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

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

31 December

  • Inter-Agency Standing Committee (IASC) Statement, Revoke planned international NGO ban, humanitarian leaders urge Israeli authorities (IASC)
  • Statement attributable to the Spokesperson for the Secretary-General – on the adoption of amendments to the Law to Cease UNRWA Operations by the Knesset of Israel (OSSG)
  • OHCHR: Outrageous suspension of numerous aid agencies from Gaza (OHCHR)
  • OHCHR / ISRAEL AID AGENCIES SUSPENSION (UNifeed)

30 December

  • Statement by the Humanitarian Country Team of the Occupied Palestinian Territory on international NGOs (UN RC/HC oPt)
  • UNRWA Commissioner-General on New Anti UNRWA Legislation Passed by the Israeli Parliament (UNRWA)

26 December

24 December

  • Italy and UNRWA Support Vulnerable Palestine Refugee Children Through Inclusive Education Initiative (UNRWA)
  • West Bank: 72 000 families urgently require emergency agricultural assistance, new FAO survey finds (FAO)

22 December

  • Winter aid delivery continues in Gaza (UN News)

19 December

  • Secretary-General’s press encounter on Gaza (OSSG)
  • UN agencies welcome news that famine has pushed back in the Gaza Strip, but warn fragile gains could be reversed without increased and sustained support (WFP)
  • Gaza famine pushed back, but millions still face hunger and malnutrition, UN says (UN News)
  • UNRWA Commissioner-General: Gaza remains a man-made hunger crisis (UNRWA)

17 December

  • UN agencies and NGOs call for immediate lifting of impediments to humanitarian access and NGO operations in the Occupied Palestinian Territory (OCHA)
  • UNRWA Commissioner-General on Gaza: No respite for the children in Gaza as the bitter cold and floods brought by Storm Byron turn deadly (UNRWA)

16 December

  • Gaza ceasefire still fragile as cold turns deadly, Security Council hears (UN News)
  • Security Council Briefing – 16 December 2025 (UNSCO)
  • New demolition orders for West Bank camp is ‘more devastating news’ (UN News)
  • The unprecedented assault on civic space in the Occupied Palestinian Territory (OHCHR)

15 December

  • Supporting Journalists in Gaza: Strengthening Resilience Through Psychosocial training (UNESCO)

11 December

  • Amid violence and displacement: a reproductive health crisis in Gaza –occupied Palestinian territory (OHCHR)

10 December

  • Peace proves relative in Gaza with no let-up in deadly strikes (UN News)

9 December

  • Born vulnerable: the toll of maternal malnutrition and stress in Gaza (UNICEF)
  • Statement by the UN Country team in the Occupied Palestinian Territory on Israeli Unauthorized entry into UNRWA Compound (UN in Palestine)
  • Gaza’s babies ‘scarred by war before first breath’ by malnutrition (UN News)

8 December

  • Statement by the Secretary-General on Israeli unauthorized entry into the UNRWA Sheikh Jarrah compound (OSSG)
  • Lessons from the rains: Call for unfettered access to tackle winter hunger in Gaza (WFP)
  • Statement at the 22nd Meeting of the States Parties to the Anti-Personnel Mine Ban Conference (UNMAS)
  • UNRWA Commissioner-General on occupied West Bank: Israeli Authorities forcibly enter UN Premises in East Jerusalem (UNRWA)

4 December

  • UN support helps Gaza mothers give birth amid collapsing health system (UN News)
  • UNRWA Commissioner-General: Palestine Refugees remain refugees because of the absence of a political solution (UNRWA)

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)

More Crisis Situations