Israel

In Libya, the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs reports that, five weeks after Storm Daniel brought catastrophic flooding to the country’s north-east, more than 43,000 people are still displaced.

The international community must urgently come together to secure an immediate cessation of hostilities, the unconditional release of all hostages and safe and unhindered humanitarian access, delegates heard today, during a Security Council briefing on the situation in the Middle East, following the 7 October invasion of Israel by Hamas and a 17 October attack against the Al Ahli Arab Hospital in Gaza.

Yesterday’s attack on the Al-Ahli Hospital in Gaza, which resulted in hundreds of civilian deaths, is a flagrant violation of international humanitarian law, delegates told the Third Committee (Social, Humanitarian and Cultural) today, as they also engaged in a series of interactive dialogues on the right to education, cultural rights and the impact of climate change on persons with albinism.

In the aftermath of an air strike on a northern Gaza hospital that marked a sharp escalation in the ongoing Israel-Gaza crisis, the Security Council today failed to adopt a resolution put forth by Brazil that would have called for humanitarian pauses to allow full, safe and unhindered access for United Nations agencies and their partners, due to a veto cast by a permanent member of the Council, the United States.

Following is the Statement of the Bureau of the General Assembly’s Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People:

The Security Council today failed to adopt a resolution put forth by the Russian Federation that would have called for an immediate humanitarian ceasefire in the ongoing Israel-Palestine crisis.

The UN Humanitarian Coordinator in Chad, Violette Kakyomya, today warned that the country, now host to nearly 490,000 refugees from neighbouring Sudan and suffering from record levels of rain last year, is facing multiple humanitarian crises. She called for urgent support for 7 million of the country’s 18 million people.

The following statement by UN Secretary-General António Guterres was issued today:

In Gaza, the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs reports the cumulative number of displaced people rose 30 per cent just over the past 24 hours to over 338,000; two thirds are taking shelter in schools run by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA).

In Afghanistan, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs reports that aftershocks continue three days after the earthquake which struck Herat Province and affected over 12,000 people. The UN and its partners are on the ground providing emergency food, shelter, health care and household aid.