UN News

Nearly 360,000 people have fled Rafah in the last week amid continuing Israeli bombardment that has crippled humanitarian aid deliveries and is believed to have killed another UN aid worker, the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA, said on Monday. “Nearly 360,000 people have fled Rafah since the first evacuation order a week ago,” the […]

Israeli military manoeuvres and shelling continued in and around eastern Rafah in southern Gaza on Wednesday morning as UN humanitarians stressed that “no fuel or aid” is getting into the enclave. “We’re not receiving any aid, the crossing area has ongoing military operations and is an active war zone,” said Scott Anderson, from the UN agency […]

Millions of lives each year rely on the expertise and care of midwives and yet a global shortage is squeezing the profession like never before, the UN sexual and reproductive health agency UNPFA said on Sunday, marking the International Day of the Midwife.  This year the vital role of midwives during the ongoing climate crisis is […]

Amid reports that 100,000 Palestinians have been told to leave Rafah ahead of an anticipated Israeli military operation in Gaza’s southernmost city, UN humanitarians on Monday insisted that they had no intention of quitting the vital aid hub. “An Israeli offensive in Rafah would mean more civilian suffering and deaths. The consequences would be devastating […]

An increase in civilian casualties caused by intensifying attacks from the Russian armed forces against Ukraine’s electric power infrastructure and railway system calls for concern, the UN Human Rights Monitoring Mission in Ukraine (HRMMU) said on Monday.  Since 22 March, Ukraine’s energy infrastructure sustained four waves of attacks that killed six people, injured at least […]

The Security Council prepared to convene on Monday to consider a Palestinian request for United Nations membership as humanitarians expressed deep concerns about Israel’s planned invasion of Rafah and the desperate lack of aid reaching Gaza. At the same time, a full six months since Hamas-led terror attacks in Israel prompted an unprecedented Israeli military […]

The head of the UN nuclear watchdog agency reiterated that attacks against nuclear power plants in Ukraine are “an absolute no go”, following direct military action targeting the Zaporizhzhya Nuclear Power Plant (ZNPP) on Sunday. Rafael Grossi, Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), said the targeting marked a “major escalation” in the level […]

The killing of seven aid workers from the NGO World Central Kitchen in Israeli military airstrikes in central Gaza has been strongly condemned by senior UN humanitarian officials who on Tuesday reiterated repeated concerns that “there is no safe space left in Gaza”. “This is not an isolated incident,” said Jamie McGoldrick, UN Humanitarian Coordinator […]

Intense hostilities in Gaza continued on Tuesday between Hamas fighters and Israeli forces with a “double-digit number of children killed overnight” and ongoing aid delivery obstacles that are responsible for near-famine conditions, UN humanitarians said. The continuing violence came despite an immediate ceasefire call for the remainder of Ramadan from the Security Council on Monday, prompting urgent appeals from UN aid […]

The UN Security Council on Monday passed a resolution demanding an immediate ceasefire for the month of Ramadan, the immediate and unconditional release of hostages and “the urgent need to expand the flow” of aid into Gaza. There were 14 votes in favour with the United States abstaining. 12:15 PM This is a first step: Yemen The Representative […]

Amid growing global concerns over alarming hunger spikes in conflict-affected communities and talk of intensifying levels of food insecurity possibly leading to famine, we looked into how – and when – a famine is classified. With the release of the latest food security report from the Integrated Phase Classification (IPC) on war-ravaged Gaza since December, World Food Programme (WFP) […]

Women’s rights are under attack, and governments must act to reverse that dangerous trend, the UN chief told a his annual town hall event with civil society activists on Wednesday, as the Commission on the Status of Women (CSW68) session continued its first week, with a host of side events highlighting deteriorating conditions around the […]

Amid reports of fresh Israeli airstrikes in Gaza overnight into Wednesday, the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) said that more children have been killed there in recent months than in four years of conflict worldwide.  “This war is a war on children. It is a war on their childhood and their future,” said UNRWA Commissioner-General Philippe […]

March 5, 2024 – A rare opportunity to deliver desperately needed supplies to hospitals in northern Gaza for the first time in months has been welcomed by UN humanitarians who on Tuesday issued a fresh alert about “appalling” conditions in medical facilities where more children risk are battling life-threatening malnutrition. “WHO and partners managed to access […]

The “carnage” in Gaza has left more than 30,000 dead and must end immediately, UN rights chief Volker Türk told the Human Rights Council on Thursday, after almost five months of constant Israeli bombardment and mass displacement in the enclave, prompted by Hamas-led attacks.  “The war in Gaza must end,” Mr. Türk said, insisting that it was “well past […]

The Security Council met on Thursday at UN Headquarters in New York on the situation in the Gaza Strip, wracked by months of unrelenting war and tensions spilling into the wider Middle East region, with no solutions on the horizon to stop the fighting. Tor Wennesland, UN Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process, […]

The UN Security Council met in New York on Gaza on Tuesday, where the United States vetoed a resolution put forward on behalf of Arab States by Algeria demanding “an immediate humanitarian ceasefire that must be respected by all parties”.  12:22 PM The latest Council meeting on the Middle East crisis spiralling outwards from the war in […]

As the second anniversary of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine approaches, a senior UN official on Monday voiced deep concern over the escalatory trajectory of the war with intensifying attacks on civilians. Miroslav Jenča, UN Assistant Secretary-General for Europe at the Department of Political and Peacebuilding Affairs (DPPA), warned that the fighting risked “further diminishing […]

Any move by Israel to extend its full-scale invasion of Gaza into the massively overcrowded southern city of Rafah could lead to war crimes which must be prevented at all costs, the UN aid coordination office, OCHA, said on Tuesday. “We as the UN and Member States of the UN can bear witness,” OCHA spokesperson Jens Laerke […]

Ongoing hostilities across the Gaza Strip have been “particularly intense” in the southern city of Khan Younis, UN humanitarians warned on Monday, as the UN agency for Palestinians, UNWRA, reported that its shelters were now four times over-capacity. “There is simply not enough food,” UNRWA tweeted on social platform X, formerly Twitter, with photographs from another city slightly […]