Read here the latest UNSOM Quarterly Newsletter.
Read here the latest UNSOM Quarterly Newsletter.
Thank you, Madam President,
In the eight days since the Secretary-General last briefed you on Lebanon and the Middle East, the situation in Lebanon has become even more alarming.
The exchanges of fire between Hizbullah and the Israel Defense Forces, which commenced on 8 October last year when Hizbullah fired on Israeli targets in Hizbullah’s stated support for Gaza, have intensified dramatically.
Hizbullah has stepped up its attacks on Israel, firing rockets, missiles and drones further south, including towards Haifa and Tel Aviv.
Israel responded with attacks, now across Lebanon, including in the capital Beirut, striking hundreds of Hizbullah targets – many in densely populated areas – and causing widespread destruction, displacement, and suffering.
Since the commencement of Israeli ground operations into Lebanon on 1 October, Hizbullah and the Israel Defense Forces have been engaged in intensified clashes in southern Lebanon.
The ongoing exchanges of fire have created a humanitarian emergency.
The number of dead and wounded has spiraled: over 300 people have been killed in Lebanon just in the past week. Since 8 October last year, the number of dead has reached over 2,000, according to the Lebanese Ministry of Health. Hundreds of those killed were civilians, including more than 100 children.
Lebanese Armed Forces personnel have been killed, with 3 fatalities in the past week.
Israeli soldiers have also been killed, including at least 12 on Lebanese territory since 1 October.
Over 600,000 people have been displaced in Lebanon - a quarter of a million people since last Wednesday. The vast majority are women and children.
A quarter of Lebanese territory has been placed under so-called evacuation orders issued by the Israel Defense Forces, affecting more than 100 villages and neighborhoods, with the IDF giving people as little as 2 hours’ notice to vacate their homes, often in the middle of the night.
Around 250,000 people, including Lebanese and Syrians, have fled into Syria.
Tens of thousands more have departed through Beirut airport.
Lebanon’s health sector is under immense pressure. Many hospitals and centers closed following airstrikes hitting healthcare facilities and personnel.
The Flash Appeal launched last week requests USD $425 million to assist 1 million people over the next three months. I urge Member States to support this request, and I thank those of you who have already given or pledged aid.
In northern Israel, the civilian population is also enduring repeated attacks from Hizbullah and other non-state armed groups in Lebanon and the region.
Over 50 people have been killed and more than 60,000 have been displaced in Israel and the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights since last October, disrupting lives and livelihoods.
The devastating conflict in Lebanon, coupled with intensified strikes in Syria and the raging violence in Gaza and the occupied West Bank, points to a region dangerously teetering on the brink of an all-out war.
Madam President,
Our collective inability to stop the violence and stem the bloodshed is damning.
Hizbullah and other non-state armed groups must stop firing rockets and missiles into Israel.
We urge Israel to stop its bombardment of Lebanon and to withdraw its ground forces.
The parties must seize the diplomatic options put on the table before them, not the weapons by their side.
The United Nations welcomes the continued efforts of Member States in this regard.
As the Secretary-General has warned, there is still time, but it is quickly running out. We must give diplomacy a chance. NOW.
The Special Coordinator for Lebanon, Jeanine Hennis-Plasschaert, is engaging with all actors to stress the need for immediate de-escalation and a diplomatic solution.
The parties must commit to a return to a cessation of hostilities, and the full implementation of Security Council resolutions 1559 (2004) and 1701 (2006).
The Lebanese state must have control over all weapons within its territory. We see what happens when it does not.
The political impasse for the election of a president is approaching two years. At this time of crisis, I urge Lebanon’s political leaders to take resolute steps towards addressing the vacuum.
The state sovereignty and territorial integrity of both Lebanon and Israel must be respected.
Obligations under international law, including international humanitarian law, must be upheld. In this regard:
Distinction must be made between civilians and fighters, and between civilian infrastructure and military objectives;
Civilians, and civilian infrastructure, must not be targeted;
Indiscriminate and disproportionate attacks must be avoided;
Humanitarian personnel, medical workers, and journalists also must not be targeted.
UN personnel, including the brave peacekeepers along the Blue Line and members of the UN family working under such dangerous conditions across Lebanon, must be protected.be protected.
We need to invest every effort to reverse this cycle of violence and bring Lebanon and Israel - and the region - back from the brink of catastrophe. Thank you, Madam President.
In Lebanon, health workers and medical facilities have continued to be hit and killed by ongoing Israeli bombardment, a week since Israel sent troops and armoured vehicles into the south of the country and issued evacuation orders, UN humanitarians said on Thursday.
Israel Defense Forces (IDF) fired on UN peacekeepers in Lebanon early Thursday morning, according to UNIFIL, the mission operating along the Security Council-mandated “Blue Line” of separation between the two countries which they patrol.
As the crisis in the Middle East grinds on, we covered the latest updates from the field and at UN Headquarters as Israel Defense Forces (IDF) attacked UN peacekeepers from the UNIFIL mission in Lebanon. At UN Headquarters in New York, events included the Security Council discussing the situation in an emergency session and the UN spokesperson's daily news briefing, which included a UN official who described his recent visit to Gaza, which he said has suffered unparalleled devastation. UN News app users can follow here.
The prospect of all-out war in Lebanon appeared undiminished on Wednesday as the head of the UN agency for Palestine refugees, UNRWA, said that there was “no end to hell” in northern Gaza, where lifesaving relief has shut down.
As turmoil roils the Middle East, senior UN officials provided humanitarian updates on the impact of continued fighting in Lebanon and Gaza, while many ambassadors in the Security Council offered strong support for the "indispensable" role of the Palestine refugee agency, UNRWA, which has come under increasing attack in the Israeli parliament. UNRWA chief Philippe Lazzarini said attempts to "dismantle" the agency would compromise humanitarian work and human rights worldwide. Full coverage for app users, here.
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.
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 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)?
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....
The UN aid coordination office, OCHA, voiced deep concern on Monday over the siege of El Fasher in Sudan’s North Darfur, where continued clashes are putting the lives of hundreds of thousands of civilians in the region at risk.
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.
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.
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.
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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.
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.
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.
How does a Security Council resolution get adopted?
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.
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.
Russian shelling has hit another apartment block in Ukraine’s second city of Kharkiv, UN aid teams said on Thursday.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Madam President,
Distinguished members of the Security Council,
The unanimous adoption of Security Council resolution 2719 (2023) marked a major milestone in the partnership between the African Union and the United Nations. It built on the enduring relationship between the two organizations, taking into account their respective strengths and comparative advantages. With this resolution, the Security Council responded to longstanding calls, including by the Secretary-General, to support African Union-led peace support operations — including peace enforcement and counter-terrorism operations — with mandates from the Council and through United Nations assessed contributions, on a case-by-case basis.
Since the adoption of Security Council resolution 2719 (2023), the United Nations Secretariat has intensified its collaboration with the African Union Commission. And as a result, significant progress has already been achieved towards the operationalization of the resolution.
We worked to develop a common understanding of this resolution and its implications for both the African Union and the United Nations. The focus of our collective work was on achieving greater institutional and operational readiness to ensure its effective implementation. In this regard, we established a joint African Union-United Nations Task Force, comprising representatives from all relevant entities within both the Secretariat and the Commission, to shepherd the process. Meetings were held at senior and technical levels. The Joint African Union-United Nations Task Force met at the technical level twice — first in Addis Ababa, from 23 to 24 May 2024, and then in New York, from 29 to 31 July 2024. The Joint Task Force has also held a series of virtual consultations.
During these consultations, the Joint African Union-United Nations team discussed four key areas:
The Joint Task Force agreed on a draft Joint African Union - United Nations roadmap on the operationalization of Security Council resolution 2719 (2023). This draft roadmap builds on decades of shared lessons learned, operational experience and collaboration between the two organizations. We recognize that strengthening institutional and operational readiness of the Secretariat and Commission will be an ongoing process. Therefore, the roadmap will serve as a framework for continuously strengthening overall performance and impact.
The Secretary-General and the African Union Commission Chairperson are expected to endorse the draft roadmap at their annual conference in Addis Ababa later this month.
Madam President,
Distinguished members of the Security Council,
The African Union and the United Nations have adopted a flexible and forward-leaning approach to institutional and operational readiness for the implementation of Security Council resolution 2719 (2023). In that regard, the full implementation of the Joint African Union-United Nations roadmap — once officially endorsed by the Secretary-General and the African Union Commission Chairperson—does not constitute a prerequisite for implementing Security Council resolution 2719 (2023) in a specific context.
Accordingly, should the African Union Peace and Security Council decide to mandate an African Union-led peace support operation, and the Security Council decide to authorize it under the 2719 framework, the African Union Commission and the United Nations Secretariat will be ready to launch and support this peace operation.
A possible first test-case for the implementation the 2719 framework is currently being discussed. Indeed, based on Security Council resolution 2748 (2024), the African Union Commission and the United Nations Secretariat, in consultation with the Federal Government of Somalia and relevant international and regional stakeholders and partners, are jointly planning for the successor mission to the African Union Transition Mission in Somalia (ATMIS) -- the African Union Support and Stabilization Mission in Somalia (AUSSOM). As requested by the Council, we are preparing a report that “articulates clearly a range of options for financing it [AUSSOM], including, but not limited to, the framework established by resolution 2719 (2023), other suitable alternatives, or some combination of these options.” We will also provide an update to the Council on the status of implementation of Security Council resolution 2748 (2024) on 10 October.
More broadly, a report on the overall implementation of Security Council resolution 2719 (2023) will be submitted by the end of the year. The report will provide further details on this new and critical aspect of the partnership between the African Union and the United Nations.
Madam President,
Distinguished members of the Security Council
The support of this Council, as well as of Member States of the African Union and of the United Nations, will remain essential for the successful deployment of an African Union-led peace support operation under the resolution 2719 framework. Together, the African Union Commission and the United Nations Secretariat stand ready to translate Security Council resolution 2719 (2023) into tangible actions that would contribute to lasting peace and stability on the African continent and beyond.
Thank you for your attention.
