Middle East

20 May 2024UN Affairs UN Secretary-General António Guterres, alongside members of the Security Council, has extended heartfelt condolences to the people and Government of Iran following the death of President Seyyed Ebrahim Raisi in a helicopter accident on Sunday. The crash, which occurred in a mountainous region of northwestern Iran, also claimed the lives of Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian and six other passengers. “The Secretary-General expresses his sincere condolences...

20 May 2024Peace and Security At least 810,000 people have fled Rafah in just two weeks, UN humanitarians said on Monday, amid reports of ongoing Israeli military operations in the southern city and in the north of Gaza. “Every time families are displaced their lives are at serious risk. People are forced to leave everything behind looking for safety. But there’s no safe zone,” the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA, said in a post on X. Accompanying the alert, images showed...

Linked to South Africa’s ongoing case accusing Israel of violating its obligations under the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide (the Genocide Convention), the new request, filed on 10 May, asked the ICJ to order Israel to “immediately withdraw and cease its military operations in the Rafah governate”. Gilad Naom presents Israel’s arguments at the ICJ. An ‘obscene exploitation’ Appearing before the Court, Gilad Naom, co-agent of Israel, refuted South...

17 May 2024Humanitarian Aid Trucks carrying desperately needed aid into Gaza have started moving ashore on the temporary floating dock built by the United States military, but this is not enough to meet the needs of civilians, UN humanitarian affairs office, OCHA, said on Friday. OCHA warned that the maritime corridor cannot replace critical land routes, which are the quickest and most effective way of delivering humanitarian assistance in the besieged enclave, where more than two...

“Food and fuel stocks will run out in a matter of days,” the UN World Food Programme (WFP) warned in a social media post on X. “Since 6 May, we have not been able to access and receive aid from the Kerem Shalom crossing. The situation is becoming unsustainable.” The UN agency highlighted the very real threat that any further escalation of hostilities in Gaza could bring aid operations “to a complete standstill” and lead to a humanitarian catastrophe. The dire assessment comes as the UN...

The current situation has reached an “unprecedented emergency level”, he said, and the most recent evacuation order by Israel has forced tens of thousands to flee. As part of the contingency effort, WHO and partners have been establishing field hospitals and supporting restoration of the Nasser Medical Complex in Khan Younis, which will be used as a main referral hospital and with the aim of re-establishing basic health services. “We have installed a large warehouse in Deir Al Balah and...

Today, more than ever amid the ongoing war in Gaza, this independent commission of inquiry has its work cut out. We took a closer look at its role, speaking to its chair, former UN Human Rights Commissioner and judge Navi Pillay, who provided fresh insight into the developing situation and what’s happening in the field of international law. “Every country and every member of the United Nations is equal in terms of their obligations to observe international law,” she told UN News. An...

Pehr Lodhammar, a senior officer from the United Nations Mine Action Service (UNMAS), said that the war has left an estimated 37 million tonnes of debris. He said it was impossible to determine the exact amount of unexploded ordnance in the enclave where formerly heavily built-up and densely populated neighbourhoods have been reduced to rubble, after nearly seven months of intense Israeli bombardment. Every square metre in Gaza impacted by the conflict contains some 200 kilogrammes of...

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...