UPDATING LIVE: World must not look away from humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza, UN chief tells Security Council
12:58 PM End ‘flagrant injustice’ of Israeli occupation: Jordan Ayman Safadi, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Foreign Affairs for Jordan, underscored that ending the Israeli occupation of Palestine is the viable way to ensure peace for Palestinians, Israelis and all others in the region. “Those who purport to say that this conflict is a…
Read MoreIsrael-Palestine crisis: Gaza City a ‘ghost town’, reports UN aid agency
“As we drove through Gaza City it was like a ghost town; all the streets were deserted,” said Thomas White, Director of UNRWA Affairs in Gaza. “The impact of heavy airstrikes and shelling was so visible. Roads are riddled with craters, complicating aid deliveries.” Truce deadline looms Wednesday marks the sixth and final day of…
Read MoreWorld News in Brief: Burkina Faso attack, ending AIDS, Syrian child casualties, new UN migration ambassador
A large number of fighters from the militant Islamist group JNIM attacked a military base, homes, and a camp for displaced people in the city of Djibo, on Sunday. At least 40 people were killed and more than 42 injured. The attackers also set fire to 20 shops and three sites for displaced people. Stop attacking civilians “Attacks on…
Read MoreSyria: ‘A dozen different powder kegs’
Najat Rochdi, UN Deputy Special Envoy for Syria, told ambassadors at the Security Council that Israeli airstrikes hit Damascus airport this weekend, following several other airstrikes and artillery fire on locations across the country, reportedly killing one civilian airport worker. She added that the airstrikes coincided with reports of rocket and missile launches from southern…
Read MoreGaza doctors ‘terrified’ of deadly disease outbreak as aid teams race to deliver
Priorities include transporting fuel to the north of the war-torn enclave, so that it can be used to power hospitals, provide clean water and maintain other vital civilian infrastructure. Such services have been massively impacted by weeks of Israeli bombardment in response to Hamas’s 7 October massacres in southern Israel that left some 1,200 dead…
Read MoreFirst Person: Trauma, stress and sadness take root in Gaza
Mr. Elder met with children and their families in Gaza, during the humanitarian pause in fighting, which was called after weeks of intense shelling and bombardment that killed and injured thousands and displaced 1.7 million Palestinians. The conflict erupted on 7 October, when Hamas attacked Israel, killed over 1,200 people and captured more than 200 hostages.…
Read MoreSomali-born champion of refugee education wins top UNHCR award
Abdullahi Mire grew up in the sprawling Dadaab refugee complex in northeastern Kenya with its population today of more than 240,000 registered refugees, mostly from Somalia. The UN refugee agency (UNHCR) coordinates operations there together with partners, relying also on the support of the Kenyan Government and host communities. The majority of the population, around…
Read MoreHopes for a sustainable planet must not ‘melt away’: Guterres
UN Secretary-General António Guterres was briefing reporters in New York after seeing for himself over the weekend the “profoundly shocking” speed at which ice is melting in Antarctica – three times faster than the rate in the early 1990s. New figures reveal that sea ice at the South Pole is now 1.5 million square kilometres…
Read MoreWorld News in Brief: Delivering on health at COP28, aid for north Darfur, food standards watchdog turns 60
That’s the message from UN health agency WHO, which said on Monday that negotiators at the upcoming meeting must recognize their responsibility “for the health of populations worldwide”. “Leaders must deliver in Dubai, providing the strong health outcomes their peoples expect and their economies urgently need,” said WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus. According to the…
Read MoreGaza: Vital aid reaches shattered north as halt to fighting enters fourth day
And as the UN emergency relief coordination office, OCHA, reported that people in the south were queuing for kilometres to obtain cooking gas and resorting to burning window frames and doors for cooking, it added that the four-day humanitarian pause agreed upon by Israel and Hamas has been “largely maintained”. Under the agreement, Hamas released 17…
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