Statement by John Holmes, USG for Humanitarian Affairs and ERC, to the UN SC on the situation in the Middle East, including the Palestinian question

Thank you, Mr. President, for this opportunity to brief the Council. Let me take advantage of the presence of the Security Council and straightaway express my profound admiration for what Karen Abu-Zayd and her UNRWA colleagues were able to achieve in the recent fighting, in extremely difficult and dangerous circumstances.

Mr. President, I visited the area from 21 to 25 January to discuss the way forward with Palestinian Authority Representatives, the Israeli Government and representatives of Israeli and Palestinian civil society, and in Cairo, with Mrs. Mubarak in her capacity as President of the Egyptian Red Crescent, government representatives, and the League of Arab States.

I visited Gaza itself five days after the cease fire, with the Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process, Mr. Robert Serry, to launch the humanitarian needs assessment. I expected a distressing situation, but was nevertheless shocked by the human suffering and destruction I saw.

According to the Palestinian Ministry of Health, whose figures have not been seriously challenged, around 1,300 Palestinians were killed, and more than 5,300 were injured. 34 % of these were children. In short, 1 out of 225 Gazans was either killed or injured during the three weeks of this conflict.

While some areas I saw were relatively untouched, in others virtually every building was destroyed or full of holes. 21,000 homes were destroyed or badly damaged altogether, according to the Palestinian Bureau of Statistics. At the height of the fighting, over 50,000 people were displaced in UNRWA structures, with tens of thousands more sheltering with families and friends. Widespread destruction was caused to Gaza's economic and civil infrastructure. I saw for example, an entire industrial and residential area in East Jabalia which had been systematically bulldozed, an area of at least one square kilometer; one of the best schools in Gaza reduced to rubble; and much of the Al Quds hospital in Gaza City burned out. The ICRC reports that in Jabalia, between one and two thousand households are now living in the rubble of their houses. Damage to power, water, sanitation, medical, education and agricultural infrastructure was widely visible. I saw a flood of sewage coming from one bomb - damaged major pipe, forming a lake on residential and agricultural land, though thankfully this has now been fixed.