Source: United Nations (Video News)
Noon Briefing by Stéphane Dujarric, Spokesperson for the Secretary-General.
Highlights:
Senior Personnel Appointment
Occupied Palestinian Territory
Sudan
South Sudan
Libya
Bangladesh
Yemen
Human Rights/Climate
International Day
Programming Note
SENIOR PERSONNEL APPOINTMENT
The Secretary-General is appointing Major General Diodato Abagnara of Italy as Head of Mission and Force Commander of the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon, known as UNIFIL. We expect him to take up his position on the 24th of June.
Major General Abagnara succeeds Lieutenant General Aroldo Lázaro Sáenz of Spain. The Secretary-General extends his sincere gratitude to Lieutenant General Aroldo Lázaro Sáenz for his dedication, for his leadership of UNIFIL during one of the mission’s most challenging periods.
Major General Abagnara brings to the position over 36 years of military service, including extensive leadership roles within the Italian Armed Forces.
Most recently, he served as Commander and Chair of the Military Technical Committee for Lebanon, where he oversaw multinational coordination efforts in support of the Lebanese Armed Forces.
OCCUPIED PALESTINIAN TERRITORY
Tom Fletcher, the Emergency Relief Coordinator, today urged Israel to open all of the crossings into Gaza, let in lifesaving aid at scale from all directions, and lift the restrictions on what and how much aid we can bring in.
He noted that dozens of Gazans were declared dead at hospitals yesterday after Israeli forces said they had opened fire. Mr. Fletcher said this is the outcome of a series of deliberate choices that have systematically deprived two million people of the essentials they need to survive.
Meanwhile, the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs tell us the latest figures indicate that in the past three weeks, more than 100,000 people were forced to flee in the governorates of North Gaza and Gaza.
UN partners working in health say that more medical facilities are suspending their operations.
On Monday, the remaining staff and patients at the Indonesian Hospital, in North Gaza, were evacuated.
As a result, not a single hospital remains functional in North Gaza.
Today in Gaza City, Deputy Humanitarian Coordinator Suzanna Tkalec visited Al Ahli hospital, which has sustained multiple attacks since the beginning of the war. Ms. Tkalec heard from staff about the challenges they are facing every day. They stressed that preventable deaths are occurring due to shortages of critical supplies, including antibiotics. The Deputy Humanitarian Coordinator called for the protection of health facilities, the unrestricted flow of assistance into Gaza, and support for our work and our partners’ work to deliver at scale to alleviate the suffering of people.
Meanwhile, we and our partners continue to send supplies to Kerem Shalom crossing, where the Israeli authorities scan them before they can enter Gaza.
For today, we submitted over 130 pre-cleared truckloads for a second and final Israeli clearance, but only 50 of them – which were carrying flour – were approved to enter the Israeli side of the Kerem Shalom crossing.
UN teams on the ground are also working hard to collect supplies from Kerem Shalom and bring them closer to the people who need them inside Gaza. But these attempts are facing major hurdles. Just yesterday, one attempt was denied access altogether and another one did manage to retrieve just over a dozen truckloads carrying flour. Overall, since the crossing reopened, we’ve been able to collect fewer than 400 truckloads, even though every day we have tried to coordinate access and secure safe routes through the Israeli-militarized zone in the south.
And that denied attempt to access Kerem Shalom was one of the six access denials our teams faced just yesterday across the Gaza Strip, out of a total of 13 attempts. These denials prevented our teams from carrying out interventions as critical as trucking water to those who need it.
Another of yesterday’s six denied access attempts was to retrieve fuel, which is so urgently needed. OCHA warns that without immediate access to fuel that is already inside Gaza but located in hard-to-reach areas that are either militarized or subject to displacement orders, more critical services will have to suspend operations soon.
And as you know, this afternoon at 4 p.m., the members of the Security Council of the United Nations will meet not far from here to discuss the situation in Gaza.
Full highlights: https://www.un.org/sg/en/content/noon-briefing-highlight?date%5Bvalue%5D%5Bdate%5D=04%20June%202025