HIGHLIGHTS OF THE NOON BRIEFING BY STÉPHANE DUJARRIC
SPOKESPERSON FOR SECRETARY-GENERAL ANTÓNIO GUTERRES
THURSDAY, 3 JULY 2025
SECRETARY-GENERAL/TRIP ANNOUNCEMENT
The Secretary-General will be arriving in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, to attend the 17th Summit of the BRICS countries.
The Secretary-General has been invited to speak at an outreach session on “Strengthening multilateralism, economic-financial affairs and artificial intelligence", that will take place on Sunday, 6 July. On Monday, 7 July, he will address a second outreach session, on "Environment, COP30 and global health.”
During his visit, the Secretary-General will also be having meetings with various leaders who are attending the BRICS Summit and we will share those readouts with you.
DEPUTY SECRETARY-GENERAL
Our Deputy Secretary-General, Amina Mohammed, returned to Seville today for the closing of the Fourth International Conference on Financing for Development (FFD4).
At the closing with Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez of Spain, she underscored the consensus around the Seville Agreement as a demonstration of multilateralism in action — with actions to close the SDG financing gap, address the debt crisis, and reform the international financial architecture. She recognized the more than 100 initiatives launched on the Sevilla Platform for Action, including solidarity levies on private jets and first-class travel to generate new resources for sustainable development.
She said that the UN will be operationalizing a Seville Forum on Debt to help countries learn from one another and coordinate their approaches in debt management and restructuring; that forum will be supported by Spain.
She called for FFD4 to be remembered not only as a conference that responded to crisis, but as the moment the world chose cooperation over fragmentation, unity over division, and action over inertia.
Tomorrow, she will travel to Praia, Cabo Verde, to take part in celebrations marking the 50th anniversary of the country’s independence.
GAZA
The Secretary-General is appalled by the deepening humanitarian crisis in Gaza. Multiple attacks in recent days hitting sites hosting displaced people and people trying to access food have killed and injured scores of Palestinians. The Secretary-General strongly condemns the civilian loss of life.
In just one day this week, Israeli orders to relocate forced nearly 30,000 people to flee, yet again, with no safe place to go and clearly inadequate supplies of shelter, food, medicine or water.
International humanitarian law is unambiguous: civilians must be respected and protected, and the needs of the population must be met.
With no fuel having entered Gaza in more than 17 weeks, the Secretary-General is gravely concerned that the last lifelines for survival are being cut off. Without an urgent influx of fuel, incubators will shut down, ambulances will be unable to reach the injured and sick, and water cannot be purified. The delivery by the United Nations and partners of what little of our lifesaving humanitarian aid is left in Gaza will also grind to a halt.
He once again calls for full, safe and sustained humanitarian access so aid can reach people who have been deprived of the basics of life for far too long. The UN has a clear and proven plan, rooted in the humanitarian principles, to get vital assistance to civilians – safely and at scale, wherever they are.
The Secretary-General reiterates that all parties must uphold their obligations under international law. He renews his call for an immediate permanent ceasefire and for the immediate and unconditional release of all hostages held by Hamas and other groups.
OCCUPIED PALESTINIAN TERRITORY
The Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs warns that the space left for civilians to stay is shrinking by the day. Just yesterday, the Israeli authorities issued yet another displacement order – this time for parts of Gaza City – citing Palestinian rocket fire. Our colleagues estimate that about 40,000 people were in these areas, which included one displacement site, one medical point, and a neighbourhood that had been spared from any displacement orders since before the ceasefire. As of earlier today, about 900 families are estimated to have fled.
OCHA notes that since mid-March, when the ceasefire ended, over 50 such orders have been issued. Together, they now cover about 78 per cent of Gaza. Add the Israeli-militarized zones and that percentage jumps to 85 – leaving just 15 per cent where civilians can actually stay.
Those areas are overcrowded and severely lacking in services or proper infrastructure. Imagine having just over two million people in Manhattan – which is actually slightly bigger – but instead of buildings, the area is strewn with the rubble of demolished and bombed-out structures, without infrastructure or basic support. And in Gaza, these remaining areas are also fragmented and unsafe.
Yesterday, our colleagues from the UN Population Fund said that menstruation has become a nightmare for an estimated 700,000 women and girls in Gaza. They remind us that, alongside food, people need water, soap, menstrual pads and privacy. UNFPA notes it has supplies ready – almost 170 truckloads’ worth – but they are not being let into the Strip.
In a report issued yesterday, OCHA notes that since last Thursday, nine more aid workers have been killed – from five different organizations.
That brings the total number of aid workers killed to 107 so far this year, and 479 since October 2023. Among them are 326 UN staff.
Looking back at the month of June, out of nearly 400 coordination attempts, 44 per cent were outright denied by Israeli authorities. Another 10 per cent were initially accepted but faced impediments. Only a third were fully facilitated. And the rest – about 12 per cent – had to be cancelled by the organizers for logistical, operational or security reasons. Yesterday, we had four denials out of 16 coordination attempts, hindering our teams’ efforts to relocate medical supplies or remove debris, among other critical operations.
LEBANON
Moving north, to Lebanon. This week, the newly appointed Head of our UNIFIL peacekeeping mission and Force Commander Major General Diodato Abagnara met with Lebanese leaders, including the President Joseph Aoun, the Prime Minister Nawaf Salam, the Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri as well as the Ministers of Foreign Affairs and Defense, and the commander of the Lebanese Armed Forces.
General Abagnara underscored in his meetings the mission's support to the implementation of Security Council resolution 1701, including the strengthened deployment of the Lebanese Armed Forces in southern Lebanon.
On the ground, UNIFIL peacekeepers report Israel Defense Forces military presence and activities north of the Blue Line, including air violations and mortar fire impacting several locations in Sector East this week.
Meanwhile, the peacekeepers have continued to discover unauthorized weapons caches, including one containing mortars in Sector East.
This week also, UNIFIL supported the important work of humanitarian agencies by facilitating missions of OCHA, UNICEF, UNDP, UNHCR and WFP in its area of operations.
In support of the capacity-building of the Lebanese Armed Forces, UNIFIL Maritime Task Force this week carried out training exercises for the Lebanese Navy and the Lebanese Air Force.
CYPRUS
In preparation for the informal meeting on Cyprus in a broader format, to be held on 16-17 July, the Personal Envoy of the Secretary-General on Cyprus, Maria Angela Holguin, is travelling to the island this weekend for meetings with the two sides. Earlier this week, she met with senior representatives of the United Kingdom in London, as well as of the European Union in Brussels. She will visit Paris on Friday for meetings with French officials.
UKRAINE
Turning to Ukraine, the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs reports that airstrikes in the past three days have killed and injured civilians.
According to authorities, at least 10 civilians were killed and nearly 60 injured, including children.
The strikes also damaged homes, hospitals, schools and agricultural supplies in front-line regions, according to the local authorities and aid workers. In the Donetsk region alone, authorities reported damage to over 80 homes, schools and other civilian facilities across the region.
Health facilities have not been spared. On July 1st, shelling damaged a hospital in the city of Kherson, injuring at least three health workers and five patients.
Today, drone strikes in the same city damaged several ambulances, civilian vehicles and windows of another hospital building.
Between January and June of this year, the World Health Organization recorded at least 255 attacks on health care in Ukraine – accounting for nearly 40 per cent of all such attacks verified globally. In 2025, these attacks caused at least six deaths and 55 injuries among medical personnel and patients, according to WHO.
Humanitarians continue to respond, providing construction materials and emergency shelter kits, blankets, hygiene items and mental health and psychosocial support.
RUSSIA
The final consultation meeting on the Memorandum of Understanding between the United Nations and the Russian Federation will take place on 11 July in Geneva. It will be led by Rebeca Grynspan, UNCTAD Secretary-General.
The Memorandum of Understanding was signed on 22 July 2022 with an implementation period of three years as part of the Istanbul agreement and the efforts of Secretary-General António Guterres on global food security in the context of the war in Ukraine. In parallel, the Secretary-General has also continued to advocate for continued exports from Ukraine and the Russian Federation, including through the proposal on safe navigation in the Black Sea, which continues to inform discussions.
SENIOR PERSONNEL APPOINTMENT
The United Nations Secretary-General has appointed Carlos G. Ruiz Massieu of Mexico as his Special Representative for Haiti and Head of the United Nations Integrated Office in Haiti.
He succeeds María Isabel Salvador of Ecuador, to whom the Secretary-General is grateful for her dedication and service.
Mr. Ruiz Massieu brings to this position over 30 years of experience in public service and diplomacy, both in bilateral and multilateral contexts.
As Special Representative of the Secretary-General in Colombia since 2019, he led the United Nations Verification Mission in Colombia, monitoring the implementation of the Peace Agreement between the Government of Colombia and the FARC-EP guerrilla.
Mr. Ruiz Massieu will assume his new functions as the SRSG for Haiti in August. He will be briefing the Security Council in two weeks’ time on Colombia, per his current functions.
YEMEN
The UN team in Yemen says that the two local water authorities in Taiz governorate, the Local Water and Sanitation Corporations in Taiz and Al-Hawban, reached a technical agreement to jointly manage the water supply systems, restoring essential services that have been disrupted for nearly a decade due to conflict and institutional fragmentation.
This milestone was made possible through the sustained engagement of the UN leadership and team on the ground, working alongside key partners.
To accelerate water access, the Yemen Humanitarian Fund is allocating $2 million to connect 90,000 people, to functioning water networks.
The UN commends the local leadership behind this breakthrough and urges donors to scale up support so that over 600,000 people in Taiz can finally access safe, and reliable, water and sanitation.
GLOBAL Risk Report
The United Nations Global Risk Report is being launched today at 1pm, both online and at an event hosted at the Mission of Singapore. The key insight of this report is a set of 12 Global Vulnerabilities, which are risks that are perceived as both important and for which the international community is underprepared. Many risk reports can provide a list of the most important risks, but this report focuses our attention on perceived gaps in the multilateral space. It identifies Mis- and Disinformation as a singularly critical vulnerability and identifies three other clusters of risks that are technological, environmental, and societal. Specifically, the report highlights that these global vulnerabilities can be best addressed through coordinated joint action between Member States and across stakeholder groups.
INTERNATIONAL DAYS
Saturday is International Day of Cooperatives. Cooperatives have a local community focus, and they aspire to bring the benefits of this economic and social model to all people in the world.
Sunday is World Rural Development Day. This Day aims at elevating rural voices and renewing the world’s collective promise, which is to leave no one behind, not even in the most remote and forgotten places of the earth.
FINANCIAL CONTRIBUTION
Vanuatu its full dues to the Regular Budget. The payment brings the number of fully paid-up Member States to 113.
