OK, welcome to this briefing.
Today is Friday, 18th of October.
We are here in Geneva at the Information Service of the United Nations and I would like to first of all welcome you all, including the students of the University of Zurich.
We also have a little change in the, in the programme that has been distributed to you because Rania Dagash Kamara, the World Food Programme Assistant Executive Director for Partnership and Innovation has moved their briefing to Tuesday.
And, and this is also in the interest of the of the news and of the other speakers that we have aligned this morning.
And the first one I would like to welcome is Andrea Tenanti, the spokesperson Chief Strategic Communication and public Information for the UN Interim Force in Lebanon.
Andrea is connected comes to us from Beirut and I would like to really welcome him.
I'm happy to see you in in good shape and and we are really happy that you're here for briefing the journalist in Geneva.
So as usual, we will give you the floor for initial remarks and then we will open the floor to questions.
Andrea, you have the floor.
Thank you very much for having UNIFIL during your press conference today.
I will start with a few minutes of opening remarks in relation to the situation in South Lebanon for the last several months.
But after over 12 months of exchanges of fire between Hezbollah and Israel, tensions have escalated exponentially in the past month, turning the hostilities into a dead their more lethal conflict.
According to Lebanese Authority, the death toll in Lebanon since the 8th of October of last year has reached over 2400 people and the number of wounded individuals has increased to over 1.
Eleven 1200 close to 800,000 people were internally displaced, 60% of them from UNIFIL area of operations.
This is according to the International Organisation for Migration.
In recent days, the amount of heavy shelling and powerful air strikes, as well as the number of air violations over Lebanese airspace have grown.
There has been also significant increase in bombardments, particularly in southern Lebanon where UNIFIL operates, but also in Beirut and other parts of the country.
A daily heavy shelling as worsened due to IDF Israeli Defence Forces incursions into Lebanese territory in the proximity of the Blue Line in both Unifield Sector East and West, which constitute a violation of Lebanese sovereignty and also a violation of Security Council Resolution 1701.
Peacekeepers are also reporting clashes on the ground.
The mission continues to stay in contact with the parties, urging de escalation and also reminding them of their obligation to ensure peacekeeper safety.
Due to the security situation in the past few weeks, most, but not all patrols have been suspended until things improve.
We continue to monitor and report from all our UN positions across the South of Lebanon.
We are also working hard behind the scenes to coordinate the safe passage of essential humanitarian aid to civilians in South Lebanon by UN agencies and local international NGOs.
Civilians continue to suffer in these conflicts and peacekeepers continue to do whatever we can to help.
Despite IDF demands to move from position close to the blind, a unanimous decision was taken by all Unifield troops, contributing countries and the UN Security Council, and our peacekeepers remain deployed in all their positions along the Blue Line.
We are regularly adjusting our postures and activities and contingency plans, ready to activate if absolutely necessary.
We are seeing at the moment hundreds of trajectories and sometimes more crossing the line each day, forcing our peacekeepers to spend extended hours in shelters to ensure their safety, which remains our top priority.
The escalation along the line is causing widespread destructions of towns and villages in South Lebanon.
While rockets continue to be launched towards Israel, including civilian areas.
The devastation and distractions of many villages along the line and even beyond is is shocking.
The idea has repeatedly targeted our positions, endangering the safety of our troops.
In addition to Hezbollah launching rockets store Israel from near our positions, which also puts our peacekeepers in in danger.
Security Council Resolution 1701 has been significantly a challenge, but is key provisions on safety, security, long term solutions remain valid and must be implemented.
Unifiled Admission and Force Commander, Lieutenant General Lazaro continues to maintain open channel of communications with both sides and we continue to urge Lebanon, Israel to commit to Resolution 1701 in actions and not just with words.
And this, as we continue to say is the only viable solution to bring back stability in in the region.
Thank you and ready for your for your questions.
Thank you very much for this briefing and let me, before opening the floor to question, remind to the journalist that yesterday we have distributed A solidarity message that the Secretary General of the United Nation has addressed to the UN Interim Forces in Lebanon, in which he says that he is full of admiration and gratitude to the men and women of UNIFIL, including affair.
He said, I'm so proud of you.
I know your countries are proud of you too.
He's reaffirmed that the safety of UN personnel is our highest priority and all parties have an obligation to ensure the safety of our personnel.
He continued by saying the inviolability of human premises must be respected at all times and despite all the challenges, as we have heard from Andrea, Unifield remains in its position, the Secretary General said.
I'm in constant contact with General Lazaro, assessing the latest developments.
Our path forward is clear.
We need an immediate ceasefire and the full implementation of Resolution 1701.
You are, he said to the to the men and women of UNIFI, you are not just on the blue line in Lebanon.
You are literally on the front line of peace.
And I open the floor to question now.
I'll start with Emma Farge here in the room.
Emma is our correspondent of Reuters.
Andrea, I had a question about something you sent out on X yesterday about a drone that was brought down.
You said electronic countermeasures were used by whom?
Who actually shot down this drone?
And have you identified this drone yet?
Who sent it and what were its intentions?
Yes, we issued a statement yesterday because an unknown drone approached our one of our maritime task force ship.
We used the the MTF, the ship use electronic countermeasure also to decrease the threatening to to the ship.
The the drone been exploded on its own.
We are still looking into this matter.
We still don't know the origins.
We understand that the drone was coming from from the South, but circling around the ship and getting very, very close, a few metres away from from the ship.
So these measures were used.
We have launched an investigation to understand the origin of the of the drone.
So as soon as we have more information, we will get back to all of you.
Jamie Keeton, Associated Press.
Yeah, I think that one works.
Thank you for coming to see us.
The 1st is, what do you say to people, critics who say that there is no peace in the region and that UNIFIL utility, its purpose is, is, is, is, is kind of obsolete given the fact that there's obviously no peace being kept in the region.
If you could just emphasise sort of the successes that you've had over the years that actually proved that this peacekeeping operation is still valid.
And and secondly, I'd like if you could please to specify instances starting with the most recent in which UNIFIL peacekeepers have had to discharge their weapons in One Direction or another or are they generally just sitting there and facing incursions as as you've mentioned, without being able to respond in any way?
In relation to the first part of your questions, I think the role of UNIFIL at the moment is more important than ever.
We need to try to bring back stability and peace to this region.
In fact, we were working to try to bring back stability and working on a long term solutions, but peace was never in this part of the of the region.
Even despite in recent days when the Israeli Defence Forces and also Israeli Prime Minister asked the mission to move from our positions close to the line, there was an unanimous decision from everyone to stay.
We are here deployed because the Security Council wants us to be here because the international community and at the moment with this conflict, it's very important to be able to monitor and report also to the Security Council, to the international community what's happening right now.
We have our limited capabilities at the moment in terms of patrolling, but we are still doing it.
And most importantly is what we are trying to do and what we have been working for for days and weeks to work together and to coordinate with UN humanitarian agency is deconflict situation in order to bring back or to bring sorry assistance to local communities.
There are thousands of of people still stuck in villages in the South of Lebanon without the most basic needs and that's what we are working in these days to try to bring this assistance.
But the role of UNIFIL is still important.
1701 has definitely been challenged, but the main provision are still valid.
The full implementation of the resolution is not up to UNIFIL.
We are here to support the implementation of Resolution 1701, but it's up to the parties to be committed to to this resolution.
So that I just want to go back just for a second, that from 2006 when resolution 1701 was adopted and was the resolution that stopped the conflict in 2006 until last year, the South of Lebanon had witnessed one of his quietest.
Then the events of October happened and, and now of course we go, we have to go back to the cessation of hostilities.
There was a lot of things that were done until that point.
It was starting to deploy more Lebanese armies to the South.
We were working on marking the blue line, a border that does not exist.
And we had marked most part of the of the blue line.
We were working on the outstanding points along the line.
We had monthly meeting between Lebanese army and IDF, two countries still a war, a war and meeting in the same room to try to deconflict situation and trying to move forward.
The Middle East and this region is very sensitive and it's very difficult region, so it moves very slowly.
Any kind of negotiation, but that's what we were doing.
We have to go back to that.
1701 is still the resolution that both countries have agreed to and both parties are somehow been committed to and even recently they always, they've been saying again and again that 17 O1 needs to be implemented.
But we need the commitment, the commitment of the parties in.
In relation to your second part of the question of self defence, we are under Chapter 6 of the Security Council.
Of course self defence can be used, but we also have to be very pragmatic on when to use it and how to use it because we don't want to become part of the conflict and using force that could trigger more violence.
This is not something what we are we are planning to do.
So we're trying to decrease the tensions and it's up to the commanders on the ground to decide when is the time to use self defence.
But it's very important at the moment to decrease the violence, to decrease the tension and and that's what we've been doing until now.
Sorry, a follow up from my team please.
Can I just understand that there has not been any instance of discharging of weapons by UNIFIL forces?
It sounds like your answer to that.
And just as a quick question, you, you mentioned the mandate and the successes that you've had and, and getting aid to, to needy people and whatnot.
What do you say to people who say that the UNIFIL zone that is supposed to be covered has been, has not been fully covered as it should have been?
And that, for example, some Ng organisations posing as NGOs are actually representative of, of Hezbollah in the region that are coming into the area.
And that UNIFIL may be turning a blind eye to, to those, to those militants, I guess, if you want to call them that right now.
Thanks a lot again for, for the, for the follow up questions.
Because the, the, that's what we've been doing.
We have been reporting all these incidents and every suspicious, any suspicious activities to the Security Council.
It is all part of the of the SGS report to the Security Council.
So everything has been reporting, even the recent claims by IDF of on on finding of channel.
This has all been reported.
But there is a limitation to resolution 17 O1.
We cannot search inside private property and the one that was mentioning was a private property.
We cannot search inside houses.
We cannot disarm is Bola which is not part of our mandate.
So we have been requesting the Lebanese authorities to enter inside all these areas to inspect.
We have not been able to do it.
And as I said, this is a limitation of, of resolution 17 O1.
Of course, if there is any change or planning any change of resolution of the mandate of the mission will be up to the Security Council to, to decide.
But we did whatever we could within the limits of our of our mandate.
Thank you very much about the discharging.
So you no, no, not that I'm aware of.
OK, let me go to the platform now.
I have Lauren Ciero, Lauren is our correspondent of this news agency.
The the question on the on the drone was covered.
So I have a a few additional questions.
First, do you make a direct correlation between the speeches against the finale that were made recently by Prime Minister Netanyahu and the different targets you were subjected to?
And yeah, there were a few casualties, a few injuries within your force.
And then, yeah, if you could tell us more, a little bit about the mood currently of the the men and women within the force.
Yeah, dealing with that and beyond the the fact that they have to remain for hours in the compound, have they have they been asked to follow a particular precautionary measures?
In relation to the incidents and some correlation with what they asked us to do and what happened later, I think without commenting too much on that, I will just look at the facts.
We were asked to move from some positions along the line.
We have around 29 positions that are very close to the line up to 5 kilometres.
It's important for the UN flag to still fly in there and because we are there at the request of the Security Council, there was also strong and vocal voice from the Security Council, from the international community to stay there.
Immediately after that we've been targeted several times, five times and the deliberate attack, one tower inside the headquarters in Nakura, 2 peacekeepers were injured, another two positions close to the line where they hit the communication system.
The cameras drone enter very close to the bunkers where peacekeepers were sheltering a few days ago.
They enter IDF inside the UN position and they stayed there for 45 minutes.
So there been several day yesterday that there was another targeting of our cameras in another position.
So all these elements are clear and we've been very vocal.
This is our deliberate attacks against the mission.
The parties have an obligation to protect peacekeepers and it's not only a violation of Resolution 1701 is also a violation of international humanitarian law.
They asked us to move and we are and we are there because it's important for the international community and international presence to to be there.
The mood of peacekeepers incredibly enough after all these months, because this conflict did not start a month ago.
We have been going on with the exchanges of still has started last October.
They have been rotation of troops, but they're incredibly resilient in all the positions.
And some of them they're very challenging areas and shelters.
So not easy when you spend many hours during the day inside, inside shelters, it's very difficult.
But I would say that morale is still very ****.
The commitment, we have been talking to some of them and we are in touch with peacekeepers from all the different positions, still very much committed to try to bring back some kind of stability in this region.
So I would say that it's, it's an incredible, very challenging situation, but peacekeepers are very much in a good spirit and committed to, to, to, to bring back some calm and stability to the region.
Yuri Aprelev Ryanovosti, the Russian news agency.
Yes, thank you, Andrea, thank you for coming to this briefing.
I have a question because I'm so far not an expert on what was the mission of of the UNI field.
So I have a question as a as a new year.
Why despite this very serious incidents and violations that you are talking about at least 5 peacekeepers that were wounded, tanks that entered UN bases.
Why there is no at least warning shots from the UNI field just to say that stop this is going to I don't know.
This is too dangerous and because it is really hard to understand when it comes that that peacekeepers are attacked without any reaction.
That's really hard to understand.
If you can explain at what point and when you will answer.
The Secretary General said this several times, but I let the answer.
Yeah, you know, self defence is up to the commander of the ground.
If there is a situation, that's the person in the ground, the commander on the ground sees that is necessary tools to protect peacekeepers.
Of course they will be able to to act in self defence, but it's also important to be rational in these moments that if responding would trigger more violence, it's important to deconflict the situation instead of increase it.
But as I said, it's possible to use it and could be used in case of a real ****** against our peacekeepers.
We had the first example that I mentioned when Markova Tank hit a tower in inside our UN headquarters.
And to peace keepers were injured.
Of course, responding with what I don't know in that case, in other situations I think was much more useful to de escalate the tension and discuss it also with with this channel of communication that is still open between the head of mission and the partisan with the IDF.
But definitely the rules of engagement.
Self defence can be used and at the moment it's important to de conflict attention.
Thank you very much, Moussa ASI almayedin merci buku Alexandra.
The first one concerning the situation of the remaining residents in the area between Litani River and the border.
And the second one, basically the resolution 1701.
Can Israeli air violations of Lebanon be considered a violation of this resolution?
And if you have some details about how many of these violations were there last year?
I speak here just for the violation of Israeli air, not the the the war between Hezbollah and and Israel from one year.
So thank you for the questions.
In relation to the first part of the people in South Lebanon, definitely the situation is very dramatic because a large majority of the population, I would say around 450,000 people left South of Lebanon.
So I would say the vast majority of the population left and went to the north.
Most villages along the line, they are completely destroyed and damages in all the Arab operations.
So the situation is very dramatic and that's that's why it's important to ensure and to bring assistance to the local populations.
As I said has been challenging because most of the times we have not given the guarantees for safety for humanitarian convoys and that has been limiting the capabilities of the mission to coordinate with humanitarian agencies.
We were able to coordinate some of these activities in recent days.
We hope to do more in the next few days.
But the limitations are really due to the ongoing shelling, heavy shelling and not be given the the guarantees for safety for our for our troops.
But the violations I can back, I can get back to you in terms of how many, because there are enormous amount of air violations that have been registered by our Raiders that maybe they're not even the full amount of air violations that IDF have been Israeli air forces have been doing over Lebanese airspace.
It's a large number of air violations, hundreds and hundreds of not more of air violations on a yearly basis.
So maybe through Alessandra, I can get back to you with the with the more of an approximate numbers of of from from last year until now even before.
And it's a violation, of course, it's a serious violation of resolutions and you know one.
And for sure, if, if there is anything that we can distribute later on, including your notes, your introductory notes, and I will do it with pleasure.
I've got three more questions.
Then we will let Andrea go because it's very, it's already very difficult to organise this.
And, and we thank him very much for being here.
So I'll give the floor to John Zaracosta's Franz Wancat English Channel.
I also write for the Lance of the Medical Journal.
I was wondering, Sir, if you could bring us up to speed in the area that you've been monitoring, if there's been any use of white phosphorus in Southern Lebanon and what have been the implications of that?
And secondly, in your peacekeeping monitoring operations, are you Privy to use drones and also commercial satellites for your monitoring purposes?
Okay, on the use of white phosphora, we had an investigation several months ago about the use of phosphor close to one of our bases and and there were actually a trace of of the possible use of white phosphorus.
I think it's also part of one of our our report as we report to the Security Council.
Unfortunately for the other instances we don't have monitoring capabilities, we didn't have capabilities of investigating some of these reports.
But I can share with you what DSG's report what what was in the report of the Secretary General to the Security Council.
This was 11 instance of possible use of it.
The second part of the question was, OK, the use of monitoring capabilities.
Now we do not have drones or or or really satellite imageries.
We are just monitoring the air of operations.
We have our vehicles in coordination with the Lebanese Army.
It's also important to emphasise that everything we do is in coordination with with the Lebanese army.
We do have radar capabilities to monitor, especially during this.
EDD the shelling, the exchanges of fire monitoring reported reporting that transparently to the Security Council.
That's the capabilities we have within the the the unified peacekeeping mission very clear Lisa Shrine most of America.
Thank you, Alessandra, and good morning to you.
I would like to know what the ID FS justification for its aggressive behaviour towards UNIFIL is.
And do you accept this explanation that may be given to you?
And then also how many peacekeepers actually are there?
But we didn't get real justification.
We are still in discussion with the IDF to find out more, understand from other sources that they are investigating these, these incidents.
According to them, there was no targeting of, of peacekeepers.
But of course we were very clear in our statement that what happened, it's clear deliberate targeting of peacekeepers because there was no, no one else around.
And in some instances, we were not even at the highest level of of securing the end of operation.
There was not even exchanges of fire.
And of course enter inside a unit field base and stay there for 45 minutes is definitely a deliberate incident, a deliberate attack.
So we still don't know, but we're still waiting for more justification for that.
Sorry, the second part of your questions, she asked how many, how many even if you stuff you have on the on the ground.
Yeah, but the moment a little bit over 10,000 troops, 10,000 peacekeepers from 50 troops contributing countries, which is a very large number of nations of countries that it shows again the commitment from from the international community to bring back stability to this region that has been devastated by conflict for the last 12 months with thousands of people being killed and injured.
Last question is from Nikam Imbruzz, our correspondent of the New York Times.
I just want you mentioned that there is another incident, another attack on a uniform position yesterday, damaging cameras.
I wonder if you give me some more details with this small arms fire, shell fire, mortar fire.
What kind of attack, what kind of damage was inflicted?
Was this a manned position or a remote observation post?
When these when these cameras are being shut up, are you replacing them?
Do you have maintained and are you sustaining your, your, you know, your system of monitoring on the border?
Yeah, we, we do try of course to to fix not only the cameras, but also the T walls that have been damaged, damaged.
And, and the incident I think you're referring to is the one of two days ago where I think was a mark of a tank that hit cameras in one position close to the blue line if the position was mainly meant by Serbian peacekeepers.
And the previous one cameras is several days earlier.
And it was cameras in a position very close to the brain also with Italian contingency in that in that position.
But we try to definitely to fix whatever has been hitting these days, mainly the security, the perimeters of all our position because the T walls of these bases and the gates of these gates have been heavily damaged and also some of the containers inside from explosions outside.
So we do have logistical movement.
We try to bring, of course, everything we can to our contingent positions outside, but also to, to, to fix all the distractions that we have been suffering this during this months.
I see more hands up, but Andrea has to leave and I'm I'm getting messages that he really has to leave.
Andrea, thank you so very much.
And send me the questions so they can send us the questions.
So I'll be happy to answer.
We can distribute your contact details.
I see other hands coming up, but I'm I'm really sorry.
We are already very happy to have been able to listen from Andrea this morning.
Andrea, you're really, you know, we are really proud of your work, but please stay safe and come back to brief the journalist here in Geneva.
And also thanks to Danny for his Technical Support.
So let me now we stay in the on the Middle East and with the next two briefers.
But we turn now to the situation in the occupied Palestinian territory.
I'll start with Yens maybe.
Yens, you have an update on the situation on the occupied West Bank from Orchard.
And then we will hear from UNICEF on the situation of children in Gaza being displaced again.
Yens, thank you very much.
I think Andrea has left, but I just want to say thank you to him and, and, and the team from Orcha as well for their bravery and their staying power and not least their great collaboration around the humanitarian notification system, which he, he mentioned a bit of that they're critical part of, of, of that.
And for this very important briefing from, from Lebanon.
It, you remember a year ago when we all warned, when this started in, in Israel and Gaza, we all warned that the region was a powder cake.
And look, look, today, you know, we see this regional descent into some dentist hill with no end insight and no guarantee that it won't get worse.
Part of that is of course, the West Bank.
And I want to say a bit about that.
Last night, we issued our weekly update on the situation in the occupied West Bank, where the situation continues to deteriorate.
In the latest reporting period, from the 8th to the 14th of October, Israeli forces killed 9 Palestinians, including a child, and injured 104 people, including nine children.
Israeli forces accused most of those fatalities of being involved in attacking Israelis.
Yesterday, a Palestinian woman was reportedly killed while she was harvesting olives in Jenin.
This follows 32 attacks by Israeli settlers this month on Palestinians engaged engaged in the ongoing olive harvest happening right now.
Hundreds of olive trees and saplings have been vandalised, sewed off or stolen.
The economic The olive harvest is an economic lifeline for 10s of thousands of Palestinian families in the West Bank.
We're currently assessing how we and our partners can support those who have been affected by this.
Over the past year, 728 Palestinians in the West Bank, including E Jerusalem, have been killed, mainly by Israeli forces, but at least 12 of them were killed by settlers.
16 members of the Israeli forces and six settlers have been killed by Palestinians in Israel.
Attacks by Palestinians from the West Bank resulted in the killing of 16 Israelis, while 8 Palestinian perpetrators were also killed.
Additionally, 277 Palestinian household, including nearly 800 children, have been displaced across the West Bank.
In the context of settler violence and access restrictions, Israeli authorities have demolished, confiscated, or sealed around 1800 Palestinian structures, forcibly displacing nearly 4600 other Palestinians.
Dozens of these structures have been funded by donors and provided as humanitarian aid.
Israeli forces have been using lethal war like tactics in the West Bank, raising serious concerns over excessive use of force and deepening people's humanitarian needs.
We call on Israel as the occupying power to protect the Palestinians against the tax violence and intimidation.
There are more details in our report, which is online and I've sent you the link.
Thank you very much, IANS, and I'll turn to my left to hear from James on the situation of children, this time in Gaza.
Gaza is the real world embodiment of **** on earth for its million children and it is getting worse day by day as we see horrific impact of daily air strikes and military operations on Palestinian children.
Let me try and share what that looks like through one specific child, a 7 year old girl who I met very recently, Kamar OK.
During an attack where she was living in Jabalia camp, Kamar was struck in the foot.
The only hospital she could be taken to, given the hostilities was a maternity hospital that was then under siege for 20 days, by which time the shrapnel in Kamar's foot had turned to an infection.
Because this little girl could not be moved, and because the hospital did not have the capacity to deal with the trauma cases that it was faced, doctors had to amputate Kamar's leg.
Now in any vaguely normal situation, this little girl's leg would never have been amputated.
Kamar, her mother and her sister who was also injured, were then forced to evacuate on foot and so a 7 year old girl with a newly amputated leg was pushed from north to South.
They now live in a ripped tent, surrounded by stagnant water and other families enduring similar tragedies.
Kumar is of course deeply traumatised.
Regular sounds of of bombings and raids only add to that and there are no prosthetics in Gaza now.
I share the story of this little 7 year old girl because as heartbreaking as it is, it's not unique.
And right now it is being repeated.
Just over a year since orders were given to to a million people to leave northern Gaza, hundreds of thousands of civilians are again being given evacuation orders to leave the north.
Indeed, when you when you reflect on the current situation, the best feeling to describe it is deja vu, but with even darker shadows.
Children have lived this nightmare before it was **** a year ago.
So a year ago the choice for civilians, as cruel as it was, was this endure deprivation or flee into displacement.
Today, deprivation grips all of Gaza.
Being displaced again only leads to more suffering and ever worse conditions for children again.
Nearly a year ago we were daily updating the number of trucks being allowed to make crossings into Gaza and to reach civilians.
Today in the north we are doing the same.
Just 80 trucks carrying food and water assistance have been permitted into northern Gaza since the 2nd of October.
There's today in the South where families are forced to flee.
It's desperately overcrowded.
It lacks lethally, lacks access to sanitation, to water, to shelter.
OK, so where do children and families go?
They're not safe in the shelters, in schools.
They're not safe in hospitals, and they're certainly not safe in overcrowded camps.
Take Al Mawasi, where Palestinians are frequently told to relocate.
Almawasi makes up around 3% of Gaza in terms of land mass.
It had a population of 9000 people before this war.
It now has around 730,000.
If Almawasi was a city, it would be the most densely populated city on the planet.
But Almawasi is not a city.
It has no **** rise buildings.
It has no infrastructure.
It has no capacity to host a population anywhere near this size.
Most of its land is Sandhills.
Now this is where 7 year old Kumar and so many others are forced to live, still deprived of water and shelter and medicine, woefully short of mental health support, education and of course safety.
Indeed, perhaps the darkest irony.
And once again, forcibly displacing families into these so-called humanitarian zones is beyond their lack of food, water and medicine, the the three things that Israel has a legal obligation to provide.
Al Mawasi has had multiple mass casualty events.
Attacks on schools have become unimaginable in frequency.
3030 in just the last two weeks and more than half of those 16 in Jabalia.
Now somehow in this context, UNICEF has built thousands of toilets, We've given cash assistance to 1,000,000 people, More than 300,000 children have benefited from an hour from our nutrition services.
UNICEF and all the UN partners continue to plea for a long term sustainable ceasefire.
Well, now it's ceasefires, plural, when you talk of the broader region.
For the return of hostages, for the unimpeded humanitarian access and a magnitude increase for all those essential humanitarian supplies, for funding for our programmes which remain dangerously underfunded, and for the prevention of threats to humanitarian workers, including through misinformation and disinformation which has become rampant through this conflict.
Now, despite these immense effort from very brave humanitarian workers on the ground, children continue to suffer unspeakable daily harm.
One year from those first forced evacuations, we find the international community watching history repeat itself.
If I may very quickly take another little girl I met earlier this month when her family home was struck, her brother and sister were killed.
This little girl suffered devastating injuries to her face.
Her face was literally torn off.
Now, surgeons have done some amazing work and they have held together the remaining structure.
But she urgently requires a medevac that has been denied multiple times.
She's one of more than 10,000 patients urgently awaiting medical evacuation, each one with a similar tragic story.
We have massive denials and restrictions of aid coming in and massive restrictions of severely wounded children going out.
If this level of horror doesn't stir our humanity and drivers to act, whatever will.
Again, Deja vu with darker shadows.
Last October, UNICEF said Gaza had become a graveyard for thousands of children.
Earlier this month I saw multiple new makeshift graveyards.
Last November, UNICEF warned that if you if children's access to water and sanitation in Gaza continues to be restricted, then children face a serious ****** of disease outbreak.
Today there is polio in Gaza.
Last December, UNICEF stated the Gaza Strip is the most dangerous place in the world to be a child.
And day after day, for more than a year, that evidence based, brutal reality is reinforced.
And yet, in spite of the statements, the hard data, the inferno, burning tents, the harrowing screams, the scores of children I've spoken with with missing limbs, the desperate pleas from doctors for medicine, the denials and delays on aid, action from those responsible has not been taken to reduce the suffering.
Indeed, as we see scenes in the north repeating themselves, the situation for children in Gaza is at rock bottom.
With each repetition of last year's events, one grim repetition remains.
More Gazan children will be killed.
Thank you very much, Jensen and James.
What a devastating situation for the children of Gaza.
Before I open the floor to question, I just would like to also call your attention to the legal position paper, which has just been published today by the UN Independent International Commission of Inquiry of the Occupied Palestinian territory, including is Jerusalem and Israel, and the press releases, you know, the mailboxes.
So let me open the floor to questions in the room.
So let me go to the platform and yes, Pedrero AFP yes, hi.
Thank you for taking my question.
Just a first, a small question on the do you hear me?
So on the report on the source, I have a question about the the people killed by Israeli forces and or settlers in the West Bank.
You mentioned in the reporting period 100 for Palestinians.
And also what is the source for the overall figure since October 2023?
And then a general question to to your to the UNI wanted to, to ask you if there has been any United Nations reaction after the the announcements of the the deaths of Yasin war and how do you think that is this could change the the situation and and the the war?
OK, I'll start with my maybe Jansen and James just on, on, on.
On the first part of your question, we, we, we cooperate of course in in the West Bank and have done for years, decades actually with a vast number of humanitarian NGOs and also human rights organisations.
So those are the sources that we use.
They're they're credible.
They've been tested over a very long time to be credible and I can try to get a little more granular detail how, how far we can, you know, explain this and and send it to you.
But this is these are very long standing partnerships with organisations on the ground.
I can add just in terms of West Bank, including E Jerusalem since October last year, it's more than 160 children, including to Israelis, more than 160 Palestinian children, to Israelis, more than 450 Palestinian children wounded with live ammunition.
Obviously, I would defer to Alessandra and the United Nations in terms of last night's events.
What I can speak to is that I had multiple reports from civilians on the ground, from young people I had met who thought this would meet the end of the war and whose emotions responded because they felt now the war would finally be over.
And yes, on, on your, on your second question, I think our message has not really changed that we, we have been consistently the Secretary General, senior official have been consistently asking for the end or the out of the fighting.
We want civilians to be protected.
We, we want, we've heard the Secretary General reacting to the news of yesterday on the famine situation in, in Gaza.
We want improved humanitarian access against also and and James have been speaking about that when at a time where there is this risk of this tremendous famine and we continue to warn that any developments that can help push us along that way of course is welcome.
And that is what I can say about your second question.
Oh, and yes, you have a follow up and then I'll go to the other questions.
Just a quick follow up, so specific specifically on on what you just say, Alessandra.
So you would mean that should I understand that you, you mean that the deaths of senior last evening or last afternoon is considered as a welcome development?
I think the situation, anything that can lead us to a ceasefire to improve of humanitarian aid is to be considered welcome.
And that's about what I can say.
Let's go to Lisa, who has a hand up.
It's something for both yes and James yes, I'd like like to ask you whether Palestinians from the West Bank are still able to cross the line and go into Israel in order to to work.
And I was wondering specifically you were talking about Israelis and Palestinians who were killed by Palestinians inside Israel, if I got this right.
Did the Israelis lose, lose their guard yet again, unfortunately and not see this coming?
And then I'm wondering for you, James, and for for both of you actually, if you talk more about it, I'm wondering whether there is any improvement you if you see any improvement in terms of convoys, aid convoys entering the the Gaza Strip.
There's been a lot of international pressure about this.
And James, are, are children dying because they're starving, because they're not getting food and because they're forced to drink unclean water?
I suppose adults may also be getting very ill from that as well.
I mean, do you see any any chance, any movements of a ceasefire in the offing or do you do you fear that what is happening right now is going to continue for a rather long time?
Of course it requires work permits for Palestinians to go into Israel and, and, and work about 160,000 people have lost their work permits, so they can't go into Israel, which is also leaving families without the income they previously had.
This is this is livelihood for, for, for these people.
And we have seen our colleagues in WFP warning about rising hunger actually very dramatically numbers that they are projecting they could push at least 600,000 people into food insecurity.
They have said recently these restrictions which are not new to, to the West Bank, but which have been tightened enormously and with the removal of, of work permits, of course, that closes it off completely.
I think that that's what I, what I can say about that on this specific incident that I or, or thing that, that, that I mentioned over the past year when people in sorry, when Israelis had been killed and I mentioned 16 members of the Israeli forces and six settlers had been killed by Palestinians while and we, we, we track this as well.
While Palestinians from from the West Bank inside Israel proper had killed 16 Israelis while in these attacks, 8 Palestinians had also been killed.
So I hope that that makes sense.
In terms of any change, look, we need a systematic improvement, not a few trucks here or there.
As I say, since early October, only 80 trucks have reached northern Gaza.
That's compared to 460 in the same.
And September was by no mean a **** point in this.
So we have seen a catastrophic decline in humanitarian aid for a population in the north, of which the bulk are women and children.
Now commercial trucks, there have been no commercial trucks to the north.
Remembering commercial trucks and humanitarian aid need to complement each other.
Commercial trucks do things that the United Nations doesn't.
They do fresh food and that that things like that are absolutely essential.
So we we both have areas that need to be complementary.
And there have been times in the South as well in the last month where there have been no commercial trucks whatsoever.
So you'll recall, Lisa, that we were talking 500 trucks a day.
These are some of the some of the dips that we have made our children dying.
The latest IPC shows one in five children suffering from the most severe forms of malnutrition.
And again, that was taken in a period before we now had this forced displacement and increases of increases of fighting.
That's before commercial supplies were were diminished again.
So now we have large scale displacement, infrastructure being increasingly decimated, agriculture, people have no money.
Things continue to worsen.
Your question on ceasefire, of course, it is what we must continue to to call for.
It is what Gazans pray for as as I will never forget a a woman's explaining to me when she thought there would be a ceasefire in March when the Security Council voted that way she could say, she said to her daughter, she could promise her daughter that that night she would go to sleep and wake up.
Now that was not possible.
That ceasefire was bombed and and hope was was blown away.
I think what we need to look at if we're serious about a ceasefire is the only time there was a ceasefire that extended humanitarian pause.
In late November last year, more than 100 hostages were released, more than 100 since then.
Through military means, through the decimation of Gaza, through the killing of something like 14 or 15,000 children, through the destruction of economy of a health system, of schools, we have seen less than 10 hostages rescued.
I would like to add this also to what I said before too.
And yes, just call your attention to the post that our Secretary Generous put out yesterday on the IPC report and and again saying crossing points must open immediately, bureaucratic impediments must be removed and law and order restored so that we can go ahead with our humanitarian assistance.
Everything that can bring us to this, everything that can bring us today, ceasefire, to larger access for humanitarian aid and to the immediate and unconditional release of the hostages has to be pursued and will be welcome.
Any development in that sense would be welcome.
And I add this to what I said before, too.
And yes, lots of questions on the line, but I see Emma first.
I'm always giving presidents the people in the room.
Thank you, Jens and James, for those really powerful briefings.
I was hoping for a bit more context on the attacks on Palestinians.
Is it something that happens every year during the olive harvest or is this year really, really exceptional?
And do you know if the settlers involved in some of the recent attacks you described are those targeted by the sanctions against so-called extremist settlers?
Any sign that those sanctions are having any effect whatsoever?
Let me just take the first one.
I, I think I did, you need to repeat the second one for me.
I'm not sure I understood that, but they've, they've been settled of islands for very, very long time.
And of course the more settlers that come in settlements that are going up illegally, by the way, the more violence we see.
But this year is extraordinary.
There's, there's no, there's no question about that's why we highlight and we particularly highlighted that it's during the harvesting season, which is October, November and which is as I mentioned, a lifeline for 10s of thousands of families.
That's what they live from throughout the year.
So it is frankly very concerning that it's not only a tax on people, but it's a tax on their olive Groves as well.
I mentioned trees that are uprooted, sold off and so on and so forth.
That's that's very concerning.
And just to clarify, and I was talking about the US sanctions against Israeli settlers targeting kind of the most extreme ones.
I was wondering if you know whether they have been involved in any of these recent attacks and, and whether you think those sanctions are having any real world impact at all.
I do not know that and we normally don't speak about sanctions that are not UN sanctions.
So Christian, you've been very patient.
Alexandra, I'm would like to go back to Lebanon and maybe Jens can fill us in here.
Do you know how many people are actually left along the blue lines in those villages?
And how are they reached by humanitarian aid?
Andrea was talking about how UNIFIL is trying to facilitate those trips, but maybe you can give us a bit more detail here.
I think we, we do have overnight a new situation report out so we, we can double check on that.
But otherwise we, we had some lines on on that yesterday with the with the number, which of course keeps changing as as Andrea mentioned, we saw the big rush really at, at at the very beginning, very panicky.
You, you'll recall the, the lines of cars trying, trying to get away it, it was very dramatic.
And of course the, as the area empties out of people, the, the numbers will gradually go down, but they are indeed very, very large.
The way we deliver aid is of course through the collaboration with the Lebanese authorities, with the Lebanese Red Cross, with the Lebanese NGOs, with the international NGOs, with the UN agencies, and they are all there.
And we'll do that within the framework of our flash appeal that were briefed on earlier.
It's a $426,000,000 flash appeal.
So that's the framework on that.
How do we get to people in areas that are contested or where conflicts and bombing, bombings are going on?
We have a humanitarian notification system.
It is active and working both for static assets, that means offices, warehouses and so on of humanitarian agencies, but also for movements.
So those are the the convoys, particularly in the South.
And Andrea mentioned a bit about the the movements down there, which is of course where a lot of the fighting is is going on.
That humanitarian notification system includes notifications to the Lebanese Armed Forces and to the IDF.
And that's exactly where we we count on and rely on on UNIFIL and and their contacts in the area to make that that smooth.
And that is that that is working.
So I don't think what I see here, I don't think we have the breakdown for those villages.
You're referring to Christian in, in as a, as a general, a figure what we have from the Lebanese authorities, they say more than 2300 people have been killed, over 11,000 people have been injured since October 2023 and more than 1.2 million people have been displaced.
James, you wanted to add something?
Only that yes, of those one point, 2,400,000 children, children are always the first affected in a conflict like Lebanon's remembering winter is coming.
There are deeply concerning echoes in the situation for children and families in Lebanon as those affected in the first stages of the war in Gaza.
So again, as we've heard multiple times, if leaders are serious about the safety of children in the region, about hostages, then a ceasefire in Gaza is the quickest way to de escalate.
James, can you bring me up to speed please?
You mentioned that you've been unable to bring in prosthetics or there was a lack of prosthetics in Gaza.
Has UNICEF tried to bring in supplies and they've been turned back at the border or what?
And secondly, on the medical evacuation that the seven-year old was rejected, how many of the medical evacuation requests have been turned down that have involved children?
So there were two, two main centres in Gaza that did work on prosthetics and neither of those operational.
So I can find out for you about efforts to bring in prosthetics, though when speaking to those surgeons, the biggest challenge was the availability of people to actually do prosthetic work that that does not.
That is a resource that is currently not in Gaza.
It's impossible to to overstate just how grave hospitals are in the war zone of places.
When Lisa asked questions around malnutrition, parents with any child who is malnourished, who is sick, a breastfeeding mother who who is, who is deeply unwell, none of those people go to hospitals.
In the same case, those children who've had amputations don't have any access to prosthetics.
They do some basic rehabilitation in the hope that at some point they will be allowed to leave.
At John, I can only speak anecdotally, and I can share that with you offline.
I've spoke to in my last visit to Gaza more than 20 different families with infuriating, heartbreaking stories of denials for those children to leave with clearly life threatening injuries and deep, deep trauma, who is of course the lead in doing amazing work on those medevacs.
That number of at least 10,000 people who require medevac is not desegregated by age though, unfortunately.
I think you have a little bit more on that.
Thank you very much, Alessandra, and thanks very much to James.
UNICEF and torture here for these absolutely horrifying and harrowing reports.
Just a few data, I don't have it on aggregated on children, but just for the evacuations, 15,600 patients requiring urgent medical evacuations with only 5138 evacuated so far.
So a third, 30% of those needing urgent medical evacuations have been approved for for evacuations so far and almost half of them had cancer 40% or injuries in in 2023 only.
So I don't even have figures on 2024 for those for this segment.
And 200 had kidney diseases since 7:00 May.
So that's now nearly half a year.
Only 231 patients have been evacuated.
So the massive bulk of this, only 30% had been before 7th of May.
I don't see other questions for our colleague.
But before we leave the Middle East.
Oh, sorry, Hassan, I didn't see your hand.
You have a quick how many how many Palestinian children has have been killed so far?
In in Gaza, the West Bank of since across the since when in Gaza, in West Bank, Palestinian children since the 7th of October far, far too many.
The latest figure that UNICEF uses and it's conservative is 14,100 girls and boys having been killed in Gaza.
That has not been updated for more than a month now that that is reportedly killed given all the complexities.
But as we've spoken many times, we have unfortunately trust in the numbers because of past crises and how they have, they have been In Sync with our much more thorough triangular verification.
So unfortunately that number will hold true.
There are many, many more under rubble.
On a conservative measure, around 35 to 40 girls and boys are killed every day in Gaza since the 7th of October.
Thank you James, Have I missed other hands up?
So thank you very much colleagues.
But before we leave the Middle East, I have I would like to remind you of the invitation that we have distributed to you, the invitation to the annual UN International Media Seminar on Peace in the Middle East.
This is organised by our Department of Global Communication together with UNOG this year and it will be held on the 1st of November in room 26 of the Paladin.
Assume as you know, for over 3 decades the international Media seminars created a platform to enhance dialogue and understanding between Palestinian and Israeli media representative.
And at this very time of Almar alarmingly escalated crisis, participants will come together for a whole day to discuss a range of issues related to two main themes, safety of journalists, key tenets of press freedom and behind the headlines of Gaza, media challenges and perspective.
The seminar will be opened by our Director General Tatianna Vallevaya and will be chaired by Melissa Fleming and their Secretary General for Global Communications.
We will very soon publish on the website the full programme with all the speakers, but you have the invitation in your mailbox.
Peter is here, please register with him is not undispensable to register, but we would like to know that you're coming.
And of course, you don't need indigo, you have the badge, but it's just to know that you are going to be with us on that important event.
So thank you very much to my colleagues on the podium.
Unfortunately, the Middle East is not the only crisis in the world and there are so many more.
And we would like to, I would like to ask our colleague to come to the podium, Kennedy Omondi.
You know, Kennedy is the spokesperson of IOM and he has an update on the situation of IET, very difficult situation too.
And we will hear more from him for IOM.
Well, thank you very much everyone.
Just to provide a brief update.
We are you're already aware of the situation of the global crisis in the world unfortunately, as it has been mentioned, it's not only Middle East and I'd like to just draw attention to currently the situation in Haiti.
The country in itself has been ravaged by violence, with gangs terrorising entire communities, leaving behind devastation and fear.
Haiti is in the grip of unprecedented crisis.
Since the beginning of 2014, gang related violence has claimed more than 3600 lives.
Just and just two weeks ago, a brutal attack on the town of Bontesonde took the lives of at least 115 more innocent people.
The violence has forced over 700,000 people to flee their homes, creating a massive displacement crisis.
There has been 22% increase in the number of internally displaced people since June alone.
The initial numbers in the beginning of June was standing at around 580,000 and since then the numbers increased to 700,000 within the short period.
In the past seven months, gang violence has forced, of course, the 100,000 people to flee their homes, particularly in the western part of the capital, Port-au-Prince.
Children, mothers, fathers and elders, None have been spared.
They flee with whatever they can they can carry, often losing everything in their possession, including the sense of safety.
Including the sense of safety.
Our team met, of course, with one of the survivors, an elderly woman from Port-au-Prince who, like so many others, was driven from a home by relentless violence.
Her testimonies are chilling.
She describes the former violence, the former, her former life as a working nightmare each day, with the sound of gunfire each night wondering if she or someone in her family would be next.
Her story is heartbreaking, but unfortunately, this is not unique to most agents.
It is a story of thousands of them living in fear and displacement.
Over half of those displaced are children, and the humanitarian needs are overwhelming.
Nearly half of Haiti's population, 5.5 million people, are in urgent need of humanitarian aid.
Food insecurity has skyrocketed amidst all these, with 5.4 million Haitians struggling to feed themselves and even their families.
Health services on the other side has collapsed, schools have been forced to close, and the basic services that hold the society together are now almost non existence in many part of the country.
Yet despite this immense hardship, the people of Haiti remained resilient.
Communities have opened up their doors to those displacing the violence.
Currently, over 83% of the displaced individuals are being sheltered by host families, and these families are often already crowded and impoverished conditions.
The host communities are the unsung heroes of this crisis, but that they too were struggling under the weight of the immense need, food shortages, overwhelming healthcare facilities and the dwindling resources.
In 2024, the affected population started to flee the capital more and more.
Currently, 70% of the displaced population are living outside the capital.
Port-au-Prince IOM is in the front line, working alongside local partners to provide life saving assistance and social services.
Since February, the organisation had delivered 6,000,000 litres of clean water, distributed essential supplies to over 550 thousand people and provided psychosocial and medical care at to 10's and thousands of to displace individuals.
But despite all this effort, the crisis is escalating and the needs are growing faster and faster than the resources that are currently available.
We are facing a funding shortfall as all the other organisations when it comes to the crisis that are ongoing in the world.
The funding gap is currently stands at 35 million and it's threatening the ability to provide basic assistance to the Haitians that need the most.
We remain committed in working alongside the Haitian government, local, international partners to provide life saving aid and find long term solution to those displaced, but we cannot do this alone.
Haitians people deserve and look forward.
Haitians people deserve to look forward with hope and not despair.
We need to stand with them and help them rebuild their lives with dignity.
Thank you very much, Kennedy.
Let me see if there are questions for IOM in the room.
Let me go to the platform.
Thank you very much for for that presentation.
I would like to know if Haitians are still leaving the country, at what rates, if you have any, any numbers on that are they and how are they leaving the country?
Are they still transiting through the Darien Gap?
I also wanted to know more generally if you could provide some information about that route and flows through the the the jungle, you know, the bridges, Colombia from from Panama in the run up of the US elections.
The situation in the Darien Gap is a bit complex in itself in the sense that is not only touches on Haitians but also different nationalities that are trying to across the Darien Gap.
I'm more than happy to share with you the numbers of the people who currently are on the route in itself.
I don't have them with me here, but I'm more than happy to share with you the current figures on this, on the situation of Haitians currently being being forced to flee.
As you're already aware, the situation in the country in itself is not a stable 1.
And so everyone is trying to basically try and find stability in neighbouring in in neighbouring cities out of Port-au-Prince.
However, the number of people that are currently crossing out of the country, I don't have that at the moment, but I can share with you as well.
Mr Monde, thank you for coming to see us.
I had just two questions.
The 1st is we saw yesterday, I think it was yesterday or the other day, sorry, there was a shootout between between the Haitian and and Kenyan police.
And I'm just wondering how concerned are you that the peacekeeping mission there and you know, shortcomings with it or troubles with it may prompt more outflows or, or or a greater crisis situation, if we can call that in, in Haiti.
And then the second question has to do with repatriations.
How involved is IOM in returning people to Haiti from places that is there a role for you and are you involved in that at all?
I'll start to the with the, with the fast situation.
Of course, we are all aware that there's a multinational team that is working on to restore peace in Haiti.
And in the past couple of months, we have seen, we have seen the impact and you've seen also the the impact that is having on those displays.
Just as I was mentioning 2 weeks ago, we had the mass matter of almost 115 people being killed by the gang.
So the situation in itself is it's, it's, it's dire, but the peacekeeping multinational mission has its role on that.
And also for us as I always basically to ensure that all those who are affected and we are talking about 700,000 able to access service and are able to basically live their lives comfortably.
On the other, on the second issue that you did mention, you're talking about the number of people that IOM is supporting to move out of Haiti.
The whole situation of returns is to 80.
As you already know Haiti and the current situation they are going, it is not really suitable, suitable country for basically anyone to come back and return to.
So what we are basically doing is that we are working within Haiti to make sure that we support the life saving assistance that is required within the country but also working also with within the neighbouring countries but not on the on the returns.
We are we are aware of course that they are started forced returns that are being that have been ongoing.
And what we basically see and what we basically want to put out is that hate in itself is not in a situation where people can actually be brought back to.
And we're asking of course the neighbouring countries to to ensure that they protect of course the the people within their territories and also to hedging them to basically abide by international law and its principled especially the principle of non reformal.
Just wanted to clarify that I was actually referring to there was a shootout the other day and actually it wasn't between the Haitian Canyon police, but it was a Haitian gang leader, I think who was injured in in a shootout with the.
So just for the record, well noted.
So there are no other questions for you, Kennedy.
I don't see any on the platform.
So thank you very much for reminding us of this very dire situation and putting them back on the the limelight.
So just a couple of more announcement for for me, just a reminder of the acted press conference on Tuesday, 22nd of October at 2:30.
And this is for the presentation of the review of Maritime Transport 2024 title is navigating Maritime checkpoints and you will have Yanof Monday, UN Trade and Development Head of the Trade Logistics Bench speaking to you.
And then a reminder that the Committee on Determination of Discrimination against women is examining today the report of Cuba.
They are left with one report, the one of Benna on the 21st of October.
And on the 25th of October, they will held an informal public meeting with state parties and launched the general recommendations on the equal and inclusive representation of women in decision making systems.
That's, that will be the end of this 89th session of the committee.
And lastly, the Human Rights Committee is concluding this morning the review of the report of Pakistan and they're left with the report to examine the report of Greece, France, Turkey and Ecuador.
This is what I had for you.
If you don't have other questions for me or for other colleagues, I don't see any heads up.
Thank you very much for following this briefing.
I remind you that we have a photo op in a few minutes at door 40 for Pink October.
As you know, this is the month that the international community put is attention on its attention on breast cancer prevention and treatment.
And there is a follow up at 4 door 40 with pink ribbons if you want to go and take a shot.
Otherwise, I thank you all very much and have a nice weekend.
Thank you very much and I'll ask the students to stay so that we can have a little chat.
