Israelis about
any diversion of aid from the UN trucks.
There are other trucks that are coming in.
Um and
so whether or not there's been any diversion of aid from those trucks or not, I don't
really know. So I'm not. I wouldn't be able to answer that. Specifically,
Herm
Slom is only being used for verification.
It's not being used as a drop off or an unloading for, um,
the UN or anyone else to go and pick up goods to distribute.
So right now, what's happening?
I think yesterday was the first day Where, um, somewhere about 100.
I think 80 trucks were cleared,
uh, at Karem
Shalom. And then they still have to go around to Rafa to actually enter into Gaza.
So again, Karem
Shalom is
open only for verification,
not for entry.
Thank you very much.
Uh, Lynn, um, I got a question whether the recording will be available, Uh,
after this, and the answer is yes.
Um, you on TV will will, uh,
be able to to give you the recording if your connectivity is not the best.
let me look at the screen here. I don't see any other hands. Uh, going up.
Uh, so if that's not the case Oh,
Nick, come
from New York Times. You have a follow up.
Thank you. Sorry. I
thought I'd raise it already.
Um, as regards Karen Shalom, I mean is Are you expecting to see that Open to traffic?
W,
the understanding from the kind of thought that
we've heard was that this was going to be
a new route for the delivery of,
uh, of trucks and and aid is. But
do you have a date for that to happen, or is it really only going to be, uh,
a place for verification for the foreseeable future?
Thank you.
And so this is something that we've been pushing for ever since, Really?
The beginning
of the war. Um, we need Karem Shalom open.
I can certainly cannot give you a date, because that's up to the Israelis.
but it is absolutely critical if we are going
to be able to provide proper assistance throughout Gaza.
And as I said, we can't do it alone.
It has to be with partners, including the commercial sector and
the public sector. It it
It just needs to be open. I've said it before. RAF is a pedestrian crossing.
It's not a crossing intended for hundreds of trucks.
Um, so without Cam
Shalom,
we will never be able to properly deliver humanitarian assistance in Gaza.
Thank you. Uh, L next. Isabel Sacco
from, uh, Spanish FA agency over to you as well.
Yes. Good morning. Thank you very much for this briefing.
I would like to ask on the extent of the of the hunger in
in Gaza you mentioned, uh,
that, um there is you observed already a severe level of hunger,
And I saw in the report, uh, by OSHA this morning that, uh,
there are hundreds of cases of intestinal diseases
reported every day due to food shortages.
So if you can, um,
elaborate on this and put that in relation
with the limited access of humanitarian aid.
Thank you.
Thanks. As well. We will send you the link to the WFP survey,
and I think that will the the
survey itself will be able to answer your questions more clearly.
So we'll put that in the link or
will send it out.
You can probably google WFP survey gaza, and it'll probably pop up,
but we'll send you the link in any event.
Indeed, we will. Uh, thank you. Lynn. Uh, John Sara
Costas, who files for the Lancet and, uh, Farms Me?
Yes. Good morning.
I was wondering if you have any, uh,
provisional estimates on the damage to, uh, infrastructure,
especially public infrastructure,
schools, hospitals, uh, roads, uh, water treatment works
and what it will cost to, uh,
rehabilitate all these facilities.
Uh, I gather from your
appeal Was, uh, the flash appeal was for 1.2 billion.
If I'm not mistaken, How much of that has been met to date?
And are you looking for extra funds? Thank you.
Thanks, John.
so we're in the middle of trying to do all of this.
Obviously, I I've We've got an estimate,
largely from satellites that about 60% of
homes have been damaged or absolutely destroyed.
but I'm not gonna be able to give you any numbers that,
you know, we could say with any credibility for the moment.
So, you know, during the pause, we did try and get out and take a look,
especially at the water connections, and do basically some patchwork of repairs.
But I'd rather wait until we have something a little bit more reliable.
I have no idea how much this is going to cost to reconstruct. I'll
direct you to the conference from 2014,
where which was held in Cairo where I think they estimated
$5 billion was going to be needed to reconstruct gas.
I can't even imagine what that number looks like.
Now, the flash appeals only for humanitarian assistance and only for
and And that does include some, as I say,
patchwork repairs of things like water connections
so that pipes start flowing et cetera,
Um, as soon as possible.
Uh, but again, I really hesitate to give you a ballpark figure,
even for the reconstruction of Gaza.
We haven't even seen the final extent
of what the damage is going to be. So we really unfortunately need to hold off on that.
the flash appeal itself for just the humanitarian
assistance is now funded at about 39%.
Um, so, uh, we do look forward, obviously,
to more funding coming in when I say it's it's funded at 39%.
That includes
commitments. Doesn't mean that the 39% is actually in the accounts and being used,
but, um,
it is representative of what we would expect to
be coming in over the next several weeks.
Thank you very much. Lynn. Uh, next up is Satoko
Adachi from Japanese Press.
Hello. Can you hear me?
Thank you. I just want to follow up the next question on blowing up
uba school.
I didn't catch up your answer clearly. So did you receive
any warning beforehand?
And were there any people inside or if people had evacuated
evacuated beforehand?
So we were told that
they were going to be
Well,
I think we were told that people should leave. Um, so
we didn't appreciate what the extent of the damage was going to be.
I have not received any reports of any casualties.
So my understanding is people did leave.
Um, So, yes, we did receive advance notice.
but again, in terms of the reasons why I would refer you to the Israelis.
Thank you very much. Um, Chloe a FP.
Sorry. One. Just one last question.
I don't know if you you have heard any reports, uh, of the, uh, 120 Children who were
in Alsa
hospital and who had no surviving member of their family. They were taken.
I mean, they were,
and they were with, um, medical staff of Al Shifa.
I don't know if you know where they are now.
Hm? Yeah,
um, so UNICEF
has a what we call a tracing or tracking mechanism in place.
Um, I don't have the actual details on that.
We can ask UNICEF how much they've been able to
confirm on that. And if we have that information, we can again send it back through.
Jens.
Thank you. Uh, Isabel
Efe
again?
Uh, yes, thank you very much.
I, I would like to ask about the the the How are you trying to deal, uh,
or UN or Palestinians themselves with the number of people
that you mentioned that is now sheltering in Rafah.
You mentioned that,
um, I. I don't find exactly your my in my notes.
But you you you mentioned that most of the Palestinian population
now is in Rafah in this small area of Rafah.
Could you, uh, please update the situation there?
How you mentioned people are in the streets, uh, sleeping in the streets, But,
beyond that.
And what is the, for example, the situation, Uh, if you have any update of the, um,
nasa
hospital
where apparently a dis
destruction has been very serious in the last days. Thank you.
So we estimate that there's about a million people in Rafa.
So,
I think again you can visualise what that means it
it impacts our own
ability to move.
It increases a
public health crisis.
Um, and just trying to get
food to people who are in Rafa is extremely difficult. We have
said, I think, a number of times both publicly but also with the Israelis that
moving people into these very small PA places will
be, Will it? It will
jeopardise the humanitarian operations in Gaza.
Um, and it may come to a point where we're simply not able to provide the assistance,
even if it does get in because of the situation, people need to be able to move.
Um, we cannot have people into these small areas and expect
that there won't be a public health crisis or that we will be able to distribute.
I've said it before, but I'll say it again.
The reason why Gaza is not safe is not just because of the airstrikes,
but it's also because these conditions that are being created by the
massive displacement of the population into smaller and smaller areas of Gaza,
um, with respect to NASA hospital, Yes.
This is all part of the fact that now there's
only one third of the hospitals inside of Gaza.
36 hospitals. Now there's less than a third that are
functioning. And when I say functioning, I use that word very, very,
uh, loosely. Because
most of the hospitals that are functioning also have, um
um, they also have, um
sorry, I just got distracted there.
Um, most of the hospitals are not functioning to capacity, so,
uh,
it just means people are not being treated for all
the various diseases and injuries that they're suffering from.
Thank you. Uh, very much.
Lynn, Uh, I think we will take a couple of more questions and then, uh, wrap it up.
Uh, first back to John,
Sara
Costas and then, uh, Nick from New York Times.
Yes. Thank you.
Uh, coming back to, uh
uh what you were saying about the second crossing
that it's currently being used just for verification.
if I'm not mistaken, and please correct me
that crossing before the October 7th crisis had a
capacity to deal with about 500 trucks per day,
of which the majority were commercial.
Is there any indication from the
Israeli authorities that they will give the green light for commercial traffic?
Or is that being restricted because of the limitations
of, uh, getting into Gaza because of the ongoing, uh,
conflict?
OK, so
about 500 trucks were going into Gaza
before October 7th, but not all of them were coming through Karem
Shalom.
Some of them were coming through an informal crossing
between Egypt and Gaza, which is called
Saladin.
We estimated about 30% of goods going into
Gaza were going in from this other crossing.
Um, so Karam
Shalom's total capacity. I don't know exactly what it is, but it's certainly in the
hundreds, the high hundreds. So, um,
even though it wouldn't have been 500 a day that we're going in,
we could probably estimate that it could be as many as 500 or even more.
That could go through Karem
Shalom.
Now,
the reason why goods are not going through Karem Shalom
is not because of any type of logistical reason.
It's because the government of Israel announced
that no
humanitarian assistance would go from
Israel into Gaza
after October 7th.
So that's the reason why
um, it's not because there's some sort of technical restrictions.
Thank you very much, Lynn.
And, uh, we'll wrap it up with the last question from, uh,
Nick from New York Times Again.
Yeah. Thank you. Um, I just wanted to ask what is the status of
Kamal at one hospital as of now? And whether you have an update
on the people who were detained from that. Thank you.
Sorry. Which hospital?
Pamela?
Uh huh.
So we we don't actually have the information on people who are being detained,
neither from any hospitals nor from any of the UN
shelters.
Um, we've all seen the pictures. Uh, I have asked that IC RC or
any appropriate body have access
to people who are detained to determine what their conditions are.
Unfortunately,
I think this is going to be a long term issue
where we're not going to have a lot of the details.
Um, so yeah, so, unfortunately,
I'm not gonna be able to provide you with the those details.
And that
is one of the reasons why this is very,
very concerning because we don't have the
information on people who are being detained.
Thank you very much. Lynn. Um
I don't see any more questions. So we will, uh, wrap it up with that.
Thank you very much for to To all of you journalists who who joined us online
and those who may have been following us on UN Web TV and first and foremost.
Thank you very, very much to you, Uh, Lynn for taking time.
Uh, this morning, uh, to brief us. Thank you. Thanks. Thanks, everybody.