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.
The just released UN Environment Programme’s Adaptation Gap Report says that nations must dramatically increase climate adaptation efforts and urgently close the $187-359 billion per year gap that exists between adaptation finance needs and current international public adaptation finance flows.
Journalists, media experts, policymakers and scholars gathered for the opening of the thirtieth annual International Media Seminar on Peace in the Middle East today, held at the Palais des Nations in Geneva.
The UN’s Inter-Agency Standing Committee, which brings together leaders of 15 UN humanitarian agencies and large international humanitarian non-governmental organizations, issued a joint statement describing the situation in North Gaza as apocalyptic, with reports of civilians being targeted while seeking safety.
The following is UN Secretary-General António Guterres’ message to the United Nations International Media Seminar on Peace in the Middle East, in Geneva today:
The thirtieth United Nations International Media Seminar on Peace in the Middle East this afternoon resumed and concluded its activities, holding a session on the topic of Behind the Headlines of Gaza: Media Challenges and Perspectives.
The following statement was issued today by the Bureau of the General Assembly’s Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People:
Israel's targeted destruction of healthcare infrastructure in Gaza threatening the long-term survival of Palestinian people as a group are war crimes and crime against humanity, while Palestinian armed groups also committed a war crime by attacking medical staff, facilities and ambulances in Israel, the Third Committee (Social, Humanitarian and Cultural) heard today.
The United Nations Integrated Office in Haiti (BINUH) today reported that between July and September, over 1,200 people were killed there and more than 500 injured by gang violence, as well as in the fight against gangs. During the same period, the mission also documented 170 kidnappings for ransom.
The unrelenting violence in the Middle East is further diminishing the prospects for a sustainable resolution in the region, warned Tor Wennesland, Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process, as he urged all efforts to de-escalate the situation towards an immediate ceasefire and, ultimately, the two-State solution, as Member States joined the Security Council during its quarterly open debate on the situation in the region and the question of Palestine.
