LATEST DEVELOPMENTS
22 April
An independent panel released its much-awaited report on Monday about the UN relief agency for Palestine refugees (UNRWA), providing 50 recommendations and noting that Israeli authorities have yet to provide proof of their claims that UN staff are involved with terrorist organisations.
18 April
The Security Council rejected Palestine’s request for UN membership on Thursday, with the United States casting a veto.
What will it take for Palestine to become a full UN Member State? UN News looks at Palestine’s current status and what it takes to become a UN Member State.
The Occupied Palestinian Territory Flash Appeal seeks $2.822 billion to assist over three million people in Gaza and the West Bank, including East Jerusalem. Urgent aid is needed from April to December 2024.
16 April
As the war on Gaza reached its six-month mark, it continues to be a war on women. According to UN Women estimates, more than 10,000 women have been killed to date, among them an estimated 6,000 mothers who left 19,000 orphan children behind.
14 April
The people of the Middle East are facing a real danger of a devastating full-scale conflict, António Guterres said on Sunday, urging “maximum restraint” across a region on the brink hours after Iran launched attack drones and missiles against Israel overnight Saturday.
12 April
The situation for Gazans remains dire despite hopes stemming from recent commitments by Israel to boost assistance, the UN’s top aid official in the Occupied Palestinian Territory said on Friday.
11 April
People in Gaza are struggling to survive, said the UN Humanitarian Coordinator for the Occupied Palestinian Territory, who was part of a team carrying out an assessment mission on Wednesday in the southern city of Khan Younis following the Israeli military withdrawal last week.
8 April
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.
6 April
With the largest hospital in Gaza largely destroyed and out of action, access to healthcare has now become “totally inadequate” following six months of brutal fighting between Israeli forces and Palestinian militants, said the World Health Organization (WHO) on Saturday.
According to the World Bank, over one million Palestinians are without homes, close to 90 per cent of health facilities have been damaged or wrecked and schools have been destroyed or turned into shelters for the newly homeless.
5 April
Aid officials called on the Security Council on Friday to step in to stop the carnage in Gaza as the war enters its sixth month amid a man-made famine, Israel’s constant bombardment, targeted killings of aid workers and Palestinians civilians and “zero accountability” for the perpetrators.
The UN’s top human rights body adopted a resolution condemning the alleged “use of starvation of civilians as a method of warfare in Gaza”, while also calling for an arms embargo on Israel.
2 April
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”.
1 April
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 open aid access into the enclave and for a temporary ceasefire and the return of all hostages taken in October. (UN News)
30 March
The UN peacekeeping force in south Lebanon (UNIFIL) has announced that it is investigating an explosion in the Rmeish area that injured four unarmed peacekeepers on a foot patrol along the Blue Line that divides Israel from Lebanon and the disputed Golan Heights.
28 March
The International Court of Justice (ICJ) on Thursday issued new provisional measures for Israel as the humanitarian situation in bombarded and besieged Gaza continues to deteriorate.
“in view of the worsening conditions of life faced by Palestinians in Gaza, in particular the spread of famine and starvation”, shall take “all necessary and effective measures to ensure, without delay, in full cooperation with the United Nations, the unhindered provision at scale by all concerned of urgently needed basic services and humanitarian assistance to Palestinians throughout Gaza”
26 March
There are “reasonable grounds” to believe that Israel is committing genocide against Palestinians in Gaza, the UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Occupied Palestinian Territories said on Tuesday.
UNRWA welcomes an announcement by the Government of Germany that it is providing EUR 45 million in new contributions to the Agency’s work in Jordan, Lebanon, Syria and the West Bank.
