{"id":307804,"date":"2025-05-23T13:48:54","date_gmt":"2025-05-23T17:48:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/?post_type=document&#038;p=307804"},"modified":"2025-05-27T13:49:14","modified_gmt":"2025-05-27T17:49:14","slug":"sg-press-encounter-23may25","status":"publish","type":"document","link":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/document\/sg-press-encounter-23may25\/","title":{"rendered":"Secretary-General&#8217;s press encounter on the humanitarian situation in Gaza"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>23 May 2025<\/p>\n<p>Palestinians in Gaza are enduring what may be the cruelest phase of this cruel conflict.<\/p>\n<p>For nearly 80 days, Israel blocked the entry of life-saving international aid.<\/p>\n<p>As the world\u2019s leading hunger assessment found, the entire population of Gaza is facing the risk of famine.<\/p>\n<p>Families are being starved and denied the very basics.<\/p>\n<p>All with the world watching in real time.<\/p>\n<p>Israel has clear obligations under international humanitarian law.<\/p>\n<p>It must treat civilians humanely, with respect for their inherent dignity.<\/p>\n<p>It must not forcibly transport, deport or displace the civilian population of an occupied territory.<\/p>\n<p>And as the occupying power, it must agree to allow and facilitate the aid that is needed.<\/p>\n<p>Finally, a trickle of aid has crossed over.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<div class=\"video-shortcode\"><iframe title=\"Gaza&#039;s entire population is at risk of famine | UN Secretary-General Ant\u00f3nio Guterres\" width=\"1320\" height=\"743\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/6OmtssriDsM?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/div>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>In recent days, almost 400 trucks were cleared for entry to Gaza through the Kerem Shalom crossing.<\/p>\n<p>But supplies from only 115 trucks have been able to be collected.<\/p>\n<p>And nothing has reached the besieged north.<\/p>\n<p>We are working around the clock to get whatever aid we can to people in need.<\/p>\n<p>And we managed to distribute some wheat flour, baby food, nutrition supplements and medicines.<\/p>\n<p>At long last, a few bakeries in south and central Gaza are operating.<\/p>\n<p>But let us not forget that we are operating in the middle of a military operation.<\/p>\n<p>In any case, all the aid authorized until now amounts to a teaspoon of aid when a flood of assistance is required.<\/p>\n<p>The needs are massive \u2013and the obstacles are staggering.<\/p>\n<p>Strict quotas are being imposed on the goods we distribute \u2013 along with unnecessary delay procedures.<\/p>\n<p>Other essentials \u2013 including fuel, shelter, cooking gas, and water purification supplies \u2013 are prohibited.<\/p>\n<p>We continue to request for safety and security mitigation measures to be in place for our convoys.<\/p>\n<p>Our staff&#8217;s lives are at risk if we continue to be prevented from distributing food parcels and wheat flour directly to people in desperate need.<\/p>\n<p>Without those, and in the absence of the rule of law and a desperate population after months of blockade, and totally insufficient supply entering, the risk of security incidents and looting remains high.<\/p>\n<p>Meanwhile, the Israeli military offensive is intensifying with atrocious levels of death and destruction.<\/p>\n<p>Today, 80 per cent of Gaza has been either designated an Israeli-militarized zone or an area where people have been ordered to leave.<\/p>\n<p>In other words, four-fifths of the territory of Gaza is a no-go zone for the people of Gaza.<\/p>\n<p>And so, beyond questions about the particular number of trucks at any particular moment, it is important to stay fixed on the big picture.<\/p>\n<p>And the big picture is that without rapid, reliable, safe and sustained aid access, more people will die \u2013 and the long-term consequences on the entire population will be profound.<\/p>\n<p>The United Nations has been clear:<\/p>\n<p>We will not take part in any scheme that fails to respect international law and the humanitarian principles of humanity, impartiality, independence and neutrality.<\/p>\n<p>And we have been equally clear about what is needed.<\/p>\n<p>A permanent ceasefire.\u00a0 The immediate and unconditional release of all hostages.\u00a0 And full humanitarian access.<\/p>\n<p>The United Nations and our partners have a detailed, principled, operationally-sound 5-stage plan \u2013 supported by Member States \u2013 to get aid to a desperate population.<\/p>\n<p>A mechanism to:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Ensure the delivery of aid to Gaza;<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>Inspect and scan aid at crossing points;<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>Transport aid from crossing points to humanitarian facilities;<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>Prepare aid for onward distribution;<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>And transport aid to people in need.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>We have the personnel, the distribution networks, the systems and community relationships in place to act.<\/p>\n<p>The supplies \u2013 160,000 pallets, enough to fill nearly 9,000 trucks \u2013 are waiting.<\/p>\n<p>This is my appeal for life-saving aid for the long-suffering people of Gaza:<\/p>\n<p>Let\u2019s do it right.\u00a0 And let\u2019s do it right away.<\/p>\n<p>Thank you.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&nbsp; 23 May 2025 Palestinians in Gaza are enduring what may be the cruelest phase of this cruel conflict. For nearly 80 days, Israel blocked the entry of life-saving international aid. As the world\u2019s leading hunger assessment found, the entire population of Gaza is facing the risk of famine. Families are being starved and denied <a href=\"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/document\/sg-press-encounter-23may25\/\"> [&#8230;]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":299,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"country":[],"document-category":[2377,2565,1699,6962,1338,2805],"document-source":[5352],"committee-meeting":[],"document-subject":[1769,1945,5358,2005,1741,6870],"entity":[1729],"document-language":[6542],"class_list":["post-307804","document","type-document","status-publish","hentry","document-category-multimedia","document-category-press-briefing","document-category-press-conference","document-category-press-statement","document-category-statement","document-category-video","document-source-secretary-general","document-subject-armed-conflict","document-subject-assistance","document-subject-ClosuresCurfewsBlockades","document-subject-gaza-strip","document-subject-human-rights-and-international-humanitarian-law","document-subject-hunger","entity-united-nations-system","document-language-english"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/document\/307804","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":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/document\/307804\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":307806,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/document\/307804\/revisions\/307806"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=307804"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"country","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/country?post=307804"},{"taxonomy":"document-category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/document-category?post=307804"},{"taxonomy":"document-source","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/document-source?post=307804"},{"taxonomy":"committee-meeting","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/committee-meeting?post=307804"},{"taxonomy":"document-subject","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/document-subject?post=307804"},{"taxonomy":"entity","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/entity?post=307804"},{"taxonomy":"document-language","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/document-language?post=307804"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}