The Security Council today failed to adopt a text, put forward by its 10 elected members, that called for an immediate, unconditional and permanent ceasefire in Gaza and demanded the release of all hostages, on account of a negative vote cast by a permanent member.
As the Security Council meeting of 18 November concluded, regional delegations, condemning the horrific aggression being wrought upon the Palestinian people by Israel, along with that country’s attacks against Lebanon, urged the 15‑nation organ to adopt a resolution calling for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza before famine consumes it and the dangerously escalating violence engulfs the entire Middle East.
Israel’s methods of war align with the characteristics of genocide, the Chair of the Special Committee to Investigate Israeli Practices Affecting the Human Rights of the Palestinian People and Other Arabs of the Occupied Territories told the Fourth Committee (Special Political and Decolonization) today.
A convoy of 109 trucks with food supplies for the World Food Programme and the United Nations Relief and Works Agency, originally scheduled for 17 November, was instructed by the Israel Defense Forces to depart at short notice via an unfamiliar route on 16 November from the Kerem Shalom crossing and was looted inside Gaza.
“The current conditions are among the worst we’ve seen during the entire war and are not set to improve,” Tor Wennesland, Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process, warned the Security Council during a meeting on ending the war in Gaza and Lebanon and securing durable peace in the Middle East, as Member States echoed the need for a ceasefire and voiced concern over developments that jeopardize the two-State solution.
Despite pledges to slash methane emissions by 30 per cent by 2030 — key to getting global warming under control, only 1 per cent of the Methane Alert and Response System in the past year were responded to, a UN Environment Programme report released today states. The system is an untapped opportunity for climate action.
In Haiti, over 4,300 people were forced to flee their homes in Port-au-Prince and neighbouring towns since 10 November, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) reports. Starting today, the World Food Programme (WFP) is delivering assistance to over 50,000 internally displaced people in the capital Port-au-Prince.
More than 100 employees of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) are involved in terrorism, some holding simultaneous positions within Hamas and the Agency, Israel’s delegate told the Fourth Committee (Special Political and Decolonization) today while representatives of States in the region and beyond expressed concern about that country’s systematic disinformation campaign against the Agency.
The collapse of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) will threaten lives, regional stability and the integrity of the multilateral system, its chief warned the Fourth Committee (Special Political and Decolonization) today, pointing to recent legislation passed by the Israeli Parliament that could end the Agency’s operations in the Occupied Palestinian Territory in less than three months.
Speakers urged the Security Council today to prevent northern Gaza’s descent into famine amid relentless death and destruction, as the 15-member body convened an emergency meeting in response to experts’ warnings that immediate action is required within “days, not weeks” to avert the scourge.
