Occupied Palestinian Territory, Sudan & other topics - Daily Press Briefing | United Nations

Noon Briefing by Stéphane Dujarric, Spokesperson for the Secretary-General.

Highlights:
- World AIDS Day
- Fifth Committee
- Ottawa Convention
- Occupied Palestinian Territory
- Media Seminar
- Sudan
- Sudan/Humanitarian
- Jean-Pierre Lacroix
- Democratic Republic of the Congo
- Ukraine
- Sri Lanka
- World’s Land Resources for Food and Agriculture
- New Resident Coordinators
- Briefing and Guest

SUDAN

Moving to Sudan. Ramtane Lamamra, the Secretary-General’s Personal Envoy, is currently in Port Sudan.

There, he held meetings with General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, the President of the Transitional Sovereign Council of Sudan, as well as with other senior officials including Kamil Idris, the Transitional Prime Minister, and Mohieldin Salim Ahmed Ibrahim, the Minister of Foreign Affairs.

Mr. Lamamra will travel tomorrow to Addis Ababa for further consultations with key stakeholders, including senior African Union and Ethiopian officials. The urgent need for better protection of civilians is at the forefront of all his discussions during these visits.

OCCUPIED PALESTINIAN TERRITORY

In Gaza, the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs tells us that humanitarian conditions remain extremely dire even as aid operations continue across the Strip.

Yesterday, the Humanitarian Coordinator for the Occupied Palestinian Territory, Dr. Ramiz Alakbarov, concluded a four-day visit to Gaza, where he met with our partners, visited humanitarian project sites, and spoke to people struggling to cope with already appalling conditions as winter fast approaches. He stressed the importance of unfettered humanitarian access and the need for our NGO partners to be able to bring supplies into Gaza.

Meanwhile, our partners leading the health response report that they continue to restore services across the Strip – with 234 health service points now operational, compared to 197 before the ceasefire.

While this is a significant improvement, efforts to expand access to healthcare continue to face challenges due to the lack of critical supplies and the vast destruction of infrastructure during two years of war.

Our partners leading on logistics warn that Salah ad Deen Road remains closed for the movement of humanitarian cargo from Kerem Shalom/Karem Abu Salem crossing, and the Al Rasheed Road and the Philadelphi corridor remain the only available routes. This leads to congestion and exposes any convoy to looting and security risks.

Meanwhile, our partners leading the shelter response warn that needs remain very high – with some 1.5 million people in need of urgent support. We and our partners continue to provide shelter assistance across the Gaza strip.

Between Wednesday and Thursday, our partners distributed tents, tarpaulins, bedding and kitchen sets, as well as winter clothing vouchers, to some 4,300 households. That includes 2,500 families in southern Gaza and nearly 1,800 in the north. Our partners were able to reopen 18 out of 31 temporary learning spaces affected by the rainstorms. This has allowed some 8,000 children to resume some form of learning.

Over the weekend, 160 high-performance tents arrived in Gaza for learning activities. This is the highest number of such tents received by our education partners to date. However, they warn that stationery and other education supplies continue to be rejected, hampering efforts to scale up the response. So far, fewer than 3,200 individual learners’ kits have been able to enter Gaza.

Finally, our partners working on cash assistance say they’ve completed transfers to 123,000 families since the ceasefire – which is already exceeding the target of 120,000 under the 60-day ceasefire plan.

Full Highlights: https://www.un.org/sg/en/content/noon-briefing-highlight?date=2025-12-01