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Source: United Nations (video statements)

OCHA Spokesperson in Gaza Olga Cherevko said that since the ceasefire took effect, the United Nations and partners have moved swiftly to scale up the delivery of humanitarian assistance across Gaza. “It’s all hands on deck,” she said.

Olga Cherevko, OCHA Spokesperson in Gaza spoke to reporters via video link.

She said, “after months of devastation and suffering, the bombs have stopped falling. And with that silence came an opportunity and a responsibility to act.”

“We have wasted no time,” the OCHA Spokesperson said, highlighting that the UN’s scale up plan for the first 60 days tested and proven to work, “is in full motion.”

Cherevko said, “In the past three days, thousands of tons of humanitarian aid and other supplies have entered Gaza, including cooking gas, which entered on Sunday for the first time in over seven months.”

“We’re offloading and collecting critical supplies and accessing areas which we weren’t able to reach for months. With 190,000 metric tons of assistance in our cleared pipeline,” she added.

The OCHA Spokesperson also said, “Our medical teams are resupplying hospitals and field clinics that have been running on empty. We’re delivering fuel to power by bakeries, desalination plants and hospitals again. We’re repairing roads and checking them for explosive risks and helping displaced families prepare for the winter months.”

“Every truck, every piece of bread, every box of medicine that crosses into Gaza carries with it a message of hope for a better tomorrow,” Olga stressed.

She reiterated that the humanitarian needs “remain immense.”

“The ceasefire has ended the fighting, but it hasn’t ended the crisis,” the OCHA Spokesperson said, explaining, “displacement, destroyed infrastructure, lawlessness, damaged roads, unexploded ordnance and the collapse of basic services are just some of the challenges.”

She said, “Scaling up response is not just about logistics and more trucks. It’s about restoring humanity and dignity to a shattered population.”

Olga also said that the UN is working around the clock with all parties to ensure predictable, safe and sustained access.

“But let me be clear,” she said, “Humanitarian aid alone will not be a substitute for peace. The ceasefire must hold. It must become the basis for a broader political effort that brings the end of cycles of violence and despair.”

Asked about the danger of unexploded ordnance, the OCHA Spokesperson said, “We have, of course, our teams on the ground who do assessments, and they assess the various roads, the locations, and they go to make sure that the ordnance is clearly marked and that they’re also awareness for the communities to make sure that they know not to touch them and not to be around them and so forth.”

Asked reports of delaying the scaling up of humanitarian aid coming into Gaza, Olga said, “We have received this is communication from the Israeli authorities. And of course, we continue to encourage the parties to adhere to the agreements that have been set out in the ceasefire parameters. And we certainly very much hope that, the bodies of the hostages are handed over and that the ceasefire continues to, to be implemented.”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vu8n8m0gs8U

Source: United Nations (video statements)

Reem Alsalem, Special Rapporteur on violence against women and girls Reem Alsalem said, “Surrogacy as a practice, as an industry must be abolished.”

Reem Alsalem briefed journalists on her report about the ‘different manifestations of violence against women and girls in the context of surrogacy, focusing on the drivers of the practice and on the human rights implications for the females involved.’

She said, “The consequences of surrogacy are so grave and harmful and result in large scale violations of the human rights of surrogate mothers and their children that surrogacy as a practice as an industry must be abolished.”

She continued, “The violence that surrogate mothers and girls are experiencing in surrogate arrangements takes many forms. I speak about economic violence, psychological violence, physical and reproductive and in fact, in many situations, surrogate mothers experience life threatening situations, they are trapped in situations of slavery and are also subjected to practices that can amount to torture and inhuman and degrading treatment.”

She noted, “Often the concept of consent is weaponized in order to justify the surrogacy industry saying that it is these women and girls that consent fully and voluntarily to engage in surrogacy, and that we have to also respect the bodily autonomy and the decisions of these women and girls. However, as I also say in the report, consent is invalid when it is used to justify exploitation, abuse and violence.”

She added, “Not to mention that many of these women are actually not aware of the harm that they’re about to experience before entering into surrogacy arrangements, don’t even necessarily understand the contracts and the details of it, and there is a wide imbalance and asymmetry of power between these women and the surrogacy agencies and the commissioning parents.”

She also said, “The commodification of the reproductive functions of surrogate mothers is also deeply dehumanizing. In fact, even the terminology that we use, describing them as ‘ovens,’ despite describing them as ‘gestators,’ describing them as ‘wombs to rent’, points to this also deep-seated sexism and dehumanization that facilitates the surrogacy industry.”

She stated, “There are hardly any background checks on commissioning parents. These background checks typically are typically nonexistent or minimal, because what matters is the buying powers of the commissioning parents.”

She reported, “Regulation and legalization have not proven to reduce demand. They have not proven to safeguard surrogate mothers and children against abuse and exploitation. On the contrary, from the little evidence we have of countries which regularize some forms of surrogacy, it actually leads to increased demands. It leads to also an increased commodification and harmful stereotypes about women and girls about their reproductive functions, and therefore it also increases the risks of further abuse and exploitations.”

She highlighted, “First of all, we must end the demand for surrogacy. And to end the demand, we must criminalize the purchase of children through surrogacy. So that means commissioning parents. It means also anyone who profits from the surrogacy industry, which is the clinics, which is the intermediaries. And we must also, therefore prohibit advertisements that encourage and groom women and girls to become surrogate mothers or to sell even their eggs.”

She stressed, “These women are victims. They should not be criminalized for engaging in surrogacy, they must be treated as victims.”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lM-sNhXQ7gM

Source: United Nations (video statements)

Noon briefing by Farhan Haq, Deputy Spokesperson for the Secretary-General.

Highlights:
Secretary-General/Travel
Occupied Palestinian Territory
Gaza-Mine Action
Global Humanitarian Funding
Ukraine
UNIFIL
Deputy Secretary-General/Travels
Libya
Democratic Republic of the Congo
Guest Today and Tomorrow

SECRETARY-GENERAL/TRAVEL
The Secretary-General is now on his way back to New York, after he attended the Sharm El Sheikh Summit for Ending the War in Gaza. 
During the conference, the Secretary-General had conversations with a number of key interlocutors regarding the UN increasing its humanitarian efforts in Gaza. 

OCCUPIED PALESTINIAN TERRITORY
Turning to the situation in the Gaza Strip, the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs tells us that since the ceasefire plan came into effect, the UN and our humanitarian partners have been able to move more freely across parts of Gaza from which Israeli forces have withdrawn, without coordination with Israeli authorities. This improved access has allowed partners to scale up the response to the most urgent needs.
Yesterday, the World Health Organization said that within 24 hours of the ceasefire, an emergency medical team was deployed to Al Ahli Hospital in Gaza city, and eight trucks carrying medical supplies entered the Strip, including insulin, lab supplies and essential medicine.
WHO teams also reached the European Gaza Hospital in Khan Younis to retrieve cancer and other life-saving medications, as well as intensive care unit equipment — including incubators, ventilators and patient monitors — and transferred them to Nasser Hospital, also in Khan Younis.
The UN and our humanitarian partners have also installed a solar panel for a desalination unit in Deir al Balah, as well as new telecommunications hardware to improve connectivity for affected people and humanitarian operations. Efforts to clear debris from roads, particularly those leading to crossing points, are also underway.
Since yesterday, the Israeli authorities facilitated four UN-led missions to collect medical, health and shelter supplies from the Kerem Shalom and Kissufim crossings.
The UN and our partners are also assessing people’s needs in areas that had previously been inaccessible so that we can adjust our response efforts.
Today, an OCHA team visited one of these areas, the Al Kateeba neighbourhood in Khan Younis. They reported extensive destruction, with large amounts of rubble visible throughout. Our partners have begun clearing main roads to facilitate movement and humanitarian access within the area.
The UN and our partners will continue scaling up operations under our 60-day response plan to reach as many people as possible with life-saving assistance.
Much more can be done, and for this to happen, as we said, we need more crossings to open, as well as the sustained entry of fuel and cooking gas; security guarantees for convoys; basic infrastructure to be restored; protection of humanitarian workers; the facilitation of NGO access, including through ensuring they are not de-registered; and the rapid injection of funding to support humanitarian operations.

GAZA-MINE ACTION
And we have an update from our colleagues at the United Nations Mine Action Service on the severe threat from unexploded ordinance in Gaza. As hundreds of thousands of displaced people and humanitarian workers move through affected areas following the ceasefire, the risk of encountering these deadly remnants of war is high.
UNMAS and its partners are working tirelessly to protect communities and stand ready to facilitate humanitarian scale-up and mitigate explosive ordnance risks.
Since October 2023, UNMAS has identified more than 550 explosive ordnance items in areas they have been able to access, though the full extent of contamination in Gaza is still unknown.
Partners are also delivering risk education for communities since 2023, especially children, and training humanitarian and construction workers to operate safely. Their work is critical to saving lives and enabling aid to reach those in need.
Additionally, Explosive Ordnance Disposal (EOD) Officers evaluate debris along roads and within damaged buildings to determine whether areas are safe to clear. Their guidance and technical expertise are crucial for mitigating explosive ordnance risks during these high-risk operations.

Full Highlights: https://www.un.org/sg/en/content/noon-briefing-highlight?date%5Bvalue%5D%5Bdate%5D=14%20October%202025

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wxiTlG4Ar98