News

With seven per cent of the population killed or injured since October 2023, the health crisis in Gaza shows no signs of abating.

Operations by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) north of the UN-monitored Blue Line in southern Lebanon have continued, according to the UN peacekeeping mission in the country, UNIFIL. 

The UN’s top expert on human rights in Haiti on Friday condemned “intentional” attacks on hospitals, clinics and healthcare workers by armed gangs there, warning that medical facilities were already “near collapse”.

In northeast Syria, UN teams pressed ahead with a lifesaving cholera vaccine campaign in Al Hol detention camp complex on Friday, despite rumours of attacks by ISIL extremists and uncertainty across the war-torn country, following the overthrow of the Assad regime. 

The UN Security Council is due to meet in emergency session at 10am in New York on the collapse of health services in Gaza. The meeting was called by Algeria, the leading voice for the Arab world on the Council which has just taken the gavel as president for the month of January. A senior official from the World Health Organization (WHO) is due to brief ambassadors alongside High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Turk. App users can follow here.

More than 115,000 people have reportedly returned to Syria from countries such as Türkiye, Jordan and Lebanon since 8 December – the fall of the Assad regime – the UN refugee agency (UNHCR) said on Thursday. 

Governments must do more to address the root causes of mass migration, UN Children’s Fund UNICEF’s Special Coordinator for the refugee and migrant response in Europe said on Thursday.

Civilians are not safe anywhere in the Gaza Strip, the UN humanitarian affairs office, OCHA, warned on Thursday. 

The head of UN Palestine refugee agency UNRWA again underlined the need for a ceasefire in Gaza in a statement posted on the social media platform X on Thursday. 

UN Secretary-General António Guterres has condemned Wednesday’s truck attack that killed at least 15 people in the city of New Orleans.

Since he began his mandate as UN Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator in Ukraine, Matthias Schmale has seen for himself the devastating effects of the Russian invasion. In this account, written exclusively for UN News, Mr. Schmale shares his impressions of Ukraine, and the efforts of the UN System to support its citizens.

A new report by the UN Human Rights Monitoring Mission in Ukraine (HRMMU) highlights persistent suffering of civilians and prisoners of war (POWs) while Russia continues to expand its control over occupied territories.