7 February 2024<\/p>\n
Tor Wennesland<\/a>\u00a0is in New York for discussions on how to \u201cchart a way out of this crisis and how we can do it with the parties on the ground\u201d.<\/p>\n He told journalists that \u201cwe know very well\u201d what the impediments are for this to happen politically, which must be overcome.<\/p>\n \u201cI can see that there is a lining up in the region, in Europe and from the international community to see that happening. But, it\u2019s not a quick fix, it\u2019s not an easy one and it will take some very hard diplomatic work,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n As the UN Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process, Mr. Wennesland has \u201cbeen on the road more or less permanently\u201d since the Gaza conflict erupted on 7 October following the deadly Hamas incursion into southern Israel and the seizure of hostages.<\/p>\n While in New York, he will meet with the UN Secretary-General and the five permanent members of the\u00a0Security Council<\/a>\u00a0\u2013 China, France, Russia, the United Kingdom and the United States \u2013 before heading to Washington, D.C.<\/p>\n The aim is \u201cto see how we get from where we are in the midst of a humanitarian nightmare and a total conflicted West Bank into a different course\u201d through a political solution, he said.<\/p>\n Meanwhile, he said the interim UN Humanitarian Coordinator for the Occupied Palestinian Territory,\u00a0Jamie McGoldrick<\/a>, is currently in Gaza in efforts to establish key priorities for aid delivery whenever a humanitarian ceasefire is in place.<\/p>\n Ongoing hostilities make it impossible for the UN to deliver effectively on the ground, \u201cso that conflict needs a pause quickly\u201d, said Mr. Wennesland.<\/p>\n While commending diplomatic efforts by Egypt, Qatar and the US, he acknowledged that an agreement on a lasting ceasefire \u201cwill be incredibly difficult to set up\u201d and \u201cnot a quick fix whatsoever\u201d.<\/p>\n The envoy was speaking just hours after UN chief Ant\u00f3nio Guterres\u00a0warned<\/u><\/a>\u00a0Member States that any Israeli military action in Rafah \u2013 the southern city on the border with Egypt where hundreds of thousands of Palestinians are now sheltered \u2013 would exacerbate the \u201chumanitarian nightmare\u201d in Gaza with \u201cuntold regional consequences\u201d.<\/p>\n Asked about the situation, Mr. Wennesland noted that Rafah is currently the only entry point for aid into Gaza, highlighting this humanitarian \u201cperspective\u201d, while the political \u201caspect\u201d is also being addressed \u201cproactively and intensively\u201d between Israel and Egypt.<\/p>\n Responding to another question, he said \u201cit\u2019s hard to find words to say to the people in Gaza who have lost everything\u201d, adding that \u201cit is very difficult to preach hope when you sit in a safe place to people that are sitting in the middle of what is hellish\u201d.<\/p>\n He stressed the need for the international community to \u201cput the necessary pressure on the points that would trigger change\u201d, reiterating the call for a ceasefire which comes as a result of agreement on an exchange of hostages and prisoners.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" 7 February 2024 Tor Wennesland\u00a0is in New York for discussions on how to \u201cchart a way out of this crisis and how we can do it with the parties on the ground\u201d. He told journalists that \u201cwe know very well\u201d what the impediments are for this to happen politically, which must be overcome. No \u2018quick […]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":299,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"country":[],"document-category":[2545],"document-source":[6852,6169,1877],"committee-meeting":[],"document-subject":[1769,1945,2265,2005,1745,6251],"entity":[1729],"document-language":[6542],"class_list":["post-293118","document","type-document","status-publish","hentry","document-category-un-news-item","document-source-un-news","document-source-united-nations-department-of-global-communications","document-source-united-nations-special-coordinator-for-the-middle-east-peace-process-unsco","document-subject-armed-conflict","document-subject-assistance","document-subject-ceasefire","document-subject-gaza-strip","document-subject-refugees-and-displaced-persons","document-subject-west-bank","entity-united-nations-system","document-language-english"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/document\/293118","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/document"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/document"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/299"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/document\/293118\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":293121,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/document\/293118\/revisions\/293121"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=293118"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"country","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/country?post=293118"},{"taxonomy":"document-category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/document-category?post=293118"},{"taxonomy":"document-source","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/document-source?post=293118"},{"taxonomy":"committee-meeting","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/committee-meeting?post=293118"},{"taxonomy":"document-subject","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/document-subject?post=293118"},{"taxonomy":"entity","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/entity?post=293118"},{"taxonomy":"document-language","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/document-language?post=293118"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}No \u2018quick fix\u2019<\/h2>\n
A \u2018humanitarian nightmare\u2019<\/h2>\n
Crisis in Rafah<\/h2>\n