Daily Press Briefing by the Office of the Spokesperson for the Secretary-General
The following is a near-verbatim transcript of today’s noon briefing by Stéphane Dujarric, Spokesman for the Secretary-General.
**Syria
Good afternoon. I think you just heard the Secretary-General on Syria. He said that Syria is a cross-roads of civilization, and it is painful to see its progressive fragmentation. He called on all parties to engage seriously with Geir Pedersen, his Special Envoy for Syria.
Meanwhile, on the ground in Hama, local authorities tell us that tens of thousands of families in the city have been displaced, some of whom have fled to Homs. And just to note that Hama had previously been a destination point for people fleeing hostilities in and around Idleb and Aleppo, so one can only imagine the scale of the crisis in that city.
We and our partners continue to provide support wherever and whenever we can to people displaced by the ongoing hostilities.
Yesterday, the Deputy Regional Humanitarian Coordinator for the Syria Crisis, David Carden, led a cross-border mission to Idleb from Türkiye to assess the situation. He was accompanied by a number of other UN agencies including United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR), the World Health Organization (WHO) and our colleagues from our security department.
The team also visited a reception centre in Dana hosting dozens of households newly displaced by the hostilities and spoke with families who fled their homes in western Aleppo.
During the visit, our refugee agency and local partners provided mattresses, blankets, cooking materials and other items. People at the reception centre urgently need water and sanitation support, as well as heating material.
Mr. Carden and the UN team also visited the Sham Surgical Hospital, which is treating patients wounded by the recent attacks. From 27 November to 2 December, this hospital alone provided life-saving care to more than 200 people, while its ambulance system supported more than 130 people.
WHO is providing medical supplies to the hospital — including trauma kits — but health workers there are working they are not being paid due to underfunding.
Since the start of the escalation of hostilities, more than 30 health facilities in north-west Syria have ceased operations, putting immense strain on the remaining functional hospitals.
Meanwhile, the World Food Programme (WFP) is scaling up to assist people affected by the escalation of fighting in the north-west. The agency is providing ready-to-eat rations and hot meals and has so far served more than 10,000 people.
The provision of hot meals is being ramped up with the help of our partners on the ground. One WFP-supported kitchen began operations in Aleppo on Tuesday, and another is now operating in Homs.
The agency is providing food to displaced people wherever they are, on both sides of the front lines and in all areas of control. WFP is working to negotiate safe supply corridors to allow a rapid and substantial response to all those in need.
And also, just to flag that this morning, Izumi Nakamitsu, the Under-Secretary-General and High Representative for Disarmament Affairs, briefed the Security Council on the elimination of the chemical weapons programme of the Syrian Arab Republic. Those remarks were shared with you.
**Lebanon
On Lebanon, our OCHA colleagues tell us that a humanitarian convoy today reached the city of Nabatieh, in the south of the country, and delivered food for more than 4,000 people in that area.
Since 23 September, more than 9 million packages of food have been distributed by the UN and our partners to people impacted by the crisis.
OCHA also reports that, in addition to the destruction of their homes and essential services in their communities, families in southern Lebanon continue to face insecurity and restricted access. These include the risk posed by unexploded ordnances and the daily warnings from the Israeli army, urging civilians to avoid returning to many villages in the south. This is obviously complicating our humanitarian efforts.
**Occupied Palestinian Territory
Turning to the situation in Gaza, our colleagues with the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs report that hostilities across the Strip continue to kill and injure civilians, including health workers.
In central Gaza yesterday, an Israeli air strike hit an UNRWA school in Deir al Balah, leaving 130 people without shelter.
In the south, another air strike hit a group of tents last night in Khan Younis near Al-Rashid Street — which is the road along the coast — causing nearly 50 casualties, that’s what the head of the community is telling us. OCHA carried out an assessment today and says the air strike burned about 40 tents. We and our partners are mobilizing response efforts to support those who lost their shelters.
In Khan Younis yesterday, a paramedic from the Palestine Red Crescent Society was fatally shot after transporting patients for treatment. Over the past 14 months, hundreds of health and humanitarian workers in Gaza have been killed. Once again, we stress that civilians — including patients and healthcare workers — and hospitals must be protected.
In North Gaza governorate, humanitarian access has been almost non-existent for the past two months, since the start of the siege, and civilians there are coping with catastrophic shortages of the essentials of survival.
Turning to the West Bank, our OCHA colleagues are reporting a sharp increase in attacks by Israeli settlers since the start of the olive harvest season in October, which is threatening the safety and livelihoods of Palestinian farmers. From 27 October to 27 November, settlers vandalized more than 700 Palestinian-owned trees and saplings — mostly olive — in Palestinian villages in Hebron, Ramallah and Salfit.
Between October and November, OCHA also documented about 260 settler-related incidents directly linked to the harvest season across 90 communities in the West Bank.
**Sudan
Turning to Sudan, and in particular the situation in North Darfur, where our humanitarian colleagues are telling us they are alarmed by the impact of violence on civilians in Zamzam camp for internally displaced persons.
Amid reports of ongoing shelling and insecurity, people continue to flee the camp. The International Organization for Migration (IOM) reports that on Wednesday, more than 2,100 people were displaced from Zamzam camp, mostly to other locations within the localities of Al Fasher and the nearby Dar as Salam.
OCHA stresses again that civilians sheltering in Zamzam must be protected, and all parties have obligations in this regard. International humanitarian law requires that constant care be taken to spare civilians throughout military operations.
That includes taking all feasible precautions to avoid civilian harm when planning and carrying out attacks, as well as protecting civilians in areas under their control against the effects of attacks.
WFP warned today that any attacks on Zamzam could delay the arrival of aid convoys on their way to the camp, where famine is confirmed. WFP recently delivered vital food supplies to Zamzam via the Adre border crossing with Chad. The agency says that all of the much-needed food assistance that arrived in that convoy has been distributed to families.
WFP stresses that a regular flow of food and nutrition aid is the only way to stop famine and save lives.
**South Sudan
From South Sudan, our peacekeeping colleagues in the country tell us that the Tumaini Initiative has resumed in Nairobi. Speaking at the opening, the Deputy Special Representative of the UN in South Sudan, Guang Cong, stressed the importance of a successful outcome from these discussions for the country.
Mr. Cong also noted that tangible progress and collective action by all participants is necessary to retain the confidence of the international community and the region.
The UN Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS) notes that the Kenya-hosted talks, which began in May, are a high-level mediation effort to create a more inclusive political environment in South Sudan.
Ahead of the country’s first elections, which are now scheduled for December [2026], the Tumaini Initiative brings together groups that have not signed the Revitalized Peace Agreement of 2018 with the Government.
**Ghana
And I just wanted to flag that the Head of our Office for West Africa and the Sahel (UNOWAS), Leonardo Santos Simão, is in Accra, in Ghana, for a five-day mission. This is part of his office’s continued engagement to support peaceful elections in Ghana, which are scheduled this Saturday. While there, Mr. Simão will be with key stakeholders involved in the political process.
**Global Trade Update
The UN Trade [and Development], UNCTAD, today released its latest Global Trade Update, showing that global trade is set to reach a record $33 trillion in 2024. UNCTAD noted that this $1 trillion increase, reflecting 3.3 per cent annual growth, highlighting resilience in global trade despite persistent challenges.
According to the report, robust growth in services trade, up 7 per cent for the year, and accounted for half of the expansion, while goods trade rose 2 per cent but remained below its 2022 peak.
**UNFPA
The UN Population Fund (UNFPA) today launched a $1.4 billion humanitarian appeal to address the unique needs of women and girls trapped in, or uprooted by, the wave of emergencies occurring around the world.
UNFPA warned that without urgent and global action, the world’s most vulnerable women and girls will be caught in the crossfire of violent conflicts, extreme weather events, and record levels of forced displacement. Despite the challenging funding environment, UNFPA is deploying thousands of midwives and medical teams to humanitarian zones. This year, UNFPA equipped over 3,500 health facilities to deliver care, and established more than 1,600 safe spaces for women and girls to seek refuge and empowerment programmes. And in the year ahead, UNFPA will strengthen local and national responses to improve emergency preparedness.
Please give to this appeal.
**International Days
Today, we mark the day for, if anybody can guess, it’s the International Volunteer Day for Economic and Social Development. In a message, the Secretary-General says that volunteers embody the best of humanity. And just a reminder that our own United Nations Volunteers work to advance peace, justice and equality in 169 countries around our little planet.
Today is also World Soil Day. That will keep you grounded. Did you know that it can take up to 1000 years to produce just 2-3 cm of soil? Our planet’s survival depends on the precious link with soil, and this year’s theme is “Caring for soils: measure, monitor, manage.” Let’s see if I can manage Dezhi’s questions.
**Questions and Answers
Spokesman: Go ahead.
Question: Okay. You surely can handle the questions. Well, today, Secretary-General had a phone call with the Turkish President Erdogan. They talked about the situation, latest development in Syria. Have they talked about the situation also in Gaza?
Spokesman: No. The conversation focused on Syria.
Question: So nothing on Gaza?
Spokesman: No, I mean, again, the conversation focused on Syria.
Question: Okay. Any update on the humanitarian delivery also in Gaza?
Spokesman: No. I mean, no real positive update. We continue to struggle to get aid in, for all the challenges that you know of.
Question: UNRWA’s emergency officer, Ms. Louise Wateridge, said, and I quote, UNRWA is not permitted by Israeli authorities to use multiple crossings in the Gaza Strip. So the community might see that as why is UNRWA not going to the crossing? Why is UNRWA not getting the…
Spokesman: What is the question?
Question: What are denied? We are denied. I mean, yesterday, we obviously talked about the Kerem Shalom and asked you, have you ever used other crossings? Is this the same situation?
Spokesman: Well other UN agencies, I know WFP and others, are using other crossings.
Question: But not UNRWA.
Spokesman: Because, you know, the relationship between UNRWA and the Israeli authorities is a particular one.
Correspondent: Okay.
Spokesman: Benny, then Margaret.
Correspondent: Yeah. I’ve got a follow-up on that. I mean, you said with all the reasons that we know, and we’ve been talking about those reasons for a long time. You’ve been saying, you’ve been enumerating, things like, you know, that add up to logistics, like, there’s bad roads. There’s a war situation and all that. The logistics…
Spokesman: Well with all due respect, the war situation is beyond the logistics category.
Correspondent: Yeah. Okay. But, I mean, you know, there are trucks that are getting to the crossings, but those trucks are not being delivered for what amounts to logistical reasons.
Spokesman: Well…
Question: And yet, yesterday, the Secretary-General said that this nightmare is not a crisis of logistics. It’s a crisis of political will and a respect for fundamental [inaudible]. Political will on whose side?
Spokesman: First of all, these were remarks that were said already in Cairo, on Monday, in a speech that was delivered on his behalf.
Correspondent: Yeah. Sorry for the wrong dating.
Spokesman: No. No. You know, we all correct each other. If there was political will from all the parties involved in this conflict to settle this conflict, right, to at least get to a ceasefire; to at least get to the release, unconditional and immediate release, of all the hostages that have been there for 426 days, right now; to get all of the humanitarian aid that’s needed, to re-open at least a minimum of a political horizon for people in Israel and for people in Palestine to see, to be able to envisage and imagine peace again. That would solve, I think, all of the small logistical problems.
Correspondent: Yeah. But that’s aspirational. I mean, with the situation right now and…
Spokesman: It’s not aspirational. I mean… Benny, it’s not aspirational. It’s a fact.
Correspondent: It’s a fact. The fact is right now aid is getting to the border, but not to the needy.
Spokesman: Fact is not enough aid is getting in. As we’ve talked about a lot here, convoys are being blocked from going from the south to the north. That’s not a logistical problem. So what the Secretary-General is saying is that if we had the political will, the political courage, and we’ve been… I mean, and you know as well as I do, there have been points in the last 426 days where we’ve been very close. And what the Secretary-General is saying is that we need the political will to see an end to this crisis.
Correspondent: And on International Soil Day, since you mentioned it, is there… No. No. It’s a serious question.
Spokesman: No, no, always.
Question: Is there any, does the UN have any thought about the hazards of processing the type of minerals that need to be used in batteries and this phone and so on?
Spokesman: Lithium?
Question: I mean, taking them out of that, processing them, which is mostly done by China. Does the United Nations have any thought about the environmental issues involved?
Spokesman: Well, I mean, I don’t think it’s like the Soil Day. What is… what is clear is that mining in general needs to be done, wherever it’s done, within a framework that makes it sustainable, that is not harmful, even more harmful to the environment, and that is done in respect for full labour and human rights. Margaret?
Question: Thanks, Steph. Since the SG only swung by the stakeout for three minutes today, will he, is he planning to do an end-of-year press conference?
Spokesman: I will do my best to see if he can come to the stakeout before the holidays, but we do have a press conference, a full [press conference] beginning of the year, palabre, scheduled around 15 January [2025]. So…
Correspondent: Oh, long wait. Okay.
Spokesman: But we’ll try to see…
Correspondent: We’ve got questions before that so…
Spokesman: I know you do. That’s why God created me.
Question: And maybe he was in a hurry to leave this morning because he was running upstairs to read the Amnesty International report on Gaza, perhaps? Does he have any comments on their findings that genocide has been committed and is continuing to be committed in Gaza by Israel?
Spokesman: He’s aware of the report. Amnesty, I think, briefed some of our colleagues ahead of time. For us, the position, our position has not changed. It’s that for the Secretary-General, the designation of a genocide can only be made by a competent court. That has not stopped us from condemning the repeated violations of international law, from speaking out against the continued violence against civilians that we have seen, and advocating for an end to this conflict. Oh, sorry. Yes, please go ahead. And then, go ahead.
Question: Thank you, Steph. First a question is about the phone conversation between the Secretary-General and [President of Türkiye, Recep Tayyip] Erdogan today. Why Erdogan in particular, why not one of the 22 Arabic countries? Why he engaging Türkiye instead of engaging the Arab world in the situation of Syria, knowing that a lot of ethnicities, they are completely against the Turkish government because in their parliament, they want to take the north of Syria and Aleppo. That’s what’s announced.
Spokesman: This just happened to be the Secretary-General’s first phone call. There will be others. He regularly engages with a whole host of actors. It’s only normal that he engages with people who have an influence on a situation. And as I said, this was the first of phone calls. As mentioned, Mr. [Geir] Pedersen [UN Special Envoy for Syria], who represents the Secretary-General, has spoken to a number of foreign ministers, including Mr. Sabbagh from the Syrian Arab Republic. He will engage with more ministers from the Arab world and the broader area when he is in Doha later this week.
Correspondent: Yes. I understand. The Turkish and the Doha, the Syrian people, they are very sensitive, you know, against these two, engagement in Syrian issues. Especially now, we see like…
Spokesman: But what is it? I don’t understand. I appreciate your comments, but what is the question? Mr. Pedersen is going to Doha because there’s a Doha forum where a lot of foreign ministers and people will be. So it is about engaging, obviously, with Qatar as the host, but also a host of foreign ministers from the Arab region and beyond.
Question: Right, and my question is, can he engage other than Qatar and Türkiye and we know the list of…
Spokesman: I just want you to listen to what I’m saying. He is in Doha because it’s the Doha forum. There will be a large number of foreign ministers from the Arab world and beyond that he will engage with there. And as I said, he’s already engaged with the Iranians. He engaged with the Syrians. He will, no doubt talk to a whole host of Arab foreign ministers and leaders who are in from the region.
Correspondent: Okay. Thank you.
Spokesman: Yes, ma’am.
Question: So the Office for the Prevention of Genocide, will that be filled?
Spokesman: Yes. It will be filled.
Question: And so the process has begun to…
Spokesman: The process has begun. Currently, Virginia Gamba [Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Children and Armed Conflict] is managing the office in addition to her current responsibility. She’s the officer in charge, but there will be a process for recruitment.
Question: And when is Virginia Gamba’s term up?
Spokesman: I don’t have that on top of my head. Okay. Any questions online? Oh, Mike and then Abdelhamid.
Question: Thanks, Steph. Quick question for you. UNRWA released a statement yesterday, claiming that Israel’s running a disinformation campaign against it. And the UN and its officials have a kind of a history of twisting certain definitions to kind of fit their agenda. I wanted to ask you about something that is in this UNRWA statement. It was written that what Israel is doing right now may constitute or may amount to hate speech using corporations that are supposed to promote commercial products. Hate speech, at least as far as I know, is directed toward a racial, ethnic, national, sexual group. I’ve never heard an accusation of hate speech against an organization that doesn’t fall under one of those categories. Can you explain what’s meant by that?
Spokesman: I mean, I think you could reach out to UNRWA to get a more, word by word explanation of their statement. I think what this was referring to was notably the ads that we’ve been seeing around New York City, close to the UN, showing someone who, by all accounts, seems to be portrayed as a terrorist, gun-wielding terrorist with an UNRWA logo or headband on their heads. I think that’s the general, that was the issue that was raised. As for the exact wording of the statement, I would ask you to reach out to UNRWA.
Correspondent: Thank you.
Spokesman: My pleasure. Abdelhamid.
Question: Thank you, Stéphane. Today, in his remarks to the press about Syria, the Secretary-General mentioned Tahrir al-Sham, and he said that it is under sanctions from the UN, but he didn’t label it as a terrorist organization as normally do. Is there a change of policy on the…?
Spokesman: No, there’s no change of policy. I think we’re just trying to not read out the whole length of the relevant Security Council resolutions. I think all, you as a journalist and all of you here know exactly what the situation is, and that was just to reference that this was part of a broader context. But there’s no change in policy.
Correspondent: My second question.
Spokesman: Yeah.
Question: I want to thank you for mentioning that 50 Palestinians were killed today. So this, and the attack on Mawasi refugee camp, and so many tents were burned. But doesn’t that need to be condemned? Right? I mean, straightforward.
Spokesman: I mean, I think we’ve been very…
Question: Why your condemnation was…
Spokesman: We’ve been very straightforward in condemning the killings of civilians, the violations of international law that we see, frankly, let’s be honest, that we see on a daily basis in Gaza. Whether it’s the bombings, whether it’s the hostages that we see in Sudan, where people who are suffering from famine in a camp are being bombed. I mean, I think you should all know that we condemn all of these acts. We could go sit here for 27 hours in the day and individually condemn each act, but I think you all know very well where we stand on these things. Enjoy the day. Thank you.