The UN and the crisis in the Middle East: What you need to know (Jan-Jun 2025)

12 June

UN General Assembly adopts Gaza ceasefire resolution by overwhelming majority

Meeting in emergency session on Thursday in New York, the UN General Assembly overwhelmingly adopted a resolution demanding an immediate, unconditional and lasting ceasefire in Gaza (UN News)

• “Hunger must never be met with bullets,” says UN Relief Chief on Gaza aid attacks (OCHA)
• Dr. Ramiz Alakbarov of Azerbaijan – Deputy Special Coordinator and Resident Coordinator, Office of the United Nations Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process (OSSG)

11 June

• Increased Protection of Human Rights in The Occupied Palestinian Territory, Funding Appeal (OHCHR)
• Rising hunger in Gaza highlights urgent need for ‘unfettered’ aid supplies (UN News)

10 June

• Statement on WFP aid operations in Gaza (WFP)
• UNRWA Commissioner-General on Gaza: another day of aid distribution another day of death traps (UNRWA)
• Israeli attacks on educational, religious and cultural sites in the Occupied Palestinian Territory amount to war crimes and the crime against humanity of extermination, UN Commission says (COI OPT)
• Israeli attacks on Gaza schools could be crimes against humanity: UN probe (UN News)

9 June

• Gaza: Search for food puts lives on the line (UN News)

8 June

• Gaza: Women and girls struggle to manage their periods amid crisis (UN News)

7 June

• Statement from the Administrator on the Killing of UNDP Staff Member and his Family in Gaza (UNDP)

6 June

Gaza:

• UNRWA Commissioner-General on Gaza: the ban on international media must be lifted (UNRWA)

Lebanon:

• Airstrikes in Southern Beirut Trigger Panic and Displacement Ahead of Eid (OCHA)

5 June

• Secretary-General’s press encounter on fallen UN personnel (EOSG)
• WHO calls for urgent protection of Nasser Medical Complex and Al-Amal Hospital in the Gaza Strip (WHO)

4 June

US vetoes Security Council resolution demanding permanent ceasefire in Gaza

A draft resolution calling for an immediate and permanent ceasefire in Gaza failed to pass in the UN Security Council on Wednesday after the United States cast its veto – blocking the initiative backed by all ten elected members of the Council. (UN News)

• Security Council Fails to Adopt Resolution Calling for Permanent Ceasefire in Gaza, Owing to Veto by United States (UNSC)

Gaza:

• Statement on aid distribution in Gaza by Tom Fletcher, Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator (OCHA)
• UNRWA Commissioner-General on Gaza: there has been no safe, dignified and significant aid in Gaza for more than three months now (UNRWA)
• UN relief chief welcomes growing support for aid teams to resume vital work (UN News)

3 June

Gaza:

• Note to Correspondents: on Gaza (OSSG)
• OPT: Attacks around aid distribution site in Gaza (OHCHR)
• UN rights chief condemns new killings around private aid hub (UN News)

Yemen:

• One Year in Detention – Heads of United Nations Agencies and INGOs renew demand for release of staff detained in northern Yemen (CARE/OHCHR/OSESGY)
• UN calls for ‘immediate and unconditional’ release of aid workers arbitrarily detained in Yemen (UN News)

2 June

• Statement by the Secretary-General on the situation in the Occupied Palestinian Territory (Gaza) (OSSG)
• From natural process to nightmare: How Gaza’s women and girls cope with their periods in a war zone (UNFPA)

1 June

Gaza:

• Aid distribution has become a death trap (UNRWA)
• Israeli Military Kills 32 Palestinians Seeking Food Aid as ‘Militarised Humanitarian Mechanism’ Deepens Crisis (OHCHR-OPT)
• Lifting of Israeli blockade ‘the only way to avert mass starvation’ in Gaza: UNRWA chief (UN News)
• Helpless in the face of hunger: Gaza families pray for deliverance – or death (UN News)

30 May

• Gaza: The current mass starvation can be stopped. It takes political will (UNRWA)
• Gaza: Songs of hope rise from Gaza’s ruins (UN News)
• Gaza: Gaza is the ‘hungriest place on earth’, as Israel continues stranglehold on aid (UN News)
• Gaza: “Stop the clock on madness”: UN expert appeals to States after Gaza aid distribution shootings (Special Rapporteur)
• Gaza: 600 Days of Israeli War on Gaza – UN Committee Urges Immediate, Unhindered Humanitarian Access (CEIRPP)

29 May

• Gaza: Desperate hunger drives crowd to storm UN food warehouse in Gaza (UN News)

28 May

UN aid teams plead for access amid reports Gazans shot collecting food

In Gaza, dozens of Palestinians have been reportedly injured and shot trying to collect aid from the new US and Israeli-backed aid distribution facility operating independently of the UN (UN News)

• Gaza: Top UN envoy calls on Israel to end devastating strikes, starvation of civilians (UN News)
• Gaza: UNRWA Commissioner-General on Gaza – a summary execution among more than 310 UNRWA staff killed in Gaza (UNRWA)
• Gaza: Statement on incident at WFP warehouse in Gaza (WFP)
• Gaza: Statement by the Humanitarian Country Team of the Occupied Palestinian Territory – on Gaza (OCHA)
• Gaza: OCHA official slams Gaza aid restrictions as “deprivation by design” (OCHA)
• Gaza: Unlawful killings in Gaza and the imperative for accountability (OHCHR-OPT)
• Middle East: Sigrid Kaag, UN Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process A.I. – Briefing to the Security Council on the Situation in the Middle East (UNSCO)
• oPt: Briefing to journalists by Jonathan Whittall, Head of OCHA OPT (OCHA)

27 May

• Gaza: ‘Unimaginable horrors’ – more than 50,000 children reportedly killed or injured in the Gaza Strip (UNICEF)
• Middle East: UNRWA Commissioner General statement on letter sent to the Israeli Minister of Foreign Affairs regarding the Government of Israel’s continuous unsubstantiated claims against the Agency (UNRWA)
• Syria: IOM Welcomes EU and US Decisions to Lift Sanctions on Syria (IOM)

26 May

• Gaza: Agricultural infrastructure continues to deteriorate at alarming rate (FAO)
• East Jerusalem: UNRWA condemns the forced entry of a group of Israelis, including a member of parliament, into the Agency’s compound in East Jerusalem (UNRWA)

25 May

• Gaza: Statement on the Gaza aid blockade and the UN2720 Mechanism (UNOPS)

23 May

• Gaza: Statement by the Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Children and Armed Conflict on Humanitarian Access Imperatives in Gaza (OSRSG Children and Armed Conflict)
• Gaza: Secretary-General’s press encounter on the humanitarian situation in Gaza (OSSG)
• Gaza: WFP Statement (WFP)
• Gaza: Statement on the Gaza aid blockade and the UN2720 Mechanism (UNOPS)
• Gaza: UNRWA Commissioner-General on Gaza – The aid going in now is a needle in a haystack (UNRWA)
• Middle East: “We have no time to lose”, USG DiCarlo reaffirms commitment to a just peace in the Middle East (UN DPPA)

22 May

• Gaza: Fresh bread returns for the first time in over two months as limited supplies reach bakeries overnight (WFP)
• Gaza: Health system at breaking point as hostilities further intensify in Gaza, WHO warns (WHO)
• Gaza: Aid trucks still waiting for Israeli green light inside enclave (UN News)
• Gaza: More than fifty per cent of people killed in Gaza this week were in shelters and residential buildings (OHCHR-OPT)
• West Bank: UN alarmed after warning shots fired at foreign diplomats in the West Bank (UN News)
• USA: Statement attributable to the Spokesperson for the Secretary-General – on the killing of Israeli diplomatic officials in Washington, D.C. (OSSG)

21 May

• oPt: Statement For Regional Director, WHO Eastern Mediterranean Region on Occupied Palestinian territory (WHO)

20 May

• Gaza: UN life-saving aid allowed to trickle into Gaza as needs mount (UN News)
• Middle East: ‘Keep the lights on’ for women and girls caught up in crisis (UN News)
• oPt: UNRWA Annual Health Report Highlights Response Amid War and Rising Health Needs of Palestine Refugees (UNRWA)
• West Bank: UN Human Rights OPT is deeply concerned about waves of settlers’ violence and collective punishment of Palestinians in the occupied West Bank (OHCHR-OPT)