From the UN aid coordination office, OCHA, spokesperson Jens Laerke described chaotic scenes across Lebanon as people continued to flee airstrikes that have killed more than 1,000 people in the past two weeks alone, according to the UN human rights office, OHCHR. “We should expect further displacement,” Mr. Laerke told...
“Palestine will remain ours. And if anyone were to leave, it will be the occupying usurpers,” he declared. He began by highlighting that Palestinians have endured nearly a year of what he described as one of the most heinous crimes of our time. “It is the crime of a full-scale...
“The series of explosions across Lebanon and rockets fired toward Israel in recent days adds to the volatility,” said Tor Wennesland, Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process. He urged all sides “to refrain from steps that will further exacerbate the situation and take immediate steps to de-escalate.” Settlement...
Alice Edwards, the UN Human Rights Council-appointed Special Rapporteur on Torture, also condemned the killing of six Israeli hostages earlier this month and called for an immediate end to hostilities on all fronts. Approximately 250 Israelis and foreign nationals were taken hostage during the 7 October 2023 terror attack by...
In a statement released via his Spokesperson, Secretary-General António Guterres condemned the latest Israeli attack on a school serving as a shelter in Nuseirat on Wednesday, which killed six staffers from the UN Palestine refugee agency, UNRWA, along with at least 12 others, including women and children. “This incident raises...
Stéphane Dujarric said the UN is working to confirm reports that UNRWA staff were killed in the attack on the New Nuseirat school, a site that had previously been deconflicted with the Israeli authorities. “This is the fifth strike on the same location in the past 11 months,” he said....
High Commissioner Volker Türk voiced his concern that Sunday’s poll which saw Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina secure a fifth term in office, was “marred by violence and repression of opposition candidates and supporters”, according to a press release from rights office OHCHR. “In the months leading up to the vote,...
Secretary-General António Guterres said: “I reiterate my strong appeal for an immediate humanitarian ceasefire, together with the unconditional release of hostages and the delivery of relief at a level corresponding to the dramatic needs of the people in Gaza, where a humanitarian catastrophe is unfolding in front of our eyes.”...
That’s the message from the UN Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions, Morris Tidball-Binz, who said on Monday that perpetrators are mostly, but not exclusively, partners or ex-partners, and often escape accountability “due to a lack of proper investigation”. A 2022 report from the UN Office on Drugs...
Volker Türk said he had been “following developments closely” in Israel, where parliamentarians supporting the hard-line nationalist Government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu passed a bill on Monday which in effect strips the Supreme Court of its power to block Government decisions. Opposition parties boycotted the vote which came after...
In a statement from his spokesperson on Monday, Mr. Guterres affirmed that all military operations must be conducted with full respect for international humanitarian law. The incursion follows another operation in the camp on 19 June, which left four Palestinians killed and 91 others injured. Rising death toll The UN’s humanitarian affairs coordination office...
“The choice is clear,” said Tor Wennesland, the UN Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process (UNSCO). “Either continue along the downward spiral of violence and provocations leading to a political vacuum or turn towards constructive dialogue linked to concrete actions that can create hope and a political horizon.” ‘Alarming...