Palestinian issues

The United Nations refugee agency today released a report warning that people forced to flee war, violence and persecution are increasingly finding themselves on the front line of the global climate crisis, exposing them to a lethal combination of threats but without the funding and support needed to adapt.

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.

In its annual report, the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) said today that opium cultivation in Afghanistan in 2024 increased by an estimated 19 per cent year-on-year to cover 12,800 hectares. UNODC said that the increase follows on a 95 per cent decrease in cultivation during the 2023 crop season.

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.

 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 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:

It is important to call a genocide a genocide, UN experts told the Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People today as they called on all States to examine their relationships and avoid being complicit in this crime being committed by Israel on the Palestinian people in Gaza.

The following Security Council press statement was issued today by Council President Pascale Christine Baeriswyl (Switzerland):

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.