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

What you need to know about the United Nations response to the conflict in the Middle East.

13 January

  • Gaza: Humanitarians continue to call for Israel to facilitate aid delivery in Gaza (UN News)
  • Gaza: Al Jazeera ban must be lifted, rights experts urge Palestinian Authority (UN News)
  • Lebanon: United Nations Special Coordinator for Lebanon briefs Security Council (UNSCOL)
  • Lebanon: Guterres to conduct solidarity visit to Lebanon (UN News)

12 January

  • Gaza: Top humanitarian official issues ceasefire appeal during visit to Gaza City (UN News)

10 January

  • Syria: Syria has real opportunity to ‘move from the darkness to the light’ (UN News)
  • Gaza: Critical aid blocked in Gaza, as fuel shortages threaten lifesaving services (UN News)

9 January

  • Syria: More than 125,000 refugees return to Syria in desperate conditions (UN News)
  • Lebanon: UN hails election of new President as a critical first step (UN News)
  • Lebanon: Statement attributable to the Spokesperson for the Secretary-General – on the election of the President of the Republic of Lebanon (OSSG)
  • Lebanon: UN Special Coordinator for Lebanon Jeanine Hennis-Plasschaert On the Election of Lebanon’s President (UNSCOL)
  • Gaza: ‘Children are now freezing to death’: harrowing updates from Gaza (UN News)
UNRWA school turned into a shelter
© UNRWA/Ashraf Amra, Shelters have have been built in an UNRWA school-turned-shelter in Deir Al-Balah.

8 January

  • Gaza: New year brings little new hope for children in Gaza, with at least 74 children reportedly killed in first week of 2025 (UNICEF)
  • oPt: UN Human Rights Office – OPT: A Week into The New Year: Violence Shows no Sign of Abating in the Occupied Palestinian Territory (OHCHR)

7 January

  • Gaza: Humanitarians assist families impacted by recent airstrike in Deir Al-Balah (UN News)
  • Lebanon: Appeal for $371.4 million to boost life-saving support (UN News)

6 January

  • Gaza: First Person: Gaza, where starving people are trapped in a land reduced to rubble (UN News)
  • Gaza: UN relief chief – “Our effort to save lives of survivors in Gaza is at breaking point” (OCHA)
  • Gaza: Statement on shooting at a WFP convoy in Gaza (WFP)

4 January

  • Lebanon: UNIFIL Statement (UNIFIL)

3 January

  • Syria: UN teams support cholera vaccination in northeastern camps (UN News)
  • Lebanon: UN continues to call for timely Israeli withdrawal from southern Lebanon (UN News)
  • Gaza: The clock is ticking fast towards the implementation of the Knesset bill (UNRWA)
  • Gaza: ‘Hospitals have become battlegrounds’: Gaza’s health system on brink of collapse (UN News)
  • Gaza: Winter Deaths are Preventable: Ceasefire, Access Needed for Shelter Aid (IOM)
  • Gaza: Israel’s attacks have devastating impact on Gaza’s hospitals, Türk tells Security Council (OHCHR)

2 January

  • Gaza: ‘Every day without a ceasefire will bring more tragedy’ (UN News)
  • Gaza: Fresh evacuation orders and airstrikes highlight ongoing insecurity in Gaza (UN News)
  • Gaza: UN experts horrified at blatant disregard for health rights in Gaza following deadly raid on Kamal Adwan hospital (OHCHR)
  • Syria: Over 115,000 Syrians have returned home since end of Assad dictatorship (UN News)

The UN Charter remains humanity’s best hope for peace.

Amid geopolitical divisions, member countries must uphold it & ensure that the UN lives up to what it was meant to be:

A forum for solutions.

A guardian of international law.

And a force for peace and security.

António Guterres

Secretary-General of the United Nations (27 May 2026)

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