{"id":202144,"date":"2002-12-04T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2019-03-12T18:18:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/?p=202144"},"modified":"2019-03-12T18:18:41","modified_gmt":"2019-03-12T18:18:41","slug":"auto-insert-202144","status":"publish","type":"document","link":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/document\/auto-insert-202144\/","title":{"rendered":"Middle East situation &#8211; Spokesman&#8217;s Office (excerpts)"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<div style=\"text-align:center;\">\n<p style=\"margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;\"><span style=\"color:#000000;font-size:17pt;font-family:Times New Roman, serif;\"><strong>HIGHLIGHTS OF THE NOON BRIEFING<br \/>\n<\/strong><\/span><span style=\"color:#000000;font-size:11pt;font-family:Times New Roman, serif;\"><strong><br \/>\nBY FRED ECKHARD<br \/>\nSPOKESMAN FOR THE SECRETARY-GENERAL OF THE UNITED NATIONS<br \/>\nUN HEADQUARTERS, NEW YORK<\/p>\n<p>Wednesday, December 4, 2002<\/strong><\/span><\/p><\/div>\n<p><\/p>\n<div style=\"color:#000000;text-align:left;padding-top:11px;font-size:11pt;font-family:Times New Roman, serif;\">\n<p style=\"margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;\">\/&#8230;<\/p><\/div>\n<div style=\"color:#000000;text-align:center;padding-top:11px;font-size:11pt;font-family:Times New Roman, serif;\">\n<p style=\"margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;\">&#160;<strong>UN AGENCY PROTESTS TRAVEL RESTRICTIONS IN GAZA IMPOSED BY ISRAEL<\/strong><\/p><\/div>\n<p><\/p>\n<ul type=\"disc\" style=\"margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;\">\n<li style=\"color:#000000;text-align:left;font-size:11pt;font-family:Times New Roman, serif;\">The UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) today lodged a formal protest with the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs at a new travel restriction imposed on international staff in the Gaza Strip. \n<\/li>\n<li style=\"color:#000000;text-align:left;font-size:11pt;font-family:Times New Roman, serif;\">The Agency has been informed that, as of December 4, vehicles entering Israel from Gaza must carry two or more staff members travelling together. Single occupancy vehicles, with the exception of a small number of high-ranking diplomats, are banned from crossing into Israel until further notice. \n<\/li>\n<li style=\"color:#000000;text-align:left;font-size:11pt;font-family:Times New Roman, serif;\">UNRWA, which has a team of only three international staff drivers for the whole of the West Bank and Gaza, will find its operations severely curtailed by this order. \n<\/li>\n<li style=\"color:#000000;text-align:left;font-size:11pt;font-family:Times New Roman, serif;\">Even its diplomatic pouch will be prevented from leaving Gaza without two drivers, while simple staff meetings and other basic communications between its operations in the West Bank and Gaza will be greatly impeded. \n<\/li>\n<li style=\"color:#000000;text-align:left;font-size:11pt;font-family:Times New Roman, serif;\">Asked about the Israeli decision, the Spokesman said these measures taken apparently for security reasons conflict directly with the humanitarian work that UNRWA is trying to do and that is why the protest had been filed. The Spokesman added that these measures apply not only to UNRWA but to all UN staff operating in the area. <\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<div style=\"color:#000000;text-align:left;padding-top:11px;font-size:11pt;font-family:Times New Roman, serif;\">\n<p style=\"margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;\">\/&#8230;<\/p><\/div>\n<div style=\"color:#000000;text-align:center;padding-top:11px;font-size:11pt;font-family:Times New Roman, serif;\">\n<p style=\"margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;\"><strong>REPORT CITES CHALLENGES FOR PROTECTING CIVILIANS IN ARMED CONFLICT<\/strong><\/p><\/div>\n<p><\/p>\n<ul type=\"disc\" style=\"margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;\">\n<li style=\"text-align:left;\"><span style=\"color:#000000;font-size:11pt;font-family:Times New Roman, serif;\">The Secretary-General&#8217;s third <\/span><a href=\"http:\/\/ods-dds-ny.un.org\/doc\/UNDOC\/GEN\/N02\/712\/97\/PDF\/N0271297.pdf?OpenElement\" style=\"color:#0000ff;text-align:left;font-size:11pt;font-family:Times New Roman, serif;\"><u>report<\/u><\/a><span style=\"color:#000000;font-size:11pt;font-family:Times New Roman, serif;\">&nbsp;to the Security Council on the protection of civilians in armed conflict, which was issued today, focuses on challenges that occur during the transitional phase from conflict to peace, and stresses the importance of protecting civilians throughout that process. <br \/>\n<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"color:#000000;text-align:left;font-size:11pt;font-family:Times New Roman, serif;\">The report examines three emerging challenges for the protection of civilians: the sexual exploitation of civilians in conflict, including by UN and other humanitarian personnel; the commercial exploitation of conflicts; and terrorism. \n<\/li>\n<li style=\"color:#000000;text-align:left;font-size:11pt;font-family:Times New Roman, serif;\">The report notes that the United Nations is working to ensure that the design of peacekeeping and relief operations incorporates protection measures for groups vulnerable to abuse and exploitation. \n<\/li>\n<li style=\"color:#000000;text-align:left;font-size:11pt;font-family:Times New Roman, serif;\">On terrorism, it says that terrorism must be condemned without reservation, but warns that the targeting of civilians and the disproportionate use of force beyond legitimate military objectives are violations of international humanitarian law and must be strongly condemned. The United Nations will need to formulate clear guidelines for its future work on protecting civilians in armed conflict where terrorist organizations are active. <\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<div style=\"color:#000000;text-align:left;padding-top:11px;font-size:11pt;font-family:Times New Roman, serif;\">\n<p style=\"margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;\">\/&#8230;<\/p><\/div>\n<div style=\"color:#000000;text-align:center;padding-top:11px;font-size:11pt;font-family:Times New Roman, serif;\">\n<p style=\"margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;\">Office of the Spokesman for the Secretary-General<br \/>\nUnited Nations, S-378<br \/>\nNew York, NY 10017<br \/>\nTel. 212-963-7162 &#8211;<strong>&nbsp;press\/media only<\/strong><br \/>\nFax. 212-963-7055<\/p><\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align:center;padding-top:11px;\">\n<p style=\"margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;\"><span style=\"color:#000000;font-size:11pt;font-family:Times New Roman, serif;\"><strong>All other inquiries to be addressed to (212) 963-4475 or by e-mail to: inquiries@un.org<\/strong><\/span><a href=\"http:\/\/www.un.org\/News\/ossg\" style=\"color:#0000ff;text-align:center;padding-top:11px;font-size:11pt;font-family:Times New Roman, serif;\"><\/a><\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>HIGHLIGHTS OF THE NOON BRIEFING BY FRED ECKHARD SPOKESMAN FOR THE SECRETARY-GENERAL OF THE UNITED NATIONS UN HEADQUARTERS, NEW YORK Wednesday, December 4, 2002 \/&#8230; &#160;UN AGENCY PROTESTS TRAVEL RESTRICTIONS IN GAZA IMPOSED BY ISRAEL The UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) today lodged a formal protest with <a href=\"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/document\/auto-insert-202144\/\"> [&#8230;]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"country":[],"document-category":[1587],"document-source":[2985,5352],"committee-meeting":[],"document-subject":[1857,1813,1749],"entity":[1729],"document-language":[6542],"class_list":["post-202144","document","type-document","status-publish","hentry","document-category-note","document-source-secretariat","document-source-secretary-general","document-subject-incidents","document-subject-middle-east-situation","document-subject-palestine-question","entity-united-nations-system","document-language-english"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/document\/202144","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\/1"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/document\/202144\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=202144"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"country","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/country?post=202144"},{"taxonomy":"document-category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/document-category?post=202144"},{"taxonomy":"document-source","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/document-source?post=202144"},{"taxonomy":"committee-meeting","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/committee-meeting?post=202144"},{"taxonomy":"document-subject","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/document-subject?post=202144"},{"taxonomy":"entity","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/entity?post=202144"},{"taxonomy":"document-language","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/document-language?post=202144"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}