Daily Press Briefing by the Office of the Spokesperson for the Secretary-General
Department of Public Information . News and Media Division . New York
3 December 2025
The following is a near-verbatim transcript of today's briefing by Stéphane Dujarric, Spokesman for the Secretary-General.
All right, good afternoon to all of you.
**Guest Today
Today is the International Day of Persons with Disabilities. In a short while, I will be joined by our guest, Giles Duley, the UN Global Advocate for Persons with Disabilities in Conflict and Peacebuilding Situations. He will speak more about that topic.
**International Day of Persons with Disabilities
And on the message for the Day, the Secretary-General highlights how people with disabilities are shaping our world. Many innovations, from text messaging to voice-activated technology, started as solutions created by and for people with disabilities. Yet, discrimination, poverty and inaccessible services still hold back more than a billion human beings with disabilities worldwide.
On this Day, we reaffirm the importance of working alongside persons with disabilities as true and equal partners.
**Guest Tomorrow
Tomorrow, our guest will be Matthias Schmale, who as you know, is our Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator for Ukraine. He will brief you on the situation in Ukraine.
**Occupied Palestinian Territory
Turning to the situation in Gaza, our colleagues with the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) continue to receive reports that air strikes, shelling, gunfire and other Israeli military operations are causing more civilian casualties, displacement and destruction. In recent days, hundreds of families were reportedly displaced in the At Tufah and Ash Shuja'iyyeh neighbourhoods in eastern Gaza City, following strikes and movement of military machinery.
We and our partners continue to provide assistance to people in need across the Strip wherever we can have access. Our healthcare partners report that six additional healthcare service points have opened since Sunday.
Yesterday in Rafah, a team from the World Health Organization (WHO) also managed to reach the European Hospital, which remains non-operational, to move some vital equipment to functioning healthcare facilities.
However, attempts to gain access to Kamal Adwan Hospital in North Gaza continue to be denied by the Israeli security authorities.
WHO reported that the agency facilitated the referral and transfer of the first patient to the Emirati Field Hospital since before last year's Rafah incursion, which had rendered the facility inaccessible. The hospital is the only functioning medical facility serving the Rafah area.
Preparations for winter are a key priority for the UN and our partners, and we continue to deliver shelter supplies and other critical items to the most vulnerable households. Since Sunday, some 4,400 families received tents, tarpaulins, blankets, winter clothing and kitchen sets across Gaza through UN-coordinated deliveries.
In addition, our partners managing displacement sites report that work is ongoing to help prepare suitable locations for those seeking to leave high-risk areas, including shoreline communities.
In Khan Younis, an estimated 4,000 households live along the coast, with some 1,000 at especially high risk due to their proximity to the water line. Some of these families have reportedly started to relocate to the two sites identified as being safe by the local municipality.
In the ongoing effort to improve access to water and sanitation, our partners report that 42 truckloads of debris have been cleared over the past 48 hours to reach the Al Amal, Tel al Dhahab and Asian wells in Beit Lahiya, in North Gaza. Repairs are expected to begin soon.
In the meantime, our partners working to reduce risks of explosive ordnance warn that unexploded remnants of war continue to pose a threat to civilians. Over the past week, they were able to carry out 50 assessments across Gaza to help lower the risks for aid workers. Just last week, six people were reportedly killed and 10 others injured in two incidents involving explosive ordnance in Gaza City and Deir al Balah.
Our humanitarian colleagues continue to call for unimpeded, safe and sustained access for humanitarian workers and supplies to reach people in need. Impediments must be lifted to allow teams to scale up the delivery of humanitarian assistance faster and more efficiently. Civilians must always be protected, and safe passage must be ensured for those wishing to flee. They must also be allowed to return to areas, should they wish to.
**Lebanon and Israel
Moving north to the situation along the Blue Line: Today, our peacekeeping mission in southern Lebanon (UNIFIL) hosted the fourteenth meeting of the five-party cessation of hostilities mechanism at its headquarters in Naqoura.
Chaired by the United States with the support of France, the meeting saw for the first time the participation of delegations of Israel and Lebanon included civilian representatives, which marks a significant step forward, and we look forward to continued momentum in that front.
The Office of the Special Coordinator for Lebanon was also present in the meetings.
**Sudan
Moving to Sudan, which continues to see a dire humanitarian situation, with civilians in many parts of Sudan facing conditions that are difficult for us to imagine.
Civilians across the Kordofan region are facing extreme hardship as conflict intensifies. UNICEF (United Nations Children's Fund) reports that communities in Dilling and Kadugli in South Kordofan state are trapped in siege-like conditions. And in Babnusa in West Kordofan, we have seen reports of sustained attacks over recent days.
Hospitals are only partially functioning, and families fleeing clashes are stranded with almost no food, water or medical care. Civilians attempting to escape face grave risks along unsafe routes. We cannot stress enough that civilians wishing to flee must be afforded safe passage, and they must be able to access humanitarian assistance.
Hospitals and healthcare facilities are not being spared in this conflict. The World Health Organization (WHO) has verified 198 attacks on healthcare since the conflict started in April 2023, killing more than 1,700 health workers and patients and injuring over 400. These ongoing attacks are clearly a violation of international humanitarian law and, of course, must stop immediately.
Meanwhile, conditions in and around El Fasher remain dire, with severe shortages of food and drinking water, restricted movement and continued looting.
Citing local sources, our humanitarian colleagues tell us that arbitrary arrests and detentions continue to heighten fear among civilians and hamper humanitarian assessments.
In Tawila, the arrival of people who fled El Fasher continues to strain services. Sites are overcrowded, and malnutrition and diseases are on the rise.
UNICEF reports increasing cases of measles, as well as suspected cases of cholera and dengue. To add to these numerous challenges, the agency has registered nearly 950 separated or unaccompanied children in Tawila and other parts of North Darfur.
Despite all this, we continue to do everything we can to deliver assistance. Over the past month, UNICEF and its partners have expanded their support, including by people providing water trucking for tens of thousands of people, delivering 132,000 litres per day. They also treated acute malnutrition and delivered medical assistance through 14 primary healthcare units and 10 mobile teams. Psychosocial support was provided to over 3,000 children, more than 200 separated children were reunited with their families, and 25,000 students received support through more than 30 reopened schools.
Meanwhile, OCHA is concerned about alarming levels of child malnutrition in White Nile State, based on recent assessments carried out by ourselves and our partners. We worked alongside state health authorities. It is urgent that nutrition, health, and water, sanitation and hygiene services can be scaled up.
We once again call for more support for humanitarian operations across Sudan, including for local responders at the forefront of the response, to ensure that life-saving assistance reaches those in most need.
With just a few weeks left in the year, the humanitarian response plan for Sudan is only 35 per cent funded, with about $1.5 billion received out of the $4.2 billion required. We urge donors to step up and remain committed to supporting the millions of people who are in such dire need across Sudan.
**Mozambique
Turning to Mozambique: Our friend Tom Fletcher, the Emergency Relief Coordinator, today has allocated $6 million from the Central Emergency Response Fund (CERF) to help scale up life-saving support for 120,000 people displaced by violence in Nampula province, in the north of the country. As we have been telling you, the situation there has sharply worsened since mid-November as conflict spreads.
Our humanitarian colleagues note that children account for more than two thirds of the 100,000 people that have fled in the last two weeks. They are now sheltering in overcrowded schools, makeshift structures, open spaces or with already vulnerable host families. Besides shelter, they also have limited access to safe water, protection, healthcare and sanitation services. This is at a time when cholera is spreading in the area.
With stocks of critical aid mostly depleted, the funding from CERF will prioritize water, sanitation and hygiene support for people in the Erati and Memba districts. It will prioritize basic household items and shelter, protection and livelihoods support.
A reminder that as we approach the end of the year, the 2025 humanitarian appeal for Mozambique is less than 28 per cent funded, with only $97 million received of the $352 million required.
**Myanmar
I want to flag a report issued today by our friends in Vienna at the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC). They have published their 2025 Myanmar Opium Survey, and that report found that poppy cultivation is at a 10-year high in the country.
The survey analyses data collected in Myanmar during the fourth growing season since the military takeover. It shows a 17 per cent increase in poppy cultivation compared to the previous year.
This also reaffirms Myanmar's role as the world's main known source of illicit opium, following the continued decline of cultivation that we have seen in Afghanistan.
According to our UNODC colleagues, this expansion in cultivation shows the extent to which the opium economy has re-established itself over the past years and points to potential further growth in the future.
**Latin America and the Caribbean
Lastly, the Inter-Agency Coordination Platform for Refugees and Migrants, co-led by the International Organization for Migration (IOM) and the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR), is appealing for $763 million to support 1.2 million refugees and migrants across 17 countries in Latin America and the Caribbean. This is part of the 2026 Refugee and Migrant Response Plan for the region, which aims to boost integration and protection of migrants and refugees.
The plan notes that 4.2 million migrants and refugees of different nationalities require immediate assistance in integration, protection and access to essential services such as housing, food, water and education.
**Questions and Answers
Spokesman: Before we go to our guests, I'm happy to answer a question or two or three, or even one from Dezhi and then Islam.
Question: Couple questions on the situation in Rafah crossing. We know that there are actually contradictory reports, one from Israel saying that they are going to reopen Rafah Crossing in the very short future, but which got denied by the Egyptian side, said they did not coordinate about that. What does the UN know about the latest situation? What's the position?
Spokesman: Listen. I think, like you, we've seen contradicting reports. What we want to see is Rafah reopened fully for the movement of humanitarian cargo, for the movements of people and both for humanitarian workers. If residents of Gaza, Palestinians want to leave, they need to be able to do so voluntarily and freely without any pressure. And for those residents of Gaza who may have left the enclave a while ago, if they wish to return, they should be able to return.
Question: That brings me to my next question. There also are concerns that the Rafah crossing might be just open one side from Gaza to Egypt, not from Egypt to Gaza. Will UN support that kind of reopening?
Spokesman: I think, if you listen carefully to what I just said, that's not in line... Listen. We do not hold the keys to the gates at Gaza, correct? That is an issue for, in reality, de facto, it's an issue that the Israelis and the Egyptians have to coordinate on. What we would like to see, what we think we need to see, is a reopening of Rafah for humanitarian cargo to be able to go in, for humanitarian workers to go in and out, for Palestinians who wish to leave to be able to do so freely, safely, without any pressure to do so. And for those who have left and wish to come back, and if they want to come back, they should be able to come back.
Question: Open, both sides? In both directions?
Spokesman: I can't use any other words, Dezhi, but I think that's the point of what I've said. Islam?
Question: Thank you, Stéphane. I have a question on Gaza, too. Two brothers, age 8 and 10, were killed this weekend, while they were trying to collect firewood. Israel acknowledged this, on IDF (Israel Defense Forces) account, claiming that those were two terrorists and threat to the Israel because they were close to the yellow line. What's your reaction on this?
Spokesman: Horrific, to say the least. It's hard to see how two boys, 8 and 10, can be considered a threat. And there needs to be an investigation and accountability into what happened.
Question: And the yellow line, sort of invisible demarcation line — so, what does United Nations do to educate or inform the Gazans not to approach that line?
Spokesman: Well, I think, you know, we do what we can. Others also need to be clear, our challenge is that we have, as far as I know, limited if no access to those Palestinians who may remain behind that so-called yellow line, meaning between the yellow line and Gaza's eastern border.
Question: And if I may ask one more question, Stéphane, OCHA spokesperson given an interview to Anadolu Agency in Geneva and said that there's no real ceasefire in Gaza. Gaza is still under the condition of war. Do you see that?
Spokesman: Look, I think what we're seeing is a situation of lesser fire. I mean we are in a position, a situation where, as I said, things are better than they were before the announcement of the ceasefire. But you know, we're comparing a horrific situation to an extremely challenging one, to say the least.
Question: Hi, my name is Rei, I'm with [inaudible], China. So, my question is about a report released yesterday. The United Nations Trade and Development (UNCTAD) projects said global growth to slow to 2.6 per cent which is 0.3 per cent slower than last year, amid financial volatility and geopolitical uncertainty. So, what concrete steps can the United Nations take to stabilize global economy?
Spokesman: I think part of that question needs to be asked to our colleagues at UNCTAD who issued the report. But the Secretary-General doesn't have the levers over economic activity. What we are focusing on is greater cooperation, greater use of international trade agreements. But otherwise, I would ask you to ask UNCTAD for follow up. Sorry, your microphone's not on.
Question: Okay, Sorry. So, what roles can major economies such as US and China could play in this process?
Spokesman: Well, they have to take... the major economies have a leadership role to play in ensuring the health of the global economy. Okay, any questions online before we go to our guest? Okay.
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