World News

25 April 2024Humanitarian Aid Unexpected blistering temperatures across Gaza have added to the daily misery faced by the enclave’s people and sparked new fears of disease outbreaks amid a lack of sufficient clean water and waste disposal, UN humanitarians said on Thursday. The warning from the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA, came as some 1.2 million people continued to shelter in tents pitched in and around the enclave’s southernmost city, Rafah, with nowhere else to go...

Briefing ambassadors on the Security Council, Geir Pedersen called for a regional de-escalation, starting with an immediate ceasefire in Gaza. In addition to the regional spillover effects, he expressed deep concern over the ongoing conflict within Syria itself. “There are in fact no signs of calm in any of Syria’s theaters – only unresolved conflicts, bubbling violence, and sharp flares of hostilities, any of which could be the kindling for a new conflagration,” he stated. Special Envoy...

24 April 2024Humanitarian Aid The UN agency that assists Palestine refugees, UNRWA, launched a $1.2 billion appeal on Wednesday to address the unprecedented humanitarian crisis in the besieged Gaza Strip and to respond to needs in the West Bank as violence there increases. The funding will cover humanitarian response through the end of the year, with the goal of meeting the most urgent needs of 1.7 million people in war-ravaged Gaza and more than 200,000 Palestine refugees in the West...

“The operationalisation of the mechanism will allow for pipeline prioritisation, predictability, visibility and tracking of supplies to Gaza,” she told ambassadors. The new plan stemmed from Security Council resolution 2720, adopted in December, which established Ms. Kaag’s position and requested her to forge a UN mechanism to accelerate aid deliveries into the war-torn enclave, which now faces looming famine. Since Hamas-led attacks in southern Israel in October that left 1,200 people...

The development follows the recovery of hundreds of bodies “buried deep in the ground and covered with waste” over the weekend at Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis, central Gaza, and at Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City in the north. A total of 283 bodies were recovered at Nasser Hospital, of which 42 were identified. “Among the deceased were allegedly older people, women and wounded, while others were found tied with their hands…tied and stripped of their clothes,” said Ravina Shamdasani...

Commissioner-General Philippe Lazzarini briefed journalists in New York a day after the independent review panel published its findings. Former French foreign minister Catherine Colonna spearheaded the report, which found that UNRWA has put in place a large number of mechanisms and procedures to ensure its commitment to the principle of neutrality and outlines some 50 recommendations. Preparing to update UNRWA is committed to implement the report’s recommendations, Mr. Lazzarini said...

The final report, led by former French foreign minister Catherine Colonna, was due to be released later on Monday. Ms. Colonna was also preparing to speak to journalists at a scheduled noon briefing in New York as Chair of the Independent Review Group on UNRWA. “The Secretary-General accepts the recommendations contained in Ms. Colonna’s report,” Mr. Guterres’s Spokesperson said in a statement. “He has agreed with (UNRWA) Commissioner-General Philippe Lazzarini that UNRWA – with the...

“Israel made public claims that a significant number of UNRWA employees are members of terrorist organisations. However, Israel has yet to provide supporting evidence of this,” according to the 54-page final report, Independent review of mechanisms and procedures to ensure adherence by UNRWA to the humanitarian principle of neutrality. The UN Secretary-General, who received the final report at the weekend, had appointed the independent review group days after Israel announced the...

19 April 2024Peace and Security The UN’s top human rights official on Friday raised alarm over the escalating violence in Myanmar’s Rakhine state between junta and opposition forces amid reports of the military regime forcing members of the minority Muslim Rohingya community to join their ranks. Rakhine was the site of a brutal crackdown on the Rohingyas by the military in 2017, leading to the killing of some 10,000 men, women and newborns and the exodus of nearly 750,000 community...

This is the third time this year that the world body has met to examine veto use among the Security Council’s permanent members – China, France, Russia, United Kingdom and United States – including on the situation in Gaza regarding a US veto. Last week, Russia vetoed action to renew the panel of experts’ mandate to assist the Council’s DPRK sanctions committee. Current sanctions include an arms embargo and measures to prevent the proliferation of nuclear, ballistic missiles and other mass...