Palestinian issues

In Sudan, the World Food Programme (WFP) reports that since the war began 19 months ago there, the first domestic UN flight travelled today from Port Sudan to Kassala. The WFP-managed flights will now offer regular flights to transport aid workers and light humanitarian cargo from Port Sudan to Kassala once a week.

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.

Following is UN Secretary-General António Guterres’ message, as delivered by Muhannad Hadi, Deputy Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process and United Nations Resident Coordinator and Humanitarian Coordinator for the Occupied Palestinian Territory, to the International Conference on the Role of the International Community and Civil Society Organizations in Promoting and Respecting the Rights of the Palestinian Child, in Amman today:

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.

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.

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.

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.

Citing an “apocalyptic” situation in northern Gaza, delegates in the Fourth Committee (Special Political and Decolonization) today reaffirmed their funding commitments and support for UNRWA’s life-saving work and urged the Israeli Knesset to stop its attempts to dismantle the Agency, as that could fuel “hopelessness and radicalization”, and lead to a humanitarian catastrophe.

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.