{"id":238383,"date":"2020-08-21T15:06:38","date_gmt":"2020-08-21T19:06:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/?post_type=document&p=238383"},"modified":"2020-08-24T15:08:37","modified_gmt":"2020-08-24T19:08:37","slug":"rising-tension-in-gaza-21-aug-2020-daily-press-briefing-excerpts","status":"publish","type":"document","link":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/document\/rising-tension-in-gaza-21-aug-2020-daily-press-briefing-excerpts\/","title":{"rendered":"Rising Tension in Gaza \u2013 21 Aug. 2020 Daily Press Briefing \u2013 (Excerpts)"},"content":{"rendered":"
21 AUGUST 2020<\/strong><\/h6>\n

The following is a near-verbatim transcript of today\u2019s noon briefing by St\u00e9phane Dujarric, Spokesman for the Secretary-General.<\/p>\n

\/…<\/p>\n

Questions and Answers<\/u><\/p>\n

\/…<\/p>\n

Question<\/u>:\u00a0 Thank you, St\u00e9phane.\u00a0 In fact, Edith read my mind and then asked the same question I was preparing to ask you, but since I have the floor now, I will ask you about the rising tension in Gaza.\u00a0 For the last couple of days, there have been bombing by Israel the\u2026 of Gaza Strip.\u00a0 The Palestinian resistance will respond with fire kites.\u00a0 Is Mr.\u00a0Mladenov involved in trying to calm things down and talk to the parties? \u00a0Thank you.<\/p>\n

Spokesman<\/u>:\u00a0 Yes.\u00a0 I mean, we’re very much, not only aware, but I think we’re concerned by the increased violence that we’re seeing in Gaza and in southern Israel.\u00a0 The launching of indiscriminate rockets, mortars, incendiary devices by Palestinian militants into Israel must immediately cease.\u00a0 We also urge Israel to exercise restraint in responding to these incidents.\u00a0 Israel’s ban on fuel entering Gaza via Kerem Shalom, including donor\u2011funded fuel for humanitarian purposes, needs to be immediately reversed.\u00a0 As you know, there’s only one power plant in Gaza, and it’s shutting down its turbines.\u00a0 So, we’ve seen reports of less than four hours of electricity available to many parts of Gaza, and that is of particular concern to us about the impact that this reduced electricity supply will have on health facilities, on schools, and also on conditions at some of the quarantine centres at the Rafah crossings.\u00a0 These UN\u2011supported centres are a critical element to the efforts to prevent an outbreak of COVID\u201119 in the strip.\u00a0 The Special Coordinator, Mr.\u00a0Mladenov, is working with all sides right now to try to ease tensions and, more, most importantly, to prevent further escalation that may endanger the lives of Palestinians and Israelis alike and would only deepen the already critical humanitarian situation in Gaza.\u00a0 I skipped a couple of people on my list.\u00a0 Margaret and then Evelyn.<\/p>\n

\/…<\/p>\n

Correspondent<\/u>:\u00a0 Thanks, St\u00e9phane.\u00a0 So, I had a question on Iran, but, a technical one, but before that, something struck me in your statement regarding Gaza, Palestine and Israel.\u00a0 So, you said you, you said that Palestinians should practise\u2026 the actions from Gaza should immediately cease.\u00a0 And then, in the same sentence almost, you said that Israelis should practise maximum pressure regarding their attacks in Gaza.\u00a0 So\u2026<\/p>\n

Spokesman<\/u>:\u00a0 Maximum restraint.<\/p>\n

Question<\/u>:\u00a0 Maximum restraint, sorry.\u00a0 So, don’t you think that their action also should immediately cease?<\/p>\n

Spokesman<\/u>:\u00a0 We would like to see the cycle of violence, this current cycle of violence, end, and we call on the parties to do whatever they can to reach that goal.<\/p>\n

\/…<\/p>\n

For information media. Not an official record.<\/strong><\/p>\n

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

21 AUGUST 2020 The following is a near-verbatim transcript of today\u2019s noon briefing by St\u00e9phane Dujarric, Spokesman for the Secretary-General. \/… Questions and Answers \/… Question:\u00a0 Thank you, St\u00e9phane.\u00a0 In fact, Edith read my mind and then asked the same question I was preparing to ask you, but since I have the floor now, I […]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":172,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"template":"template-page.php","meta":{"footnotes":""},"country":[],"document-category":[2573],"document-source":[5352,6169],"committee-meeting":[],"document-subject":[2517,1769,2005,2533,1857,2349,2385],"entity":[1729],"document-language":[],"class_list":["post-238383","document","type-document","status-publish","hentry","document-category-highlights-of-the-noon-briefing","document-source-secretary-general","document-source-united-nations-department-of-global-communications","document-subject-access-and-movement","document-subject-armed-conflict","document-subject-gaza-strip","document-subject-health","document-subject-incidents","document-subject-living-conditions","document-subject-security-issues","entity-united-nations-system"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/document\/238383","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\/238383\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=238383"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"country","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/country?post=238383"},{"taxonomy":"document-category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/document-category?post=238383"},{"taxonomy":"document-source","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/document-source?post=238383"},{"taxonomy":"committee-meeting","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/committee-meeting?post=238383"},{"taxonomy":"document-subject","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/document-subject?post=238383"},{"taxonomy":"entity","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/entity?post=238383"},{"taxonomy":"document-language","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/document-language?post=238383"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}