While the 21 May ceasefire is holding, Council members heard today that, following eleven days of the most intense hostilities in years, the 15-member organ must take concrete action to resolve the conflict between Israel and Palestine, breaking the vicious cycle of disregarded resolutions and recurring violence and transcending the hollow peace process that has failed civilians on both sides.
United Nations staff in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo are closely monitoring developments in Goma, where state authorities decided on 26 May to evacuate 10 districts on the heels of the Nyiragongo Volcano eruption. Tens of thousands are leaving the area amid an already challenging humanitarian situation.
Saint Vincent and the Grenadines is working to restore normalcy following the eruption of La Soufrière volcano in April, with efforts shifting from providing aid to recovering better and boosting preparedness for the hurricane season, which starts next week. Of the 23,000 displaced people, more than 4,000 are in shelters; 18,000 are in private homes.
Delegates welcomed the recent ceasefire between Israel and Hamas and urged stakeholders to use the agreement as an opportunity to reopen dialogue and address the root causes of the conflict, as the General Assembly wrapped up its special debate on the situation in the Middle East this morning.
The following Security Council press statement was issued today by Council President Zhang Jun (China):
The World Health Organization today said that more than 1.2 million people urgently need health assistance in Cabo Delgado province in Mozambique, where recent armed attacks sparked further population displacement and deepened a protracted humanitarian crisis.
With the Security Council unable to respond to the worst round of fighting between Israel and the Palestinians in years, and as welcome news of a ceasefire agreement broke, speakers in the General Assembly today demanded an immediate halt to the violence and intensified efforts to restart peace talks that advance a two‑State solution to a conflict nearly as old as the United Nations itself.
The current volatile moment in the Israel-Palestine conflict must be used to mobilize political will and ensure accountability for Israel’s violations, the Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People heard today amid calls for a ceasefire in the region.
The Secretary-General welcomed the beginning of consultations between Papua New Guinea and the Autonomous Bougainville government, following a referendum on Bougainville’s political future held in 2019. The consultations mark an “important step” in the implementation of the 2001 Bougainville Peace Agreement.
As fighting between Israel and Palestinians in Gaza broke furiously into its seventh day, foreign ministers in the Security Council today called unequivocally for an immediate end to the bloodshed, sounding alarm bells over the imminent potential for the violence to spill into the wider region.
