Daily Press Briefing by the Office of the Spokesperson for the Secretary-General

The following is a near-verbatim transcript of today's briefing by Stéphane Dujarric, Spokesman for the Secretary-General.

**Guest

Good afternoon. My guest will, shortly, be David Nanopoulos of the Office of Legal Affairs (OLA), and he is the head of the Treaty Section, and he will give you the traditional OLA briefing on the annual Treaty Event. This year's theme is Eighty Years of Multilateral Treaty Making at the United Nations. The event will be held during high-level week.

**Syria

This morning, you saw that our Special Envoy for Syria, Geir Pedersen, briefed the Security Council on the latest developments in that country. He said that the Syrian interim authorities and the Syrian people are attempting a transition in the face of numerous challenges.

Mr. Pedersen warned that if these challenges are mishandled, the consequences could be dire. He called on the international community to support Syria and to stand against foreign intervention.

For his part, Tom Fletcher, our Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs, said that more than 70 per cent of the population in Syria needs some form of humanitarian assistance, while 7 million people are internally displaced, and more than 4 million are refugees in neighbouring countries.

And he, of course, called on donors to give and to give generously to our various programmes.

The humanitarian appeal for Syria for this year is only 18 per cent funded, which means that we can only reach a fraction of those that we need to reach.

**Occupied Palestinian Territory

Turning to Gaza, the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) warns that the last remaining lifelines for civilians in Gaza City are collapsing amid intensified military operations there.

In just five days, 11 UNRWA (United Nations Relief and Works Agency) premises serving as emergency shelters for about 11,000 people in Gaza city have been damaged after taking direct hits or indirect hits.

Our partners tracking the movement of people in Gaza report that the number of displacements within the Strip is rising fast, now exceeding more than 1 million people since the ceasefire collapsed in mid-March. Some 200,000 displacements have been recorded from northern to southern Gaza over the past month alone, including 56,000 since Sunday, and that was as of yesterday.

OCHA is alarmed by increasing reports of displaced families sleeping on the streets or in makeshift tents and struggling to survive.

Despite heavy restrictions, we and our partners are doing everything possible to reach people across Gaza with life-saving support. OCHA's latest reporting on the response, which was published yesterday, said that in the first half of September, our teams collected over 12,500 metric tons of wheat flour, food parcels and bulk supplies from the Israeli-controlled crossings. Every day, they served nearly 560,000 meals through 116 kitchens and provided 10,000 loaves of bread to those moving to the south.

To address malnutrition, our teams have continued to screen children and enrol them for treatment. UNICEF (United Nations Children's Fund) dispatched over 200,000 packs of nutrient-rich baby food to partners; that's enough to support over 63,000 infants and young children for two weeks. They also dispatched 10,000 boxes of high-energy biscuits, enough to assist more than 10,000 acutely malnourished pregnant and breastfeeding women for one month.

On the health front, our teams collected nearly 900 pallets of essential medical supplies from the crossings and is delivering them to health facilities. They dispatched 120 ICU (intensive care unit) and emergency beds and four anaesthesia machines to Al Aqsa hospital, which is in Deir al Balah.

To mitigate catastrophic water shortages amid ongoing restrictions and hostilities, they supported desalination and trucked water across all parts of Gaza.

They also scaled up solid waste collection and the safe disposal of 1,300 cubic metres of trash daily. And they distributed 1,000 hygiene kits, 1,500 cleaning kits, and another 1,500 water storage kits.

But we need to be clear that the aid that is currently reaching people is still far short of what is actually needed. Opportunities to support starving people are being systematically blocked, according to our humanitarian colleagues. Every week, new restrictions are imposed.

For example, Zikim crossing, which is the only one that goes directly from Israel to the north, where famine, as you know, has been confirmed, has been shut since the weekend. Israeli authorities have also classified some food items, such as peanut butter, as "luxuries" that are not being allowed in, leaving large amounts of already procured aid stuck outside Gaza. On top of this, inspection rules vary by route, creating unpredictability and needless delays.

And inside Gaza, humanitarian movements are also being blocked. Just yesterday, three of 14 coordinated movements were denied - including two intended to bring food to the north.

Once more, I want to emphasize that we need a ceasefire, we need hundreds of trucks every day, safe and open routes, we need an end to bureaucratic delays, we need restoration of power and water and more meaningful commercial imports. We need the release of all the hostages that are still being held in Gaza by Hamas and other groups - immediately and unconditionally - and we need arbitrarily detained Palestinians freed from Israeli detention centres.

**Pakistan

Turning to Pakistan, our colleagues at OCHA [Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs] tell us that humanitarian needs persist following this year's monsoon floods.

Since the end of June, nearly 7 million people have been affected in the country. Nearly 3 million people have been evacuated, with 150,000 people sheltering in 1,580 evacuation centres set up by various authorities.

We and our humanitarian partners continue to support the Government-led response. To date, UNICEF has provided more than two metric tons of essential medicine to the north in the capital of Punjab's province, Lahore, and over two metric tons to the south, in the city of Multan. These medicines are being distributed to local health clinics.

UNICEF has also provided nutrition supplies and safe drinking water, relocated school materials and established temporary learning centres.

WFP [World Food Programme], for its part, is delivering food, nutrition services, cash assistance and logistics support across Punjab and Sindh.

As people begin to return to their homes, additional funding is needed to provide assistance and rehabilitate basic infrastructure.

We have already released $5 million from the Central Emergency Response Fund, with an additional $1.5 million channelled to local NGOs (non-governmental organizations) from the Asia Pacific Humanitarian Fund.

**Haiti

Another humanitarian update on the grim situation in Haiti, our humanitarian colleagues tell us that last week's deadly attack in the commune of Cabaret, in the West [department], forced thousands of people to flee their homes.

You will recall the Secretary-General's statement over the weekend, in which he strongly condemned the reported killing of at least 40 people, including women, children and the elderly in that attack.

According to the IOM [International Organization for Migration], the attacks drove more than 4,700 people from their homes. More than two thirds of them sought refuge in the nearby commune of Arcahaie. While the majority of the displaced are being hosted by families, 23 per cent of them have taken shelter in four schools.

These attacks underscore once again the worsening security and humanitarian situation in Haiti.

These attacks also come less than a month before the start of the new school year, further deepening the education crisis as several schools already under strain are being used as displacement sites, which is of course disrupting the lives of both students and teachers.

Forced displacements, destruction and attacks against people are driving up humanitarian needs, compounding existing crises in health, nutrition and education.

OCHA is coordinating the response to ensure that assistance reaches the most vulnerable, despite extremely challenging conditions.

Just to remind you, the humanitarian response in Haiti remains severely underfunded, with only [13] per cent of the $908 million needed in the bank.

**Water

The World Meteorological Organization (WMO) today released a report showing that the water cycle has become increasingly erratic and extreme, swinging between deluge and drought. The report says that only about one third of the global river basins had "normal" conditions in 2024. The rest were either above or below normal - the sixth consecutive year of clear imbalance.

According to the report, 2024 was the third straight year with widespread glacier loss across all regions. WMO also noted that the Amazon Basin and other parts of South America, as well as Southern Africa were gripped by drought in 2024.

The report is online.

**Equal Pay Day

What day is today? It is International Equal Pay Day. Equal pay for work of equal value for women and men everywhere is not only a fundamental matter of labour and human rights, but also a matter of social justice and economic resilience.

**Questions and Answers

Spokesman: Speaking of resilience, I don't know about economic, but resilience. Mr. Bays?

Question: Yes. There was a protest by UN staff today in Geneva. Almost a thousand of them are part of the UN for Gaza movement. What is the Secretary-General's reaction to that, and why did he not give permission when UN staff in New York asked again to make a protest here? And is it anything to do with the fact that the UN for Gaza tell me that there has been pressure on the UN coming from both Israel and the US? Surely, UN staff, given that many of their colleagues have died in Gaza, should be allowed free expression.

Spokesman: Look. I think it is right for all of us, and I think the Secretary-General has also expressed his outrage and solidarity with our colleagues who have been killed in Gaza, and that's a fact. There are rules and regulations for staff to engage in activities outside of their normal activities, which sometimes need to be applied. I think all of us as international civil servants have obligations to respect the staff rules, respect for impartiality. We work for the people of Gaza, just like we work for the people of Myanmar and the people of Sudan and Haiti through our work that we do every day.

Question: Surely, they were respecting the rules if they were asking for permission. Why was the permission not granted? And is it based on pressure from Israel and the US?

Spokesman: Listen, I don't have the details of this particular incident you're saying, but what I'm saying is that the Secretary-General and the Secretariat will apply staff rules across the board.

Correspondent: I have another question later.

Spokesman: I reserve you the right. Equal questions for you, Linda.

Question: Thank you, Steph. Apropos of Gaza, I was wondering what is the status of UNRWA these days in terms of its funding of how many staff are working, are they receiving salaries?

Spokesman: I mean, the funding continues to be a challenge, and UNRWA continues to operate its mandate, whether it's in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, facing great challenges, as well as Lebanon, Syria and Jordan.

Question: But everyone's working?

Spokesman: People are working. Yes. Yep. Yes, Evelyn?

Question: Could you explain again why peanut butter is banned?

Spokesman: I think that's a question you have to ask the Israelis. I told you the response we were given is that it was considered a "luxury item".

Question: It's considered what?

Spokesman: A luxury item. Yeah. That's what they told us. Okay. Iftikhar, and then Alex.

Question: Thank you, Steph. Regarding the floods in Pakistan, has any estimate been given by our UN teams about the extent of damage caused by the floods? And also has a flash appeal been issued in this connection?

Spokesman: I don't understand the question. I don't have the details of the damage. I didn't understand the question.

Question: No. I said, yeah, is there… has any flash appeal been issued?

Spokesman: Yeah. I don't know if a flash appeal has been issued. I know we've released funds through the Central Emergency [Response] Fund, but I will check the rest for you.

Correspondent: Thank you.

Spokesman: Okay. No further… oh, Alex. Sorry.

Question: All right. Thanks, Steph. It looks like the Security Council will vote on snapback tomorrow. Any expectations? Any comments?

Spokesman: I think you will have to ask the presidency of the Council for any expectations. I've only seen the press reports. Mr. Bays.

Correspondent: I can't actually watch the Security Council while attending your briefing.

Spokesman: I know.

Question: But Mr. Pedersen, the Special Envoy, is speaking to the Council again. There are suggestions he is about to resign. Can you confirm that to us? What would the Secretary General, if that's the case, like to say about Mr. Pedersen's tenure of the job?

Spokesman: I will let Mr. Pedersen speak before we make any comment, but I think you know the high regard in which the Secretary-General holds Mr. Pedersen.

Question: What is the UN planning for its mission in Syria? Should the mission still be based in Geneva, or should the mission now be an integrated mission inside Syria? [cross talk]

Spokesman: I think there are different options being looked at. Obviously, the mission will have to change, given the mission situation on the ground has changed completely. All right. Don't go away. We will leave you with our…

Correspondent: He has apparently announced his resignation.

Spokesman: Just now?

Question: Would you like to now pay tribute to this?

Spokesman: I will have to trust you, James.

Question: No. But would you like to pay, would you like to put in a different tense your answer. Geir Pedersen has resigned. What is the Secretary-General's reaction?

Spokesman: He has indeed informed the Security Council of his decision to step down for personal matters after six and a half years of service. Just as a Special Envoy for Syria, Mr. Pedersen has had a long association with the United Nations, served in different roles. The Secretary-General accepted his request to step down. I think Mr. Pedersen has emphasized that he's deeply indebted to and profoundly grateful to the Syrian people, who demonstrated extraordinary courage and humanity throughout those years. We don't have a final date for him to leave office, but I know he is personally committed to working until the last day. And just on a personal note, he's someone I've worked with for a long, long time, and I've enjoyed all my dealings with him as a great diplomat.

Question: Can I have one last… it's my frivolous question of the day as a visitor here now? And as a visitor, I noticed the Security Council stakeout has a new backdrop. And several people have remarked to me it's not actually the right UN blue.

Spokesman: Welcome back, James. All right. We'll leave you with David Nanopoulos. I can't say we've missed you, but welcome back.