Middle East

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...

1 April 2024Humanitarian Aid Israeli forces are blocking aid deliveries into famine-stricken northern Gaza as the five-month-long war grinds on despite recent strong demands from the top UN court and the Security Council for unfettered access for lifesaving food shipments into the enclave and for a temporary ceasefire and the return of all hostages taken in October. More than a dozen Palestinians have been killed related to airdrops by multiple nations who are trying to deliver...

Francesca Albanese was speaking at the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva, where she presented her latest report, entitled ‘Anatomy of a Genocide’, during an interactive dialogue with Member States. “Following nearly six months of unrelenting Israeli assault on occupied Gaza, it is my solemn duty to report on the worst of what humanity is capable of, and to present my findings,” she said. “There are reasonable grounds to believe that the threshold indicating the commission of the crime of...

On the heels of Israel’s announcement on Sunday that it would no longer approve aid shipments into northern Gaza by the UN agency for Palestine refugees, UNRWA, UN Coordinator Jamie McGoldrick cautioned of current catastrophic food shortages and growing hunger across the enclave while offering swift solutions to averting a looming famine. “Any interruption to a food supply that’s already very fragile is a wrong move,” he told UN News. “We’ve seen a 70 per cent decrease in people’s ability...

“As of today, UNRWA, the main lifeline for Palestine refugees, is denied from providing lifesaving assistance to northern Gaza,” UNRWA Commissioner-General Philippe Lazzarini wrote in a social media post on X. He called the decision “outrageous”, saying it was made to intentionally obstruct lifesaving aid deliveries during a man-made famine in the northern part of the Gaza Strip. He underlined the need to lift this ban, adding that UNRWA – the backbone of the humanitarian response in Gaza...