The UN and the crisis in the Middle East: What you need to know (Jul-Dec 2024)

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

20 November

Tor Wennesland, Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process and Personal Representative of the Secretary-General. © UN Photo/Rick Bajornas
Tor Wennesland, Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process and Personal Representative of the Secretary-General. © UN Photo/Rick Bajornas

More than a year into the conflict, “we are at the point where diplomacy has failed in the situation where the geopolitics is superbly difficult,” Tor Wennesland said in an exclusive interview with UN News earlier this week.

  • Gaza: Security Council fails to adopt resolution demanding immediate ceasefire in Gaza, as United States casts negative vote (Security Council)
  • Gaza: Insecurity could bring the humanitarian operation in Gaza to a standstill (OCHA)
  • Lebanon: Special Report – 2024 FAO/WFP Crop and Food Security Assessment Mission to the Lebanese Republic (FAO)
  • Middle East: EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW: ‘We are at the point where diplomacy has failed,’ warns outgoing Middle East envoy (UN News)
  • Middle East: Republic of Korea Contributes US$20 Million to Support WFP’s Emergency Food Assistance in the Gaza Strip and West Bank (WFP)

19 November

18 November

  • Middle East: Press remarks by UNRWA Commissioner General Philippe Lazzarini (UNRWA)
  • Middle East: Tor Wennesland Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process briefing to the Security Council on the situation in the Middle East (UNSCO)

15 November

  • Gaza: Dismantling UNRWA — Gazans’ Lifeline — Would Breed ‘Resentment and Hatred’, Fourth Committee Speakers Warn, Urging Israel to Cease Attempts to Do So (UNRWA)
  • Lebanon: UNIFIL Statement – Artillery shell hits UNIFIL sector west headquarters (UNIFIL)

13 November

  • Lebanon: Flash Update #43 – Escalation of hostilities in Lebanon, as of 11 November 2024 (OCHA)

12 November

  • NEW: UNRWA oPt Flash Appeal Progress Report (1 January – 30 June 2024)

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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