[Check against delivery]

Excellencies,

We gather again as the escalation in Gaza has entered its second year, with devastating consequences on thousands of civilian lives, the remaining hostages and their families, and the overall uncertainty for the peaceful future of the region.

I visited Gaza a little less than a year ago, where I saw first-hand the desperate situation of families, and the incredible challenges that our colleagues face to deliver life-saving assistance.

Since the start, UNOPS has worked hard to enable the humanitarian response in Gaza and deliver support to the civilians in need. We are committed to continuing to deliver for those most in need.

My UNOPS colleagues on the ground have played a unique role in enabling the delivery and monitoring of fuel, operationalization of the UN 2720 Mechanism and the Access Support Unit. We procure and deliver essential items, including priority non-food items, health and hygiene supplies, and winterization kits. And we provide operational support to the UN Mine Action Service, enhancing the security of high-risk UN missions across Gaza, conducting Explosive Threat Assessments of UN premises and critical facilities (and raising awareness of the risks posed by explosive ordnance to the civilian population and aid workers).

Allow me to focus on two key aspects of our work - access and fuel - which are indispensable to the Gaza operation.

First, fuel remains one of the most critical provisions for humanitarian response in Gaza.

Through UNOPS monitoring and facilitation, and in close cooperation with UNRWA, between December 2023 and today, over 28.4 million litres of fuel were delivered in support of humanitarian operations to hospitals, bakeries, Internally displaced persons (IDP) shelters and for UN operations.

As of last week, when faced with an acute shortage of fuel donated to the humanitarian operation, UNOPS has activated further emergency measures to procure fuel for partners, supported by the humanitarian pooled fund.

I would like to emphasize here our call for urgent funding for the humanitarian fuel supply for Gaza, to ensure that operations can be sustained. But let’s not forget that we must give centrality to solar energy on the early recovery and reconstruction phases.

Second, access is another key enabler of the Gaza operation, which UNOPS supports through the Access Support Unit, and through the 2720 Mechanism.

The 2720 Mechanism aims to increase and speed up the delivery of life-saving humanitarian assistance to Gaza. It includes a database for centralised requests for aid deliveries, along with monitors on the ground to support the verification of goods entering the Gaza Strip. Through the online database, the Mechanism provides full transparency showing rejections, approvals, and pending requests, while ensuring follow up on all requests where approvals take more than seven days. Together, these steps serve to reduce multiple controls, inspections and transloading of cargo.

Through this mechanism, with its database for centralised requests of aid deliveries along with monitors on the ground, as of 28 November, nearly 26,000 metric tonnes of aid have been delivered to Gaza. The vast majority of this is food, 87 per cent, followed by shelter, six per cent, and water, sanitation and hygiene supplies, four per cent.

However, access to people in need in Gaza remains severely restricted, and the amount of aid entering is simply not enough. The effective delivery of aid at the scale required will not be possible without political will, necessary security and safety guarantees, and an enabling environment.

I call on all of you to increase joint efforts to open more crossings, permit entry of more items, remove access restrictions and re-establish the rule of law mechanisms in Gaza to enable humanitarian delivery.

Excellencies, the people of Gaza are in the midst of an epic humanitarian catastrophe. The response is simply not possible without UNRWA’s irreplaceable role.

In the face of the human tragedy in Gaza, we have a collective and urgent responsibility to act - not only to meet acute humanitarian needs but to prepare now for recovery and reconstruction as soon as conditions allow.

UNOPS is determined to stay and deliver for the people of Gaza. We continue to repeat calls for an immediate ceasefire and the release of hostages, and we will continue to work as part of the UN family to deliver hope, dignity and pathways toward a better future.

ENDS.