{"id":214580,"date":"2019-03-29T14:14:44","date_gmt":"2019-03-29T18:14:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/?post_type=document&p=214580"},"modified":"2019-06-06T14:23:21","modified_gmt":"2019-06-06T18:23:21","slug":"great-march-of-return-demonstrations-in-gaza-unog-regular-press-briefing","status":"publish","type":"document","link":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/document\/great-march-of-return-demonstrations-in-gaza-unog-regular-press-briefing\/","title":{"rendered":"\u201cGreat March of Return\u201d Demonstrations in Gaza \u2013 UNOG Regular Press Briefing"},"content":{"rendered":"

29 March 2019<\/strong><\/p>\n

Rh\u00e9al LeBlanc,\u00a0Chief of the Press and External Relations Section,<\/u>\u00a0Â鶹APP Information Service in Geneva<\/u>, chaired the briefing, which was attended by the spokespersons for the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, the World Health Organization, the Â鶹APP Refugee Agency and the Â鶹APP Development Programme.<\/p>\n

Gaza<\/u><\/strong>\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

Jens Laerke, for the\u00a0Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs<\/u>\u00a0(OCHA), gave the following statement:<\/p>\n

\u201cTomorrow marks the one-year anniversary of the start of the \u2018Great March of Return\u2019 demonstrations in the Gaza Strip. In this past year, there has been a staggering loss of life and injury in the Gaza Strip: 195 Palestinians, including some 40 children, have been killed by Israeli security forces mainly during the weekly protests near the perimeter fence. Nearly 29,000 Palestinians have been injured, including over 7,000 people by live ammunition. Three clearly-marked health workers providing care to the wounded during demonstrations have been killed and over 630 others injured. As a result of the demonstrations, one member of the Israeli security forces was killed and six others were injured. The many Palestinian casualties \u2013 including trauma injuries and more than 120 limb amputations \u2013 has overwhelmed the Gaza health system which was already challenged by chronic power outages, shortages of essential medicines and supplies, and gaps in critical services including mental health and psychosocial support. In a statement this morning, on the eve of the one-year anniversary, the Humanitarian Coordinator for the occupied Palestinian territory, Jamie McGoldrick, said that \u2018the priority now is to save lives and everyone needs to take action accordingly. Israeli security forces must ensure that their responses are in line with their international legal obligations, using non-violent means to the greatest extent possible. Hamas authorities must prevent acts of violence that compromise the peaceful nature of the demonstrations and everyone must ensure that children are not put in harm\u2019s way.\u201d<\/p>\n

Replying to a journalist, Mr. Laerke said that the demonstration that had been planned for that day had been cancelled, but a large demonstration was expected for the next day, 30 March, which was the reason for OCHA\u2019s stark reminder to all parties about the need to protect lives, especially those of children.<\/p>\n

In response to the same question, Rh\u00e9al LeBlanc, for the\u00a0Â鶹APP Information Service in Geneva<\/u>(UNIS), drew attention to the briefing of the Security Council of 26 March by the Â鶹APP Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process, available online. Following the situation in Gaza closely, Mr. N. Mladenov had stated that he and his team had been working intensely with Egypt and all concerned parties to ensure that the situation did not spiral out of control. No one had an interest in a full military confrontation in Gaza, he said, as he urged all sides to exercise maximum restraint while the situation remains very tense in the area.<\/p>\n

\/\u2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

29 March 2019 Rh\u00e9al LeBlanc,\u00a0Chief of the Press and External Relations Section,\u00a0Â鶹APP Information Service in Geneva, chaired the briefing, which was attended by the spokespersons for the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, the World Health Organization, the Â鶹APP Refugee Agency and the Â鶹APP Development Programme. Gaza\u00a0 Jens Laerke, for the\u00a0Office […]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":172,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"template":"template-page.php","meta":{"footnotes":""},"country":[],"document-category":[2565,1329],"document-source":[2169,1825,2633,2009],"committee-meeting":[],"document-subject":[1829,2005,1741,5033],"entity":[1729],"document-language":[6542],"class_list":["post-214580","document","type-document","status-publish","hentry","document-category-press-briefing","document-category-press-release","document-source-office-for-the-coordination-of-humanitarian-affairs-ocha","document-source-office-of-the-united-nations-high-commissioner-for-human-rights-ohchr","document-source-united-nations-information-service-at-geneva","document-source-united-nations-office-at-geneva-unog","document-subject-casualties","document-subject-gaza-strip","document-subject-human-rights-and-international-humanitarian-law","document-subject-protests","entity-united-nations-system","document-language-english"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/document\/214580","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\/172"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/document\/214580\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=214580"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"country","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/country?post=214580"},{"taxonomy":"document-category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/document-category?post=214580"},{"taxonomy":"document-source","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/document-source?post=214580"},{"taxonomy":"committee-meeting","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/committee-meeting?post=214580"},{"taxonomy":"document-subject","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/document-subject?post=214580"},{"taxonomy":"entity","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/entity?post=214580"},{"taxonomy":"document-language","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/document-language?post=214580"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}