A Palestinian man living in a refugee camp in northern Gaza has talked of the ‘indescribable’ pain he has experienced over the past year as the conflict in the beleaguered enclave continues.
UN humanitarians in Lebanon on Tuesday described the massive challenge of trying to reach some 1.2 million people who have fled heavy Israeli bombardment and evacuation orders, driven by the fear that what happened in Gaza may befall them, too.
The UN peacekeeping mission UNIFIL has been operating along the “Blue Line” which separates Lebanon and Israel since the 1970s, and its mandate was just renewed for another year by the UN Security Council. But what is UNIFIL and what is it doing amid the escalating conflict between Hezbollah and Israel Defense Forces (IDF)?
Two bills before the Israeli parliament could put a halt to the lifesaving operations of UN Palestine relief agency, UNRWA, which has been indispensable and irreplaceable “more than ever” over the past year of war in Gaza, Secretary-General António Guterres said on Tuesday.
The situation in Africa’s Great Lakes Region, in particular the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), has remained “alarming” amid ongoing violence in the restive country’s east, said the UN Special Envoy to the Region in a briefing to the Security Council on Tuesday.
Secretary-General's press encounter - on the situation in the Middle East
New York, 8 October 2024
The nightmare in Gaza is now entering an atrocious, abominable second year.
This has been a year of crises. Humanitarian crisis. Political crisis....
UN humanitarians have warned that conditions in northern Gaza are deteriorating rapidly, with over 400,000 people facing Israeli evacuation orders amid ongoing airstrikes and ground operations.
Senior officials from across the UN system underscored the need for peace between Israelis and Palestinians, and across the wider region, in statements marking one year since the brutal 7 October 2023 Hamas-led attacks on Israel.
The UN High Commissioner for Refugees called on Sunday for greater international support to stem the “humanitarian catastrophe” now engulfing Lebanon following a massive escalation in Israeli airstrikes and a “limited” ground invasion there targeting Hezbollah militants.
In a message to mark one year since the Hamas-led terror attack during which more than 1,250 Israelis and foreign nationals were brutally killed on 7 October, the UN Secretary-General has called on the international community to loudly condemn those “abhorrent acts” which have triggered a shocking wave of violence across the region.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
As Lebanon suffered another night of heavy Israeli bombing, UN humanitarians and partners described how people desperate to flee the violence found the country’s main border crossing into Syria cut by a new dawn strike, forcing them to skirt “a huge crater” and rubble on foot, to reach the other side.
How does a Security Council resolution get adopted?
An attack by a notorious gang in the town of Pont Sondé, Haiti, left at least 70 people dead on Thursday, after gunmen armed with automatic rifles opened fire, a spokesperson for the UN human rights office, OHCHR, said on Friday.
The UN chief has strongly condemned the killing of several Palestinians, including women and children, who died when a residential building in Tulkarem camp in the West Bank was hit by Israeli airstrikes on Thursday night.
The UN-designated human rights expert on Sudan has called for the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), along with their allied militias, to take immediate steps to protect civilians in greater Khartoum amid escalating violence and alarming reports of summary executions.
Armed conflict puts children at an increased risk of grave violations while their risk of being trafficked similarly increases, including in transitional periods, a new UN study has revealed.
People in Lebanon uprooted by Israeli airstrikes including in central Beirut have described being forced to flee “total destruction”, amid fresh reports of Hezbollah projectile attacks into Israel and close-quarter clashes along the UN-patrolled line of separation between the two countries.
Peacekeepers positioned along the “Blue Line” of separation between Israel and Lebanon remain committed to their mandate, and will remain in place until conditions allow, the UN’s peacekeeping chief said on Thursday.
Russian shelling has hit another apartment block in Ukraine’s second city of Kharkiv, UN aid teams said on Thursday.
The global peace and security environment remained critical in the first half of 2024. The work of diplomacy led by the Department of Political and Peacebuilding Affairs (DPPA) continued patiently, painstakingly, often discreetly, in large part thanks to the contributions its partners channel through the Multi-Year Appeal (MYA). Our experience is that relatively modest investments in conflict prevention and sustaining peace yield measurable dividends, in the short, medium and long term.
A breakdown in law and order and a wider humanitarian emergency across Haiti have displaced more than 700,000 people – one in two of them children – the UN migration office, IOM, said on Wednesday.
Despite the significant peace and security challenges facing Africa, there are reasons to be hopeful, the head of the UN Office to the African Union (UNOAU) told ambassadors at the Security Council on Wednesday, urging their continued focus on the continent.
Hours after Iran fired a reported 200 missiles at Israel in response to Israeli military incursions in southern Lebanon raising fears of a wider Middle East escalation, UN human rights chief Volker Türk insisted on Wednesday that “peace must prevail” in the Middle East, while UN Member States meeting in Geneva reiterated calls for a ceasefire in Gaza and beyond.
Security Council members met in emergency session on Tuesday morning in New York with the Middle East on the brink of all-out war. App users can reprise our live coverage here.
Madame President, Excellencies,
The raging fires in the Middle East are fast becoming an inferno.
Exactly one week ago, I briefed the Security Council about the alarming situation in Lebanon.
Since then, things have gone from bad to much, much worse.
As I told the Council last week, the Blue Line has seen tensions for years. But since October, exchanges of fire have expanded in scope, depth, and intensity.
...UN humanitarians launched a $426 million appeal for Lebanon on Tuesday to support one million people uprooted by widespread Israeli shelling amid what Israel has described as a “limited, localised and targeted” ground operation into Lebanon, across the UN-patrolled line of separation.
With war ramping up across the Middle East on Tuesday, UN Secretary-General António Guterres appealed for the violence to end now.
Diplomats have been highlighting Security Council resolution 1701 in official meetings and in the corridors over the busy High-Level Week at UN Headquarters.
A former combatant fighting for the rights of her people on the island of Mindanao in the Philippines has been talking about how she has swapped her combat fatigues for jilbabs [outer garment] and her life in the jungle for a more peaceful rural community.
The UN Humanitarian Coordinator in Ukraine condemned a deadly Russian strike in Kherson on Tuesday morning and underscored the need to protect civilians caught in the war, which is entering its 30th month.
The UN Secretary-General on Tuesday called for an immediate ceasefire between Israeli forces and Hezbollah militants, as Israel launched what it described as a “limited” ground incursion into Southern Lebanon.
I condemn the broadening of the Middle East conflict, with escalation after escalation.
This must stop. We absolutely need a ceasefire.
Beirut, Lebanon
1 October 2024
What we feared has materialized. With strikes throughout Lebanon, including in the heart of Beirut, and incursions across the Blue Line, violence is spiraling to dangerous heights.
Every rocket and missile fired, every bomb dropped and every ground raid conducted pull the parties further from the vision set out in Security Council resolution 1701 (2006) and the conditions needed for the safe return of civilians on...
More than one million people across Lebanon have been uprooted by ongoing and deadly Israeli airstrikes across the country, including one reported early Monday morning in a residential area of central Beirut, adding to fears of a full-scale invasion.
Mobilization at the national, regional and international level are needed to support the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) in the face of continued violence in the east, trafficking of natural resources, and other challenges, the UN Security Council heard on Monday.
The UN Security Council on Monday re-authorized the deployment of the Multinational Security Support (MSS) mission to Haiti for 12 months.
UN humanitarians on Monday warned of the potentially dire consequences that could arise from disruption to the flow of food imports into Yemen following Israeli strikes on the crucial Red Sea port of Hudaydah.
UN Secretary-General António Guterres expressed grave concern on Saturday over the dramatic escalation of events in Lebanon's capital, Beirut, in the past 24 hours.
The top UN aid official in Ukraine has condemned Russian attacks in the northeastern city of Sumy on Saturday which damaged a hospital and killed and injured several people.
