The 1st of June, we've listened to Robert Piper, the special advisor on solution to internal displacement.
You will have his address on the website, on the web TV very, very soon.
And now we go ahead with our regular programme.
With me is Pascal SIM for the Human Rights Council for an update of the programme.
Thank you, Alessandra, and good morning, everyone.
As you've just heard from Robert Piper, the issue faced by the by internally displaced persons are addressed on the regular basis of the Human Rights Council, The Council.
This morning we'll hear from Paula Gaviria Betancourt, the Special Rapporteur on the human rights of internally displaced persons.
Her report this year focuses on the planned relocation of people in the context of the adverse effects of climate change and disasters.
Ms Gaviar Betancourt will also present a report on a recent visit to Mozambique.
This coming Monday is the International Day of Women in Diplomacy and this will be the opportunity to hear from three female experts.
The Council will first hear in the morning from Planning Mufakang, the Special Rapporteur on the right to health in the morning and in the afternoon we will hear from Faridah Shahid, the Special Rapporteur on education, and from Margaret Satiswaite, the Special Rapporteur on the independence of judges and lawyers.
And I'm sorry, I just forgot to remind you that in the afternoon, on Friday, this afternoon, the Council will also hold 2 interactive dialogues with two other experts.
First was Beatrice Miranda Galanza, the new Special Rapporteur on the elimination of discrimination against person affected by leprosy or Ensign's disease and their family members.
And then from Rim Al Saddam, the Special Rapporteur on violence against women.
It's causes and consequences, who will present 2 reports, the first one on prostitution and violence against women and the second one on a recent visit to Poland.
Miss Alsalem will give a press conference here in this room on Monday at 3:30 PM.
On Monday, as I say, we have the International Day of Women in Diplomacy and for the first time the Council will observe this day in Room 20 with a discussion that will recognise female diplomats contribution with the UN within the UN system.
The celebration is Co organised by the Office of the President of the Human Rights Council, together with the gender focal points at the Council, the Ambassador of Bolivia and the UN Women Office in Geneva.
The speakers at this celebration will include the Director General of UNOC, the Secretary General of UN Trade and Development, the Executive Director of ITC, the Deputy **** Commissioner for Human Rights, and we also expect to have video statements by the President of the General Assembly and the Secretary General of the International Telecommunication Union.
And the last note that is not related to this 56 session, but just to inform you that the President of the Human Rights Council this morning announced the appointment of the members of the new Group of Experts on Human Rights in Belarus.
As you may recall, this new investigative mechanism was established by the Council last April.
Miss Susan Bazi from Canada, Karina Moskalenko from the Russian Federation, and Monica Stanislava Platek from Poland are the members of this new investigative mechanism, and Miss Moskalenko will serve as the Chair of this group.
The Group of Experts on Human Rights in Belarus will present an oral update at the 57 session this fall and a comprehensive report at the March session in 2025.
A press release on this appointment was shared with you earlier this morning.
Thank you very much, Pascal.
Let me see if there's any question for you.
Thank you very much for this update.
Good luck for this first Friday of the briefing.
And so and let's go now to the subject I know you're waiting for, which is the briefing on Gaza today.
We have a few colleagues from the field who are connecting to brief you on on the situation there.
So I'd like to welcome first Maurice Gimo, who's the special representative of the UN Women Office in Palestine.
Marie's is going to tell you about the situation of women and girls in Gaza following a mission to the Gaza Strip.
And we also have two colleagues from WHOI don't need to introduce them to, you know them well, the doctor, Richard Paper Corn, The Who representative in the OP TS and Doctor Tanos Girgavanis, who's The Who trauma surgeon and emergency officer both, all of them in fact briefing from Jerusalem.
So I'll start with Marie's and then we will go to the colleagues of WHO.
Bonjour, Marie's welcome to the Geneva press briefing.
Thank you very much, Alexandra.
I have effectively just finished a one week mission inside Gaza.
What I have seen defies description.
The moment you enter at Karam Crossing, Karam Shalom Crossing and the fence closes behind you, you feel that you're locked in a world of devastation.
Homes, hospitals, schools, universities, daycare centres have been demolished.
As you move toward the metal area, all you see are crowds of people, men, women, children in makeshift tents, trapped in a world of scarcity.
More than 1,000,000 people in Gaza are in constant displacements to Nowhere safe.
There is nowhere safe for women and girls in Gaza, many of whom have already been displaced multiple times, some 5 something, and I've had no access or very limited access to basic services.
People are moving to any available open space, including roads, agricultural land, damaged buildings.
They are displaced in two increasingly smaller areas that are unable and unequipped to support them.
After nearly nine months of war, the population has been almost entirely dispossessed of means and capacities to ensure food security, shelter, health and livelihood.
Each disbursement has brought more lust and fear.
The people of Gaza are asking for the war to stop.
Every day that this conflict continues brings more destruction and killing.
There must be an end to this.
Boys and girls were asking me when will this war be over and I had no answer to give them.
Gazza is more than two million stories of lost.
Every woman I met has a story of lost.
More than 10,000 women lost their lives.
More than 6000 families have lost their mothers.
One million women and girls have lost their dignity, their homes, their loved ones, their memories.
I met with women LED organisation Who despite the challenges of war, destruction and reduced fundings, continue to provide vital services.
Prior to my visit, in a meeting with one of these organisations they had emphasised the following and I'm quoting.
The question is not what women need.
The question should be what they don't need.
Women don't want to die, they don't want to bury their loved ones, They don't want to be left alone to suffer.
My experience in Gaza clarified the gravity of this message.
Palestinian women's organisation provide life saving services such as shelters and psychosocial support and this again despite facing significant challenges such as destruction of their offices, safety risk and reduce funding.
It is essential that we provide financial support to ensure that they can sustain their vital humanitarian efforts and enhance the representation of women in decision making forum.
It is crucial to protect the rights and the dignity of the people of Gaza, especially the women and girls who have borne the brunt of this war.
We are watching this live every day on TV and on social media.
Women tend to step up when there is a crisis.
We have seen this across the world.
We are seeing this in Gaza.
The women who I have met have called for an end to this war, while at the same time they are responding to the situation they are facing.
Their families are facing their communities are facing conflict is never gender neutral.
And This is why it is so crucial for all of us to ensure that men and women of all ages sit at the decision making tables as well as fully access humanitarian aid.
Marisa and and the journalists are already asking for your notes.
So I'm, I'm trying to coordinate with your office so that we send them very quickly.
I see there are already questions, but I'd like to 1st give the floor to Christian.
Christian, I don't know how you want to organise this.
Do we speak first with Richard Ortanos or just straight to them?
We'll start, start straight with Rick Pipacon.
Yes, we will have notes afterwards.
So Richard, would you like to give your introductory remarks please?
And I also hand over the floor to Doctor Tanos who just actually comes back from another long mission in in Gaza.
So having been myself also for three long mission and my last mission was actually the month April, November, December and February.
So we've seen the process very close by.
We have a very strong team on the ground.
I want to focus on a number of issues, which is very important.
We all know about the, the, let's say the displacement of people in Rafa since the 7th of May.
So currently an estimated 60,000 to 75,000 people remain in home, the Wasi area of Rafa and only less than 1000 in the in the city.
There is an ongoing challenge humanitarian environment and I want to describe this very clearly.
First of all, the closure, the closure of Rafa has cut off the access to what was Aun logistics hub where trucks are receiving, offloading etcetera.
That has hindered and normally the flow of supplies.
The number the the supplied entering firm through Karen Shalong is much less because the hub is much smaller and the access, the road access is much more challenging including a volatile security situation.
Fuel is still the big topic, the lack of regular flow and without fuel there's no humanitarian operations.
Unitarian operations are severely constrained.
I want to say a few positive things for us at WHL.
We delivered through Arsenal ports the first cargo you know over last week which contains contains antibiotic etcetera and we will definitely explore and and and proceed with that.
We also for the first time we're allowed to get supplies from Western and Jerusalem, which we managed to get in through Karen Shalom.
This is really, I would say positive and we will explore all options.
What's the most cost effective way to get the most needed medical supplies, trauma supplies, essential medicine in?
There's some issues and I'll leave that to Thomas to describe about security procedures relate to international staff, all the supplies.
I just want to say we want all options open.
So we request and we are not the only everyone requests for for Rafa crossing to open.
And just give an example, 26 WHO trucks including six from a medicine cell frontier are waiting in all our reach and five of them are temperature control trucks.
At the moment the closed drugs, the South Coast are not allowed from Ala Reese to Karan Shalom.
So we need this closed drug for this temperature sensitive medicines and for example salbutamol, folic acids, infusions etcetera, other cold chain drugs.
So first a lot of shipments which enter Gaza from Ala Reese is 6th June.
We need much more of the supplies in the second area and it's really critical that we spend more time on them is on medevac.
So currently roughly 4000, eight, 4800 patients have been medevac out of Gaza.
Most of them has been received in Egypt and in the region.
We estimate, WHL estimates there's a need to medevac at least another 10,000 patients out of Gaza.
Half of them is related to the war and half of them is related to what we call the chronic disease and think cancer, cardiovascular diseases, other non communicable diseases including severe mental health cases.
So we have two clear requests on this.
One is again the opening of the Rafa crossing and help to ensure a safe and organised matter back.
The other one as I think a really good alternative that we use, Karen Shalom again, only when it is safe for sustained transfer of patients from Gaza to the West Bank and E Jerusalem referral hospitals.
Just like it was prior to the war that 5200 patients per day were referred to the East Jerusalem and the West Bank hospitals.
Again, WHO is ready to support to make sure that happens in an organised way to make sure that ambulance services will be supported and also the receiving the receiving hospitals.
The third area I want to raise is of course diseases and what we say we are now in the middle of the of the of the sun.
We've seen massive again, massive displacement over the last weeks a month and we know that that combination and the yeast can cause a rise in diseases and most likely already happening.
We don't get all the right data.
We have what a common contamination because of hot water and and we will have much more food spoilage because of the **** temperature.
We will get insect mosquitoes and fly, but also dehydrate, dehydration, heat stroke et cetera.
In combination already with the the incredibly poor water and sanitation circumstances we we have seen already more than 20/20/25 times as much diarrhoea as normal.
We see a huge number of people with with hepatitis A as well.
I think this is my main points and I want to quickly hand over to Tanos again.
He's also the deputy incident manager of Gaza and he just comes back from a challenging mission.
Thank you very much, Richard.
Yes, Tanos, please with the brief remarks and and then we'll open to questions, please.
Hey, thanks, dear colleagues.
I would like to thank you all for the great opportunity.
And I would like to stress again that right now what happens in Gaza is that the United Nations are trying to operate in an unworkable environment.
The combination of closure of Rafa crossing, the increase of the military operations, the movement of population and the complete destruction of law and order have resulted in an unworkable environment.
So let's or take a moment and contemplate a bit and think that right now what is achieved in Gaza, A, it is only a fraction of what we should be doing and B, it is really, really difficult given the current circumstances.
And I know that we are saying this repeatedly over and over again.
However, everybody needs to understand that for every international that is now entering in this Gaza Strip, the process is long, risky and it requires a huge amount of resources, material and other kinds of resources to make this happen.
Right now, through the Kerb Shalom, we have to lead ourselves, we have to drive the armoured vehicles ourselves to make sure that international community continues to go in and rotate out of the Gaza Strip.
This is just one of the major issues that we're facing.
Second, when it comes to security, again, the expansion of the humanitarian zone as we is described by the IDF, it does not reflect what happens in reality.
No place is safe and this is what happened and we realised a couple of weeks ago with the attacks in Nusirat in the middle area.
No place in the middle area is safe.
No place in the north is safe.
So let's all just consider again that right now the World Health Organisation and the United Nations are delivering in a really challenging context.
And again, on the on the summer temperature and the rise of the, the spike of the disease that we see, there's not a right moment to be sick in Gaza right now.
Right now, this time in this.
We have issues related to the heat, but later on we'll have issues related to the humidity.
We'll have issues related to the cold weather.
So the disruption of the health system in Gaza right now effects people in different ways during different seasons.
Thank you very much, Tano, and thank you to Reach and to Marie's.
And I'll open now the floor to questions, starting with the room.
If there is any question here, I don't see hands up.
So let's go to the platform the and my second question is for this is just about to know how many hospitals now are working in Gaza because the the figures are always changing.
For today, how many hospitals are working?
Yeah, thank you very much.
So if we look at hospital functionality and this has been changing actually all the time since the crisis and we constantly monitor it.
Currently, we say 17 out of the 36 hospital are partly functional.
And I want to stress this is an overestimation because what we do not look at for example, the largest hospital, when you look at for example, the Shifa Medical Complex, which was by far the largest hospital in Gaza with most bats, it's not functional or it's, it's only a small trawler stabilisation point at the moment, but it's not taking any inpatients.
Other large hospitals are also minimal functional, partly functional.
So the 17 out of 36, we went as low as 11 and 12 hospitals out of 36 during this crisis.
It's a movement up and down.
It's always surprising to see couple of weeks ago come out at one, for example, and and, and and a lot of hospital in the north.
They were, they became out of service because of the siege around those hospitals and the military effectively surrounds hospitals.
And when that stops within two weeks actually they were back in partly services.
And it is, I would say tribute to the incredible health workers, the resilience of the health workers.
And again, WH on partners supporting this.
So currently if you look at the seven out of 36 in Rafa, there is none of the hospitals are functional in Han Yunus 4IN Diabola 3IN Gaza City 7.
So there's some cluster of smaller hospitals and N Gaza 3D and there's roughly I think 30 out of the the 90 primary healthcare centres which are also partly functional of tube.
Thank you very much, John Zerocostas, Francois Cat.
And then maybe can I, can I just, yeah, sure, go ahead.
Yeah, from the, I just want to say something about field hospitals.
So there's a a total of 10 field hospitals in the Gaza Strip.
And then in Harafa 5 field hospitals, the ICS field hospital is fully functional and the other one, the UAE operates partial functionality and accessibility is remains extremely difficult as **** Newness Sue field hospitals in, in, in, in, in the the PSCS and Kuwait I'll from Palestine are partly functional and UK Mets and Jordanian field hospital fully functional.
And Thereaballa there's the IMC field hospital, which is fully functional.
Maybe Richard, if you don't mind these numbers, because you've given a lot of figures, if you could be put into the into the note by Christian, that would be really useful.
John Zora, Costas Franco and Catherine The Lancet.
Yes, Good morning, Rick and Calimera Thanos.
I was wondering if you've got up to date information if you've been able to import into the Gaza Strip processes for paediatric amputees and adults as well.
And if what are the latest estimates of the amputees?
I've had some figures of more than 3000 of these, more than 3000.
How many of these would be children?
I think, John, thank you very much for the question is really important.
We, we should, we will, we will try to get better estimates and, and figures of that.
We've seen you've seen the, the, the UNICEF estimates on, on that as well.
We do not have, we cannot confirm, you know, the only thing we confirm and, and, and Tanos just having been in again on a long mission.
He might want to speak to that because he's gone.
He did a lot of missions again to hospitals in the north and in in the middle area in the South, even after some of these military activities I remember there about.
So he will have some more details on that, what he the way we support, but also what he witnessed.
But we do not have proper figures.
The only thing would be every time what we can say like with the the the tents and the tents and the 10s of missions we did and, and estimate the assessments.
Yeah, we've seen an an an amazing amount of trauma cases, but also definitely of amputee amputees, including among children, but I also would say a lot among adolescents.
I saw a lot of adolescents.
Maybe we want to add something on that and Marie's please, of course, whenever you want to intervene, just raise your hand, physical or electronic tonnes.
Thank you very much, colleagues.
Thank you very much everyone.
The data that we're having right now on trauma and amputation, it's based on estimates and extrapolations.
When I'm saying extrapolations means that we have an estimate based on the number of cases that are seen in the field, hospitals that have a better data management system right now and better, let's say feedback compared to the partially functioning Ministry of Health ones.
What is important though is that the estimate numbers are always up to the numbers that you have mentioned.
We estimate that we're talking about 3000 the amputees.
We cannot do the the distribution, the disaggregation between adults and children, but we will we hope that we'll be able sooner to be having solid data on this.
On another note though, I have to highlight and stress again, the situation at any hospital right now in Gaza is not looking promising.
And the reason is that the combination of lacking of resources and scarce of scarcity of human resources, and again, human resources that are national ones and that are working day and night since the beginning of the war with minimal or no salary at all, make a really, really dangerous cocktail for the outcome of these complex cases.
The nutrition he come my colleague the baby done his own of what applicati excessive more complicate or or so like it's jaw bone.
The the fatalities, the transit milk they combat and so they farm.
It is when you vote the the the the.
The the Faso de mesio really family is alpha.
Richard, would you have anything to add on the issue of pregnant women to women with just given birth?
Well, yeah, we, we know of course from the from the data that that's 50,000 pregnant women with approximately 5000 deliveries per month in Gaza.
That is the normal regular situation.
We also know that what I've just described the hospital functionality, hospital functionality has really gone down including the few.
So what we call MCA hospital, the MCA hospital in Rafa, for example, the the Emirati Aliyah hospital is non functional.
I think the hospitals in the north a few MCA spaces we were there are are are partly functional.
So there's an enormous problem with with access what we we do not have and together with you and FPA, but especially also with hospitals and, and, and, and the Ministry of Health.
We try to get a better handle on this in what we call simply here and, and, and from the health workers in Gaza that we see a lot of preterm babies and low birth weight babies and, and, and, and you normally, well, you see that often, of course, in times of conflicts, war and stress, that's one thing.
But we even had these stories where women were going when they were when they had access to a hospital would, would kind of ask for an early caesarean to make sure that they deliver and they live in safety because they were they were, they were completely unclear.
And well, and they were of course scared about the access.
Yeah, if they would be able to access the hospital later because of all the, the, all of our security situation and the constantly changing situation.
So we want to get a better handle on that.
But I think for what we also constantly get from from from, from women, I want to we make the dollar point that because of the displacement and the sites and and displacements and people do not have access.
There is there's hardly any proper antenatal post Natal care and, and, and, and even after birth.
We looked and to go back to the to the camps because of lack of hygiene and, and, and I because I listened partly to what Marie was saying.
Not sure if she raises as well.
One of the the point every time on all my emissions, the women, but also the men make there's a huge need for, for example, the the dignity kids, etcetera, and specifically the women and girls they struggle in they struggle with.
And specifically it is overcrowded.
It is overcrowded regular shelters and it's completely overcrowded ad hoc shelters and makeshift camps.
And there's a lot of issues, of course, with hygiene and specifically in a in a culture within in Gaza, which is much more complex.
Yeah, for women and girls.
Risk of, you know, newborn babies.
And I think that we get a lot of stories, unfortunately, of gender based violence.
Let me go to the next journalist, Jeremy launch Radio France International.
Well, thank you, Alessandra.
It's kind of a follow up on the previous question.
I will ask it in English, but please Miss Guillemot, if you can answer in French, if you have any, anything to say on that.
We're talking about women and, and earlier WHO talked about the the pressure that now you have in Gaza because of the heat pressure on, on, on, on water pressure on, on the storage of food.
I would like to know if there's anything you can say on, on the pressure that maybe heat has on.
Does it have an effect on on women, especially heat and, and, and, and women basically is there any sanitary issue there that that you can Yeah, explain.
Don't compare if a compound you sit like et cetera complexity because they suppose more colleague Rick Palacious the the.
I would like to ask on the tactical.
I would like to ask on the the tactical process that was were announced by the IDF on on this weekend and then it was rejected by the Prime Minister.
And I would like to know if there you have observed AA show or if James is over there, if you have observed any changed in the access of humanitarian aid to, to Gaza by by the South.
I don't know if he wants to come to the podium.
And maybe I'll start with the, the, our colleagues in, in Jerusalem.
I think Mary's you, you were hinting to that and the fact that you heard the fighting continuing, but maybe you want to add something on that or, or, or Richard or, or Tanos, please.
No, but effectively, as I said, we saw the the the fighting continued, but I think Rick was making the the comment earlier that the fuel has not been coming in and so on.
So maybe Rick, you want to take this one and show some of the some of the challenges that we're still facing.
Yes, Rick, yeah, let me start at Tanos.
Maybe wants to make some some more observations from the ground because he's been there so often.
So overall and I think the UN we can state that we we did not see an impact on let's say the humanitarian supplies coming in since that I would say the unilateral announcement of this technical force that is the overall, I mean, I think assessment time.
I just want to add something on the practical point.
So while we have an, we have the announcement of this humanitarian force, but.
In reality, we have not managed to see anything on the ground that was actually about to make some some of a difference.
And the reason is that these humanitarian pause was not reflected on the ground.
There was not a single day where we would be able to say that today we are going to take advantage of these humanitarian pause and go forward and bring from Keram Shalom the supplies that are waiting for us.
So many things are said publicly, but in reality, on the ground on granular level, nothing gets real.
Maybe an institutional word from Archer on this particular issue.
Yeah, thank you very much.
Just to to add on that, first of all, it's important to remember that the Israeli Defence Forces also confirmed that military operations in Rafah would continue as planned when they announced this this pause.
Of course, we welcome any initiative that aims at facilitate aid delivery and we did reach an understanding with COGAT for Windows of coordinated movements intended to facilitate safe movements of humanitarian aid.
In reality, as we hear from from from the ground, it has come to very little fighting in the area might have decreased as a result of those of those coordinated movements.
But it is not the only impediment for our colleagues to pick up aid in the area between Karam Shalom and the Salah Al Din Rd.
The lack of public order and safety is also a major obstacle and requires concerted effort and concrete measures to find a solution.
And it is the responsibility of the Israeli authorities as the occupying power to ensure that assistant reaches those who need it the most and create the enabling environment for UN and partners to actually reach them.
A colleague of mine, our IHL in house lawyer, sent me where this is stated in in the law.
It's in the international humanitarian law treaties under the convent, the 4th convention.
It's in an annex, Article 43, which states the following.
The authority of the legitimate power having in fact passed into the hands of the occupant, the latter shall take all the measures in his power to restore and ensure as far as possible public order and safety while respecting, unless absolutely prevented, the laws enforced in the country.
So that is legalese for the occupying power having the responsibility as we, as, as we say, to address the lack of public order and safety that we are seeing in Gaza, particularly from the crossing of of Karem Shalom and and further further into the strip that has has become a major, major problem as well.
OC Isabel has a follow up.
So it's very clear that there there has not been any improvements.
But yes, could you give us an order of idea of how many, I mean, what is the amount of a that has entered in the last, last week for example to Gaza compared to the recent weeks?
Well, it's, it has been minimal for, for, for the reasons that, that I say that they cannot get to the Kerem Shalom and, and, and pick it up safely because of this lack of public order and safety.
So there has not been much movement on that.
There was some entry of fuel not through that corridor but through the Fence Rd, a minimal delivery a couple of days ago I believe.
But otherwise another major problem as our our colleagues are telling us is the lack of fuel as well.
Thank you very much and thanks also to the other colleagues.
Sorry, I didn't see your hand before.
I see you're asking for the floor.
Alessandra, my question is to Rick and Thanos and also perhaps to Yens.
I had asked also if they've been able to bring into the Gaza Strip prostheses or has that been a problem and held up because of problems in clearance of medical supplies?
Thanos, I see your hand up.
Thank you very much for the kind question.
So professors is something really unique.
And let's be clear that when I'm saying professors, something really unique is that if I'm amputated and I will have to be having my own professors so that I freely I'm able to freely mobilise, it requires a certain team of people to work with me and identify the right professors for me.
Unfortunately, the destruction that now we witness in the Gaza health system is not allowing for such a team to be deployed or to be operated there.
Right now we are focusing on life saving and limb saving operations.
This is part of the rehabilitation process and rehabilitation process started already with a rehabilitation task force that's already working to make sure that all trauma patients are having a proper follow up.
However, until now we have no prosthesis coming in, no specialist group coming in and in the near future when we are at, we will be able to estimate better than needs.
Such a team will be available.
It will either be through the emergency medical team initiative or through individual initiatives.
I also have to address that in the past, ICRC was responsible for the prosthesis and the the rehabilitation of amputees in the Gaza Strip.
However, again, their operations have been severely impacted by this war.
And unless anybody else transferred anything, I go to the next one, Christian.
Christian is the Eric is the German press Agency.
Yes, my question is to Rick, could you please remind us that I might have gotten lost in the numbers of the number of birth and pregnancies that you have seen in the in the first few months of this conflict?
And more importantly, have you seen a significant drop in pregnancies?
In other words, is the the the problem of birth?
I don't know how to say that is, is the problem easing a little bit because there are not as many pregnancies anymore?
I also want to get back to, to what task just referring to the question of John.
So the number of of of deliveries etcetera and pregnancies.
Unfortunately, no, we don't give an an overview of and and we gave you the figure from from what it was before and we will give that again.
We will have to monitor and analyse.
So what we see is anecdotal and what we hear as anecdotal is that there is according to the to the health workers, the obstetricians, doctors in hospitals, they see much more preterm pregnancy that you low, low, low burst weight meant much, much more than they used to be.
We need to analyse that that are together with the Ministry of Health Unity and other partners to gather this though there's of course a real issue with safe delivery and what has happened the whole antenatal care, alternative care, etcetera, kind of collapse like that.
It is the the pratum of the primary healthcare try to do some of that.
Some of the field hospitals and hospitals, they are functional, try to do some of that, but the access is incredibly limited.
And and I think also referred to what Marie clearly said simply women and girls are much more affected with complete lack of privacy in, in in many of these areas.
Now I want to go back also to what John said on the on, on, on, on and I think Tanos address most of it also reminds everyone, yes, WHO partners we supported the Lib and reconstruction centre which was part of National complex.
Currently the centre is non functional.
So WHO and also I think the part I cannot mention them all.
They have invested millions in that centre and it was doing wonders not only related to former escalations etcetera, but it prevented a lot of the, the amputations.
Now the moment we get to a, a, a sustained peace, a peace process, ceasefire, whatever you call it, we have to of course look at at early recovery.
We have to look at early rehabilitation and in reconstruction.
This is one of the area which of course will be a huge and there will be many areas in the House which we have to prioritise.
But this also will be one of the areas including of course all everything related to mental health.
I want to make a point for that as well.
I see again you still have your hands up so.
Yes, sorry, Rick, My question was have you seen a drop in pregnancies in the last nine months and could you remind us of how many pregnant, how many births or pregnancies you were estimating to have per month in the first few months of this war?
Rick, the estimate was yes, there was 5 1/2 thousand estimated 5 1/2 thousand pregnancies per month.
So you talk about 183 per day in Gaza before the crisis.
I cannot say anything about a drop in this crisis.
I mean, like that's normally I think the what we know from from, from let's say from other war situations when a war takes long, you see indeed in the air and then a Trump and after the war, you see again an increase.
We we don't have data for that, fortunately.
I'll go to the next question, Nick, I mean Bruce, New York Times, Nick.
When was the last time you had a medical evacuation from Gaza?
And I recall you saying previously that there was a need to set up a system, a systematic evacuation process and that there were going to be discussions with Kogat or others.
Did those discussions take place?
Is there now in principle at least an agreement on how to do this and it's not working because of continuing hostilities?
Or has that conversation not actually happened yet?
Now the second question, if I may, and I apologise if you've addressed, it's a little bit already, but I came a little bit late.
But on the subject of water, we hear anecdotally a lot about increasing problems of dehydration among patients as well as the general population.
So is water reaching the partially functioning hospitals?
Is water reaching the nutritional stabilisation centres that you've got working there?
Can you give us an update on that?
Yeah, thank you very much.
Second question that we'll ask to tiles because he he visited more recently than me all those hospitals.
But the first questions on, on, on matter of fact.
So since 7:00 me, since the closure actually of Rafa, we haven't been able to assist with any matter of fact outside gas since the 7th of May.
7th of May to now we even with a slow number of people which of critical patients we are, which were Malefacts before that time like the 50 per day.
So we 2000 patients have been unable to leave Gaza since the 7th of May.
Now your point is completely arrived and This is why the VHS proposed a yes, we are raising this everywhere and including with the key partners.
And we, we've set from the start we want a borderly meta fact.
It always has been complex and meta fact it, it's never been orderly.
Unfortunately there was a lot of restrictions and a lot including age restrictions, but still people went out and we assisted as good as possible.
Up till now 4804 thousand, 900 patients have been evacuated.
That's and they are mainly in Egypt, UAE, Qatar, Oman region, Turkey and South Jordan etcetera and a few in Europe.
But that's the the region more countries I think there's a little bit of good news also the EU and and they vote a mechanism to facilitate more patient transfer there and more countries have expressed interest to assist.
Now we estimate that 10,000, at least 10,000 patients are currently in need of Med effect outside Gaza, roughly half more related, half chronic the product patients about.
And if the Rafa crossing cannot be opened for whatever reasons, that's of course first request not just for medevac for humanitarian goods etcetera, Rafa crossing to be opened as soon as possible.
If that's not happening and we only are with currently the Karen Shalom, then we want to make sure the Karen Shalom is also safe and sound for medevac out of Gaza, the most logical place that for patients to go would be E Jerusalem hospitals, the East Jerusalem hospitals and the Westland hospitals where I just want to remind everyone, Gaza referrals were always gone through.
90% of the Gaza referrals were actually going to that.
So we are raising this everywhere.
We, we, we, that is our two key requests, opening of the Rafa crossing for all the reasons I mentioned including medevac, workable alternative.
I think we should have more options, workable alternative, Karen Shalom and make sure those patients, the critical patients can be moved to East Jerusalem and West Bank and who is ready to support because of course it will, it will need ambulance services.
It make we have to make sure that hospitals are ready and they will be supported over the next months.
We all know that this 10,000 will not happen in a couple of weeks.
This will be a long term Unitarian initiative and process, but we need to start going now.
Very thank you very much.
I'll take your follow up quickly because we have more refers and I still have Dina who has a question.
Well, I, I, I still hope the tenants will be able to talk address the, the question, my question on water, but before the water one, Rick, just on this, where is the, you know, you've been talking about the need for this medical evacuation process for weeks.
Where is that conversation now?
Why isn't that agreement already in place?
A brief answer, Rick, please.
I think I just want to say that we raised on all levels with all partners, including with all authorities talk to you.
And Tanos, would you like to add something on the issue of water?
I would like to say out bluntly that simply with the current conditions in in the entire Gaza Strip, access to water is really challenging.
Access to water for for daily use is problematic, Access to water for medical purposes problematic and we end up with people having to use on properly treated water.
What happens right now is that we estimate that 67% of water and salutation facilities have been destroyed or damaged.
To this we would like to add that for every facility that remains to become operational, they need fuel.
Fuel is really limited right now in the entire Gaza Strip, so one can only imagine the level of pressure the population and the health workers are experiencing when it comes to drinking quality water and proper water for medical purposes.
Thank you very much for this important detail.
Dina Abisa, last question and then we will go to Babar.
My question was a follow up on what Tians was mentioning about the croissant and the problem is that Ian's had to leave so he's not here.
Can I ask Chris about this?
Maybe he may give an answer.
Just this is about the the floating crossing, the American one, which was we hear that it was used recently in an upper military operation on **** Iraq.
Actually I asked the Palestinian Health Ministry if it is illegal crossing to Gaza.
We know the priority is to reach people and to bring AIDS, but is it legal to use this crossing since the Palestinian Authority mentioned already that it is illegal because they did not ask for having this crossing.
Is it illegal crossing for the for you in in your operations and are you using it?
Don't know which colleague would like to take this up.
Maybe I don't know Chris or or Marise or I don't see anybody volunteering this answer.
Maybe I'll, I'll, I'll take this to, to Yens or dinner.
Maybe you can just write to him.
He had another commitment.
He had to leave, but it's obviously available through the usual channels.
Before I close the subject of Gaza Marie's, there is a question in the chat.
From Moussa, who's saying, you know, you mentioned this Andra school that had about 25 toilets for thousands of people.
I don't know if you know the name of the school, at least the place.
If I'm not mistaken, I can double check and send it back, but it's the one in there.
I like to thank your colleagues who have sent me the notes while you were talking and I've already distributed them to the journalist.
So colleagues, you have Mary's talking points in your e-mail boxes.
So I'd like to thank everyone for this extensive briefing, not Tommy Marise, but also Rick and and Tanos, very important updates we got today.
Before we leave the issue of of Palestine.
Just to remind you, because I think you have received the invitation that on Tuesday, the 25th of June at 1:00 PM, the Commissioner General of UNRWA, Philippe Ladzarini, will brief you here in this press room and give you an update on the situation in light also of the meeting that they are going to hold here in in Geneva, their advisory Commission, which will meet on the 24th and 25th.
And so Philip afterwards will will brief you and that's on Tuesday 25th.
I think it's been announced.
And also please be informed that since we speak about the situation in the Middle East, the Secretary General will have a press take out this afternoon.
So that will be at 510 Geneva time, 1110 New York time.
And he will speak from the Security Council's take out position to make brief remarks on the situation on the blue line.
And I think that's what I had on the issue of Middle East.
So thanks again to Marise, to Rick and to Tanos.
And we go ahead with another subject.
I know everybody's very concentrated on Gaza, but there are lots of other difficult situation that we don't have to to to forget.
And Babar is here to tell us about one of those the situation the Rohingya refugees, please.
Wish I was back in happier times with trying to highlight the issue of nearly 1,000,000 Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh who have been battered again and again by climate events.
Unit CR, the UN refugee agency and its humanitarian partners are stepping up support to assist some 8000 Rohingya refugees who were affected on Wednesday by landslides in Cox's Bazar refugee settlements in Bangladesh.
Initial reports suggest 7 Rohingya refugees have been killed, including children and many others injured.
There are more reports that many others may have lost their lives, but that information is being verified.
The landslides happened in the aftermath aftermath of the first monsoon rains which began this week, bringing more misery to residents of the camp.
While detailed assessments continue in the camps, initial reports indicate nearly 1200 refugee shelters have been destroyed or damaged, displacing some 2000 Rohingya refugees.
Refugee camps in Cox's Bazar are vulnerable to effects of climate change and prone to natural disasters.
Cox's Bazaar is projected to be one of the hardest hit areas in Asia by climate change.
Let's not forget some 930,000 Rohingya refugees are living in 33 congested camps in Cox's Bazar who have been impacted by over 770 landslides and floods since there.
The camps rapid expansion in 2017 when nearly 1,000,000 Rohingya had to flee Myanmar and more damage is expected with further rain forecast, according to local Met officials.
Unit CRN partners are supporting the survivors and injured teams have been mobilised to find shelter for those displaced as work continues to rehabilitate or fix a damaged accommodation.
In addition to shelter, affected refugees also urgently require food and household items, as well as access to healthcare and psychosocial support.
The disaster has left families, especially children, traumatised.
We at Unity are the UN Refugee agency and with our part humanitarian partners in Bangladesh are urgently appealing to donors to make additional resources available as humanitarian efforts in the camps are severely hampered by acute underfunding.
Unit shares financial requirements for Bangladesh amounting to 275,000,000 U.S.
dollars in 2024 are just 25% funded right now, despite reaching the media mark.
The 2024 interagency appeal for the Rohingya situation led by the Bangladeshi authorities, which is called the Rohingya Humanitarian Crisis Joint Response Plan, which was launched here in Geneva earlier this year requesting 852,000,000 U.S.
dollar is less than 30% funded.
Thank you very much, Barbara, for this briefing on this very dire situation.
Is there any question on the Myanmar, sorry on the Ranger situation, don't see any.
Let's keep talking about this, this crisis.
Just a couple of other points.
So we've spoken about a couple of press conference.
There is another one I haven't mentioned you've been invited to.
It's the UNECE press conference on Wednesday, 26th of June at 1:30 PM that's about regulating autonomous vehicles and the international developments related to it with the Deputy Executive Secretary of the UNECE and other experts.
We have heard about the Council and as I said last time, there's no treaty body meeting foreseen until the 1st of July.
So I have no updates on that.
Just a reminder for those who haven't heard that on Monday the 24th of June, the Secretary General will launch the UN Global Principle for Information Integrity, which is a framework for coordinated international election to address the pressing global challenges of misinformation, disinformation, hate speech and other risk to the integrity of the information ecosystem.
So you will have access to this press conference, which will of course be on UN Web TV and we then distribute to you the material for you to to have a look at this important.
It is really important for our common activity, this guiding principle to ensure information integrity.
This morning you may have seen on the lawn of the Palais lots of people exercising, in fact doing yoga because today is the International Day of Yoga, which recognises the ancient practises unmatched power to deliver healing, inner peace and physical, spiritual and mental well-being.
The Secretary General said in in in a message for the day and concluding he said that on this important day, let us all be inspired by yoga's timeless values and it's called for a more peaceful and harmonious future.
I think this is all I had for you.
If there are no questions, I don't see any hand up.
I wish you a very good weekend and I'll see you on Tuesday.
