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.

9 September

  • UNRWA Commissioner-General on Gaza: Gaza is being obliterated, reduced to a wasteland (UNRWA)
  • Secretary-General’s remarks to the Press on the Release of the Report: “The Security we need: Rebalancing Military Spending for a Sustainable and Peaceful Future” (OSSG)

7 September

  • UN Relief Chief demands urgent action to halt spread of famine and suffering in Gaza (OCHA)
  • Statement on Gaza by Tom Fletcher, Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator (OCHA)
  • Statement attributable to the Spokesperson for the Secretary-General – on the terror attack in Jerusalem (OSSG)

5 September

  • Türk calls on the US to withdraw sanctions against Palestinian rights groups (OHCHR)
  • WHO Director-General’s opening remarks at the media briefing (WHO)
  • Preserving history: Esraa and the UNRWA archives (UNRWA)

4 September

The ‘unthinkable’ is underway in Gaza City, UNICEF warns

UN News | Families seek food at a community kitchen in western Gaza City.
UN News | Families seek food at a community kitchen in western Gaza City.

The UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) called on Thursday for the international community to do everything possible to prevent catastrophe in Gaza City as Israel ramps up military operations ahead of a planned full takeover. (UN News)

  • UNRWA statement on return to schools in the occupied West Bank (UNRWA)
  • Statement of Philippe Lazzarini, Commissioner-General of UNRWA at the 164th Session of the League of Arab States Council at the Ministerial Level (UNRWA)

2 September

  • Gaza Strip | Small-scale vegetable cultivation: rare seeds of hope as famine spread (FAO)
  • EU provides €22 million to WHO to keep health services running for over 6.5 million in Syria (WHO)
  • UNHCR deputy chief calls for support to end displacement for millions of Syrians (UNHCR)

1 September

  • UNRWA Commissioner-General on Gaza: Gaza is in ruins. So is its education system (UNRWA)

31 August

  • Statement by the UN Special Envoy for Yemen, Hans Grundberg, on arbitrary detentions of UN personnel by Ansar Allah (OSESGY)

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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