The UN peacekeeping force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) has said that an Israeli army bulldozer demolished an observation tower and the perimeter fence of a UN position earlier on Sunday in Marwahin, in the southern part of the country.
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A young Gazan footballer who says he feels like he is “dying every day,” is trying to keep his dream alive of one day playing the game professionally, despite living “under constant fire.’
Despite ongoing heavy shelling every day across the UN-patrolled Blue Line separating southern Lebanon and Israel, the UN peacekeeping force that's stationed there reiterated its determination on Friday to fulfil its mandate from the Security Council and assist civilians wherever possible.
The UN Secretary-General has said the death of Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar should lead to a swift end to the year-long war in Gaza, the release of all hostages and unimpeded delivery of aid, his Deputy Spokesperson told reporters on Friday.
The UN Security Council on Friday renewed for one year the sanctions regime on Haiti – including a targeted assets freeze, travel ban and arms embargo measures – aimed at curbing the illicit flow of weapons to criminal gangs which have sown chaos across the Caribbean island nation.
More than 1.8 million Palestinians in Gaza are experiencing “extremely critical” levels of hunger, with 70 per cent of crop fields destroyed and livelihoods decimated during the ongoing Israeli military offensive, a UN-backed food security assessment released on Thursday has revealed.
The UN Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) reported on Thursday that one of its Maritime Task Force vessels off the southern Lebanese coast intercepted an approaching drone.
The UN health agency has warned that a first case of highly infectious cholera virus has been detected in northern Lebanon, raising fears that those displaced by Israeli bombardment may already be at risk from the potentially deadly disease.
In another serious security incident in southern Lebanon, a UN peacekeeping position has been “apparently deliberately” struck by incoming fire from the Israel Defense Forces (IDF).
The Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) expressed deep concern on Wednesday over the continued displacement crisis in Sudan, with the ongoing conflict driving thousands more refugees into neighbouring countries.
Deadly Israeli airstrikes hit targets across Lebanon on Wednesday, prompting renewed condemnation from top UN negotiators and humanitarians, who warned that essential services in the south of the country are close to collapse.
Yemen is at risk of being dragged further into the rising conflict in the Middle East, UN Special Envoy for the country Hans Grundberg warned the Security Council on Tuesday.
The critical funding gap for mine action in Ukraine, estimated at over $34 billion, holds “tremendous potential” for the nation when connected with sustainability efforts, say the authors of a new demining report released by the UN Development Programme (UNDP) on Tuesday.
Ahead of the eighth anniversary of Colombia’s peace agreement next month which ended a five-decades-long insurgency, the UN’s envoy to the country highlighted both “historic progress” and significant remaining challenges on Tuesday.
With no let-up to the ongoing Israel-Lebanon conflict, the UN human rights office on Tuesday called for an independent probe into an Israeli airstrike that hit an apartment block in northern Lebanon a day earlier that left a reported 22 dead.
The UN Secretary-General on Monday condemned the large number of civilian casualties inflicted by Israeli forces amidst their intensifying military campaign in northern Gaza.
The head of UN Peace Operations on Monday said ambassadors in the Security Council had given a “unanimous expression of support” to peacekeepers in Lebanon remaining in position along the Blue Line that separates south Lebanon from Israel, despite coming under fire, with five “Blue Helmets” sustaining injuries following attacks by Israeli forces.
A second round of polio vaccinations for thousands of children began in central Gaza on Monday despite reported strikes on a school-turned-shelter in Nuseirat and a hospital courtyard in Deir Al-Balah where “multiple tents” were set ablaze as people slept.
Israel Defense Forces (IDF) tanks forcibly entered a United Nations position in southern Lebanon early Sunday morning, with UN peacekeepers at the same location also “suffering effects” from smoke after several rounds were fired in its vicinity, the UN Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) has reported.
The UN Secretary-General on Sunday reiterated that the safety and security of UN personnel and property must be guaranteed, following the deliberate breach of a UN peacekeeping position by Israel Defense Forces (IDF) armored vehicles in southern Lebanon.
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This week, the United Nations Special Coordinator for Lebanon, Jeanine Hennis-Plasschaert, visited shelters housing people displaced from southern Lebanon and the southern suburbs of Beirut following the sharp escalation of the conflict between Israel and Hizbullah. During the site visits - organized in cooperation with the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF), the UN Development Programme (UNDP) and the World Food Programme (WFP), among others - the displaced expressed the hope to return home and resume their normal lives.
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This week, Hennis-Plasschaert also visited a Disaster Risk Management Committee comprised of local officials, security services and humanitarians. The Committee works with UN support to meet soaring humanitarian needs, despite significant resource challenges. Throughout these engagements, the Special Coordinator voiced concern regarding the impact of the conflict on children, with thousands set to miss out on their education as schools become shelters. Meanwhile, the Special Coordinator continued to meet with a wide array of Lebanese political and security actors, while engaging with regional and international partners, as part of her efforts to reinvigorate momentum on a ceasefire and to advocate for progress in the long-stalled presidential election process.
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UNOCA staff held their annual retreat from 8-9 October in Akanda, north of Libreville. Staff discussed the implementation of the Office's mandate, which the Security Council renewed for three years on 30 August. Special Representative of the Secretary-General (SRSG) for Central Africa and Head of the United Nations Regional Office for Central Africa Abdou Abarry comprehensibly outlined his vision and priorities.
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Amid escalating hostilities in Myanmar sparked by a 2021 military coup that have plunged millions into a deepening humanitarian crisis, UN Secretary-General António Guterres on Friday urged the country’s neighbours “to leverage their influence” to bring about peace.
UN Secretary-General António Guterres congratulated the Japanese anti-nuclear weapons organization Nihon Hidankyo which was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize on Friday.
The UN Secretary-General on Friday condemned recent attacks against peacekeeping personnel and premises in southern Lebanon.
The number of Sudanese refugees in South Sudan has surpassed half a million, the UN refugee agency, UNHCR, announced on Friday, as ongoing conflict in neighbouring Sudan continues to drive massive displacement.
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.
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.
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.
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.
