so Good afternoon. Happy to see you again
today for this press conference
of Mr Philippe Lazzarini. Who is of course, the
He will give us some introductory remarks to update us on the situation. The opt.
And then we will take questions.
Thank you. Thank you so much. And again A pleasure to be with you. We have this kind of
regular meeting here in Geneva
And unfortunately, each time the situation in the region in Gaza, in the West Bank
but also now in Lebanon is getting more so. But let me start
to tell you why I'm here this week.
I did not come here to provide briefing for member states or whatever.
decided to have its advisory commission meeting
and we have decided to have it in Gaza.
We have two advisory commissions a year with about
40 member states represented in this advisory commission.
And it was the first time we were meeting in person since the beginning of the war
obviously discussion about the attack
what are the motivations behind
Basically, we know that part of the reason of the targeting of the agency,
including through legislative
effort and political statement,
to the refugee status of the Palestinian refugees
that many would like to see being stripped.
the member of the advisory commission that it would be a mistake
to see this attack only through the lens of a bilateral relation between UN W
and Israel, that much more is at stake
there will be also other entities will then be exposed and the risk behind it
new standard for other complex emergencies in the future.
to the member of the advisory commission,
but also to the member states in general
to strongly push back on this
I have also discussed with a member of the advisory commission
about the critical role the agency can play and is playing now
remain the backbone of the broader
humanitarian response in Gaza.
But I also do believe that today we will start a transition
a day in between the day leading to the day after.
The agency will have absolutely critical contribution to do,
especially when it comes to the resumption of education and primary health.
we had a full session dedicated to education to look at how this could
to do whatever is possible to shield politically
and to make sure that whenever there is
an agreement on any type of roadmap transition,
that the role of the agency be also specifically mentioned.
to the field or the latest,
I know that you have quite a lot of information today. You heard about the
and which will be further discussed in New York at the noon briefing.
But to tell you the truth, there is very little
positive news to share with you
and also very little positive impact
a week or 10 days ago as being a daily tactical pa
supply into the Gaza Strip
last night again, a school has been hit
the level of the beach camp, which is on the northern part of Gaza
and reportedly we have heard about 12 people killed, 22 would have been
the total of our premises which have been hit or
damaged or targeted since the beginning of the war,
to 190 which is more than half the premises and the infrastructure
that we have in the Gaza Strip. And as you know,
these premises and this shelter
are also used by the population
to seek what remains as possible protection.
But more than 500 people so far have been killed while seeking
to my call to the member of the advisory commission and other member states.
We are not only on the political or legislative or smearing a campaign attack,
R A has also been targeted. We have paid a heavy price. More than 200
humanitarian staff have been killed, among them 193 only from my own organisation
and this is also the reason why
that we need more than the welcome Security Council resolution
two weeks ago on the protection of humanitarian aid workers.
We need to complement this with proper mechanism
of investigation and accountability.
Now, when it comes to the aid delivery,
have to say it's becoming
more and more complicated. It has been extraordinarily excruciating over the last
Far too many trucks have been looted, have not reached
And basically we are confronted nowadays
to a near total breakdown of law and order
and with a truck driver being regularly threatened or assaulted,
to move assistance from the border to our warehouses and warehouses
In addition of that, you might have heard about the cigarette smuggling, which is
the latest type of smuggling taking place in Gaza,
where we have been reported that one cigarette
$30. So you multiply by the number of cigarettes in one pack and then,
and that gives you, in fact, the value of this cigarette in Gaza.
we yesterday, for example, just to tell you how precarious
the situation is, even in terms of resources,
we had only 30 litres of remaining
and all our armoured vehicle
in the Gaza Strip do function on gasoline
and basically yesterday we were in a situation where
our international staff was not able
to move properly. I mean, needless to say
that our call is always the same call and has been hammered and repeated
so many times. We need sustainable, meaningful, uninterrupted
the hunger situation. And you saw the latest
one in five persons are living in a catastrophic nutritional situation,
then the acute malnutrition
impacts nearly the entire population in Gaza more than 90%.
And between those being in emergency
and catastrophic situation and catastrophic means,
risk of famine is here at any time between now and
September, we have in total more than 1 million people,
so our efforts will have to continue.
And clearly the environment today is not conducive
for us to fully reverse the trend.
maybe just one or two comments on the Children you saw that yesterday.
Also, an international organisation, having saved the Children,
has issued a report on the Children again.
The figures are quite staggering. There
they are talking about 4000 Children missing
and 17,000 being unaccompanied. So more than 20,000.
And you add this to the reported 14,000
Children who have been killed since the beginning of the war.
that basically we have every day 10 Children
who are losing one leg or two legs on average. This gives you an idea of the scope of
the type of childhood a child can have
we talk a lot about Gaza. Of course, we are all very concerned about
the situation also in the West Bank, where we keep saying
that a kind of silent war is taking place.
If there wouldn't be Gaza today, the West Bank would hit
the headline. More than 500 people have been killed since
But what also striking when we go to the West Bank
the intensity of the operation taking place in the refugee camp or in the villages.
Two weeks ago, I visited one of them in
and sometimes it looks like a war zone because the security operation taking
place end up most of the time now with the destruction of neighbourhood,
the destruction of public infrastructure
We talked also a lot today about
and I wouldn't stop here. Maybe after about the funding situation
You know that before October 7th,
we were always talking, in fact, about
the funding situation of the agency,
the only agency functioning on a negative cash flow.
For more than four or five years,
suffered by the absence of attention
on the Palestinian Israeli conflict. Over the last 10 years,
our resources have eroded and we had more
and more a mismatch between what we are expected
and we should never forget.
is unique because we are asked to provide government like services.
voluntary contribution of the member states.
And hence when the member states are not prioritising
this part of the world or are not prioritising,
to suffer. We had to muddle through a lot.
It had an impact on the quality of our services over the last 10 years.
And then we had October 7
October 7th with extraordinary
But after that we had January 26th
the allegation with our 12 staff a temporary pause by a number of countries.
And you know the story. Two months later,
report has been fully published.
Since all the donors have come back, we have some new donors.
We have the strong generosity from the public.
But all this does not compensate the suspension of our main donor,
And even if we would have the United States,
we would definitely not be in
sustainable past. When it comes to predictable funding for the agency.
So it remains a struggle. It's still part of
the identify existential threat of the agency.
And a big chunk of the discussion we had with a member of the advisory commission
was very much related to funding.
So I think I will stop here and thank you.
We thank you, Philip, for these introductory remarks.
There are quite a few questions. Sorry. I've seen
I give the floor in the order. I have seen it and I'll start with
Radio France International.
Laurent Siero. This is news agency.
I can switch to English if you prefer.
Uh, Spanish news agency. Antonio.
So you said that you have money until the the month of August, but, uh, do you have, uh,
absolute numbers on how mu how
And also, uh, in previous press conferences, you mentioned that four countries,
uh, still, uh, were posing, uh, its, uh,
I think United States, Austria, Switzerland,
United Kingdom. Uh, some of them have, uh, already,
uh, uh restarted the the financing. Thank you.
Regarding the funding gap.
What I was sharing also today
When it comes to our emergency appeal, we have in fact,
two emergency appeals in the region in addition to
the appeal related to our regular budget programme budget
When I was saying until the end of August,
I was referring to our regular budget which is
the backbone of the organisation which basically covers the 40,000
and basically we still have a shortfall of about 101 $140 million
the to go to bridge the end of the year.
when it comes to the emergency appeal,
we are between 15 and 18% funded
when it comes to the appeal on the occupied Palestinian territory
when it comes to Syria, also about 15%. So
these two appeals are significantly
which prevent us, for example,
to do cash distribution of food distribution
and in Gaza. Obviously we had an appeal of $1.2 billion recently. We are at 15%.
the needs we were expecting
an appeal to the member of the advisory commission
The next donor event will be in New York on July 12th,
organised by the president of the GA,
and we will after that have another donor event in New York
and this for us, an important event, hoping that new contribution be also announced
we are less funded proportionally on our programme budget,
the regular budget than we were last year at the same time.
Just because I ask also about the countries that are still
Last time we had four countries. Today it's down to two countries.
are back in addition of the European Commission.
So the two remaining the United States, as we know, will not come before March 2025
and the second country, which has not yet taken
But they are in election mode right now. Are the UK
Hi. Good afternoon. Thanks for the briefing. Um,
I'm wondering if you could say whether the
cigarette smuggling is actually getting into your convoys.
There were photos on the Internet of, um smuggled cigarettes in in UN convoys.
I'm wondering if if that's a problem for you. And, um,
are you concerned that some of the funding from the partners that still have
a hold on UN R could permanently move to other UN agencies and actually undermine
the future of the agency? Um,
and if so, what? What can you do or what are you doing to stop that? Um, diversion
of funding to other UN or other aid agencies. Thank you.
Um, just on the cigarette
Convoys coming in are all brought in through private contractor
But they are convoys transporting
UNICEF, and so on or for the broader aid community.
proper UN convoys. So basically,
we are not present when our truck is offloaded or downloaded.
We are just at the end chain of
cigarettes in trucks transporting goods for us. But here I insist that they are not
UN trucks or belonging to any
We had a lot of discussion about partnership today,
which is very much related to the question you are raising about
which is not contributing to the UN to UN
is the United States. As we all know,
they have a Congress prohibition until March 2025. So the real question is, how can
for this part of the world, for Palestinian
to anyone in the Gaza Strip?
and in the Gaza Strip as we know, we have 70% of Palestinian
are we worried that it will undermine the agency?
I think we have clearly specified the parameters
on how partnership will be guided between UN agencies
complementing the effort of UN
and supporting Palestinian refugees without,
you know, without taking over a set of activities,
I do believe we are fine with this.
The most important here is not to undermine the spirit of resolution free
and to make sure that through this we are
not undermining the future right of the Palestinian refugees.
So this has been a very sensitive debate.
Even two years ago, you might recall I brought it on the table. The first reaction
of the communities was no. We don't want this
undermine the future role of the agency and hence
impact the future right of the Palestinian refugees.
But this kind of feeling is especially strong when there is no
political horizon or political future ahead of you,
especially when people feel that nothing is remaining.
So we have worked quite a lot and we have distributed
this partnership concept now with our donors. And I think
are fully on board with this
Thank you so much for the brief, sir.
October. Because of this, some countries can
at the beginning of this year and
some of them changed their decision recently. As you already mentioned.
My question is, despite these
accusations is international support for UN
increasing? Do you feel that? Thank you.
have no doubt that there is a
much better confidence today
if I compare the situation between today
we had up to 16 countries which temporarily indicated that they need to pause
primarily because of domestic reason,
public opinion perception.
And it was a precautionary measure.
So we have worked quite a lot with these countries. We have also been fully committed
They were intermediary recommendations shared a month after
and we have been clear from day one that we will
embrace any of the recommendations coming out from this report and
with the donors and their back.
We have also broadened our donor base,
in the Arab world, but also in South East Asia,
where we have more donors.
But this still does not compensate
The the the void left behind by the United States
and number two. Even if we would have had the United States,
filled our budget for 2024.
So here we would have gone back to the traditional chronic
situation in which the agency was in before October 7th.
this again, it's an issue needs to be addressed. We need to be predictable
a more sustainable, I would say commitment from donors.
Can I take a couple more? Yes,
couple more questions. Nina
Yes. Thank you. Uh, very much. Um I wanted to, uh, just, um,
follow up on the issue of the the Children who, um, are losing limbs if you had.
Sorry, because in the meantime, we got the
the information about the sources.
um, and if you had any idea, sort of uh,
I understand the average figure per day if you have, uh, like, an estimate, uh,
And I also had a question. You talked about the attacks on your agency.
I know. Yesterday there was a case that was brought against
inara in New York by families of, uh
uh of, uh, hostages, um, and other victims on October 7th.
could you say a little bit more about the the attacks you're
facing and how a lawsuits like that can will affect you?
I think on on the first question, you
Yeah, I understood the source.
I was wondering if you had,
uh a more a better sort of more of an idea
of the the overall toll on Children when it comes to
No, unfortunately, not basically the figures for the amputated Children
having lost a leg or two legs.
And we also know most of the time how the amputation has taken place in quite
herbal condition and sometimes without any type of anaesthesia. And this was also
to the chamber. But we don't have a total overview because
have been cautious enough
to say that this does not even
the arms and the hand. And we have many more about this.
So we we we we we don't have the total figures on this one. Basically,
listen on on on the attack,
um, I I had the occasion to express myself more than once.
Um, basically, we have all type of attack.
It start with social media.
to Europe or to parliament,
you have the tractors sending letter
most of the time when we have an event.
Now it's the advisory commission or donor event.
There is always something coming out. The lawsuit came out
also, as you know, politically
announced as an objective. The agency needs to be disgruntled
We have legislative effort in Tel Aviv,
with some lawmakers trying to label the organisation as a terrorist organisation
or to get rid of the organisation
on any territory under the control of Israel.
We have also a lot of intimidation
going on with regular demonstration in Jerusalem which have turned also violent.
We have an atmosphere, I would say for our staff of fear and anxiety,
which has been put in place
Now on your question about the lawsuit.
I learned it through the media.
I don't know what the status of this
to put pressure on the agency.
Thank you very much. I know you've been very patient,
RV and maybe then we'll take or we close here. Or maybe one last.
So we'll take them out, please.
the internal oversight body,
madam, And then, uh, Jamie for a P.
Um, thank you. My name is, um
been consi consistently talk about there
should be IND Independent investigation,
uh, on the attacks against the UN premises and then also UN aid workers, including U
which UN entities would be appropriate to create such
a mandate to to set up the independent investigation.
UN Security Council or human Rights Council,
so if you could just name it.
Yes. I addressed the Security Council about six weeks ago
and basically I called on the member of the Security Council
to put in place such an investigative capacity.
would it be the secretary?
Would it be the Human Rights Council? Would it be the General Assembly?
I don't know what the best mechanism is all about,
with such blatant disregard
of staff premises protected by international law.
Thank you very much. Last question. Jamie Keaton,
thank you for coming back to see us.
Um, if you could just, um, specify the two countries that have come back.
Um, of the four that you mentioned, there's two that are remaining.
So who are the two ones that came back?
And you also mentioned the broadening of the funding from Southeast Asia,
and and, uh, and I believe you said, uh, some Middle Eastern countries.
Is that from governments, or is that from individual donors?
And then as a final thing. I'd just like to ask.
Um, you mentioned also in your statements that, uh,
with the Colonna report that you're prepared.
um, apply the Colonna report recommendations, Uh, throughout whatever they are.
I understand from some NGO S that some of there's already been some backsliding.
The question is really Are you now applying all of those, uh, Colonial report? Um
um, throughout UNRWA including, say, for example,
in Lebanon and other and other Palestinian areas.
Do you have something specific in mind in Lebanon
there's been a There's been some new allegations that you maybe you're aware of.
Maybe you can tell us about.
Officially, the last two countries who came back were
I think we were talking about Switzerland,
but Switzerland officially did not suspend.
taken a little bit longer.
in the Arab world, new countries where Iraq
not completely new but not traditional Oman
We had an exceptional contribution.
Also of Jordan Jordan being a host country, a host country,
you know, paying already their share. But we had
a contribution from Jordan.
We had a private sector in Singapore,
for example, individual giving.
We had recently a contribution from SR I Lanka.
a contribution from a few Central Asian state.
I can tell you after, I don't want to mistake right now.
So yes, there have been a broadening. And in addition to that,
as you know, we had a very successful
private fundraising campaign.
125 million donors have been raised through private channel, which is
exceptional for the agency.
when it comes to the recommendation of the coronary report
adopted a new policy. When it comes to political affiliation,
we have adopted a new policy when it comes to partnership.
These were recommendations coming from the report.
We have told the member of the advisory Commission
that some recommendations will be implemented as from now on.
Others will require some resource.
We have received resources from few countries, so we are recruiting
staff to reinforce the internal oversight
bodies, our investigative capacity, the Human Resources Department and so on and
then we will have recommendations
And we will require the political support of both
the donor but also of the host country.
The case you are referring right now in Lebanon is a specific case.
has been completely wrong and misleading.
I went to Beirut on a specific case.
were blocked for more than two months
and I had a long discussion with all the political faction
and basically I have told them
cannot, as a head of an agency, accept
that you prevent us to have access to our headquarters
And if you continue to do so because you want to put us under pressure,
So at the same time, I had a conversation with the government
asking if the government would be ready
to ensure that we have full access to our premises
The person we are talking about
is still suspended, remains suspended
and is on administrative leave without pay.
until the end of the investigation.
to give in and to reinstate an individual
under investigation and being fully suspended.
If that is the case you are referring to.
Thank you very much. Philip, I think you've been extremely exhaustive.
We let you rest before the start of
the advisory commission works again this afternoon.
Thanks for being so generous with the Geneva press corps.
Thanks to all of you who have followed the press conference here and online.
And good luck with the end of the works. And
we wait for you next time you come to Geneva. Thank you very much, thanks to everyone.
