State of Palestine

The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and its partners today launched a $852.4 million response plan for nearly 1 million Rohingya refugees and their Bangladeshi hosts. Ninety-five per cent of Rohingya households in Bangladesh are vulnerable and dependent on humanitarian aid.

In Lebanon, United Nations peacekeeping personnel report an escalation in the exchanges of fire across the Blue Line in recent days. Several fatalities were reported following Israeli strikes. At least five people were reported to have been killed in Sector West-Khirbet Silim on 9 March, and another person in Baalbek on 11 March.

There are reasonable grounds to believe that conflict-related sexual violence — including rape and gang-rape — occurred across multiple locations of Israel and the Gaza periphery during the attacks on 7 October 2023, a senior United Nations official reported to the Security Council today, as she presented findings from her visit to Israel and the occupied West Bank.

In Chad, the UN, aid partners and the Government today launched the 2024 Humanitarian Needs and Response Plan, which seeks $1.1 billion to help 4.6 million there, with a priority focus on food security and nutrition as the country braces for what could be the worst lean season in over a decade.

In Mozambique, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) today warned that more than 110,000 people have been displaced since the end of 2023 by the resurgence of attacks by non-State armed groups in a distressing escalation of the situation in the Cabo Delgado Province.

In Somalia, the deputy heads of the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs and the Food and Agriculture Organization arrived in the country today on a joint mission to urge continued global support for Somalis suffering from the impact of hunger, conflict and climate change.

The use of the Security Council veto by the United States to block an Algerian draft resolution calling for a ceasefire in Gaza only emboldens Israel to continue its crimes against the Palestinian people, speakers warned the General Assembly today, stressing that the humanitarian situation in the enclave is catastrophic and worsening as a result.

In Myanmar, the conflict now spans vast swathes of the country. More than 350,000 people are displaced in Rakhine. The 2024 Humanitarian Response Plan seeks $994 million to support 5.3 million people in the country, but it is currently just 3 per cent funded.

Lamenting the Security Council’s inability to call for a ceasefire while the entire world demands one, speakers in the General Assembly today drew attention to the mounting death toll and famine in Gaza, while Israel condemned the United Nations for collaborating with terrorists.

In Abyei, the United Nations Interim Security Force there reported that they are continuing to patrol in order to protect civilians and are engaging with community leaders and local authorities to de-escalate intercommunal tensions.