The United Nations Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in the Central African Republic deployed a rapid reaction force near Ndélé, Bamingui-Bangoran Prefecture, to protect civilians amid reports of possible attacks by armed groups. The Mission continues to reinforce community protection, including in Ouadda-Djallé, Vakaga Prefecture, through early warning training.
Israel
The ceasefire in Gaza, brokered by the United Nations and Egypt, still holds. Humanitarian partners are responding to the needs of affected families and the United Nation Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees is providing services, as usual. Meanwhile, Israel has reopened the crossings with Gaza yesterday.
The Bureau of the United Nations General Assembly Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People is following with grave concern the latest developments in Gaza.
The Security Council held an emergency meeting today to assess a fragile truce between Israel and Palestinian Islamic Jihad militants in Gaza after three days of deadly fighting, with the Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process calling on all sides to abide by the agreement and delegates denouncing the deliberate targeting of civilians, notably children.
The following statement was issued today by the Spokesman for UN Secretary-General António Guterres:
In Sudan, according to preliminary reports from local authorities and United Nations partners, over 31,000 people have been displaced following intercommunal violence in Ganis town in Blue Nile State. Humanitarian organizations continue to provide the displaced and other affected people with assistance.
Addressing tensions between Israelis and Palestinians as they arise cannot replace efforts to resolve core issues driving the conflict, a senior United Nations official for the region told the Security Council today, as Council members stressed the need to implement a two-State solution while other delegates criticized the organ’s inability to meaningfully resolve a crisis that has persisted for over 70 years.
In Ukraine, the United Nations and its humanitarian partners delivered 50 tons of relief supplies for 5,000 people to Stepnohirsk, which is close to the front lines in south-eastern Zaporizka oblast. The convoy contained life-saving supplies, including medicine, food, blankets and other essentials.
Security Council members today expressed their alarm with the escalating tensions and violence plaguing the occupied Palestinian territories as a top United Nations envoy laid out the troubling trends that are undermining prospects for a peaceful two-State resolution of the conflict.
The Security Council heard stories of hope for reconciliation between Israelis and Palestinians today, including from the mother of a boy killed in the conflict, who said that the tears that fell on the graves of both Israelis and Palestinians were of the same colour.