Andrew Saberton (@UNFPA) after his visit to #Gaza/#WestBank: "I was not fully prepared for what I saw. One can't be. The sheer extent of the devastation looked like the set of a dystopian film. Unfortunately, it is not fiction. There is no other way to put it: Gaza has been flattened. Mile upon mile of rubble and dust with few buildings left intact. This is not collateral damage, and I cannot unsee what I have seen." Later adds: "There is no normal birth in Gaza now. Women cannot get access to a hospital. They often don't even have access to a private space in a tent. We have stories of women giving birth actually in the rubble, beside the road." Andrew Saberton (@UNFPA) on #Gaza: "One in four people is starving. That includes 11.5 thousand pregnant women for whom starvation is particularly catastrophic for both mother and the newborn. Premature and low birth low birth weight babies now make up around 70% of newborns, and one in three pregnancies is regarded as high risk."

.@UNReliefChief delivering an all timer speech in the #UNSC: "It is bad enough that the blockade continues. How do you react when Israeli ministers boast of it?" Then adds: "The ICJ is considering whether a genocide is taking place in Gaza. It will weigh the testimony we have shared. But it will be too late. Recognizing the urgency, the #ICJ has indicated clear provisional measures that must be implemented, yet they have not. Previous reviews of the UN’s conduct in cases of large-scale violations of international human rights and humanitarian law – reports on Myanmar in 2019, Sri Lanka in 2012, and Srebrenica and Rwanda, both in 1999 – pointed to our collective failure to speak to the scale of violations whilst they were committed. So, for those killed and those whose voices are silenced: What more evidence do you need? Will you act now – decisively – to prevent genocide and to ensure respect for international humanitarian law? Or will say instead, 'we did all we could?'" .@UNReliefChief: "This Council must prevail. Demand this ends. Stop arming it. Insist on accountability.
To the Israeli authorities: stop killing and injuring civilians. Lift this brutal blockade. Let humanitarians save lives. To Hamas and other Palestinian armed groups: release all hostages immediately and unconditionally. Stop putting civilians at risk during military operations. And for those who will not survive what we fear is coming – in plain sight – it will be no consolation to know that future generations will hold us in this chamber to account. But they will. And, if we have not seriously done 'all we could,' we should fear that judgement."

Daniel Levy: "A minute of silence for each of the Bibas children would be appropriate, as would a minute of silence for each of the more than 18,000 Palestinian children murdered in #Israel's devastation of #Gaza. That silence would extend to over 300 hours." Levy: "When an ambassador of a state stands at a UN podium with a little shredding machine and shreds the UN Charter, that's a gimmick. But when a state like #Israel conducts itself in ways that render the Charter meaningless and which assault those conventions - including on genocide - rights norms and laws that this body holds dear, then that is a challenge that cannot be allowed to pass. It is the kind of affront which, decades ago, led to apartheid South Africa being suspended from active participation at the UN."

NOW: #US vetoes yet another #UNSC draft resolution that would have demanded an immediate, unconditional and permanent ceasefire in #Gaza and would have reiterated demand for the immediate and unconditional release of all hostages. This despite the E10 removing Chapter 7 language from text which would have seen the council determine that the situation in the Gaza Strip and the regional escalation constitute a threat to international peace and security (which they clearly do). All other SC members voted in favor of the draft resolution.
This is the Biden Administration’s fourth veto of a #UNSC draft resolution pertaining to #Gaza and the fifth overall if you count a veto of a ceasefire amendment proposed by #Russia last December. Washington vetoed again in the face of a global community that overwhelmingly supports an immediate and unconditional ceasefire and despite well documented (and in many cases livestreamed) violations of US and international law by its ally, #Israel, as well as an enormous civilian death toll in #Palestine that has seen the International Court of Justice rule there is a plausible case that Israel is committing genocide and the Interntional Criminal Court's Chief Prosecutor seeking arrest warrants for PM Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant.

.@UN_Spokesperson @StephDujarric says a humanitarian vehicle in #Gaza which was part of a convoy that was fully coordinated with the #IDF was struck by IDF gunfire 10 times yesterday evening and the two #UN staff members onboard were only saved by the bulletproof glass: "Yesterday evening, a clearly marked @UN humanitarian vehicle, part of a convoy that had been fully coordinated with the IDF, was struck 10 times by IDF gunfire, including with bullets targeting front windows. The two staff members in the vehicle were thankfully unharmed, but this shows you - I think we had a senior colleague talk to you about the need for armored cars, and this is clearly one where it saved the lives of our two colleagues. This is the latest incident to underscore that systems in place for coordination are not working and we continue to work with the IDF to ensure that incidents like that do not happen again." Responding to @elizondogabriel, @StephDujarric says this happened near Wadi Gaza and the UN is "not really getting any answers" from #Israel regarding how/why the UN vehicle was shot at repeatedly despite supposedly being deconflicted. "We're in contact with them all the time. That's what coordination means. And clearly the coordination is not working as it should be."

The #UN's Office of Internal Oversight Services (OIOS) has completed its investigation into 19 @UNRWA staff regarding allegations of their involvement in Oct. 7 attack. Result: In one case there was no evidence obtained, in 9 other cases there was insufficient evidence, and in remaining 9 cases the evidence indicated that the staff members may have been involved in Oct. 7.
.@elizondogabriel followed up on that that "may have been involved" line and @UN_Spokesperson's response was: "Regarding those nine cases, the evidence provided in support of allegations that the @UNRWA staff member was involved in the armed attacks of the seventh of October 2023 could, if authenticated and corroborated, provide a factual basis to conclude that the #UNRWA staff member may have engaged in conduct sanctionable under the applicable UNRWA regulations and rules."

Haq: "Since information used by Israeli officials to support the allegations have remained in Israeli custody, OIOS was not able to independently authenticate most of the information provided to it." (⁉️)

In #UNSC meeting on #Gaza, @UNReliefChief says
"spread of hostilities further southwards would significantly increase pressure for the mass displacement of people into neighbouring countries" and emphasizes that "any persons displaced from Gaza must be allowed to return, as international law demands." He expresses deep alarm at statements by #Israel's ministers regarding so-called voluntary relocation of Gazans outside the Strip. "Any attempt to change the demographic composition of Gaza must be firmly rejected," he insists. In #UNSC meeting on #Gaza, @UNHumanRights ASG Ilze Brands Kehris says: "While #Israel stated that its evacuation orders have been for the safety of Palestinian civilians, it appears that Israel has made scant provision to ensure such relocations comply with international law - in particular, ensuring access to appropriate hygiene, health, safety, nutrition and shelter and taking steps to minimize the risk of separation of family members. Such compelled evacuations, failing to meet the necessary conditions for lawfulness, therefore potentially amounts to forcible transfer - a war crime."

In historic speech following his invoking of article 99 for the first time in his tenure, #UNSG @antonioguterres urges #UNSC to push for an immediate humanitarian ceasefire and says: "The eyes of the world - and the eyes of history - are watching. It is time to act."

Says he resorted to art. 99 because "we are at a breaking point" and he anticipates that the total collapse of humanitarian support system in #Gaza would result in a complete breakdown of public order and increased pressure for mass displacement into #Egypt."
In #UNSC, @Palestine_UN Amb Mansour says "I keep reading in the media #Israel has no clear war objectives. Are we supposed to pretend we don’t know the objective is the ethnic cleansing of the #Gaza Strip, the dispossession and forcible displacement of the Palestinian people when so many Israeli representatives could not refrain from admitting it?"

"The shame is not on those calling for a ceasefire in the face of such atrocities, It haunts those refusing to do so," he says and adds that "this war is part of the assault to end the Palestinian people as a nation and to destroy the question of #Palestine. If you do not share this objective you must stand against the war."