What's New

Top UN officials continued to line up on Tuesday to defend the irreplaceable role of the global body’s agency for Palestine refugees, UNRWA, insisting that if implemented, the Israeli parliament’s decision to ban it would only deepen suffering in Gaza.

UN Secretary-General António Guterres on Tuesday called for decisive action to restore harmony with nature, warning that environmental crises are pushing humanity toward tipping points that threaten ecosystems, livelihoods and global stability.

Speaking at the opening of the 16th Conference of the Parties to the UN Convention on Biological Diversity (COP16), he emphasized that “making peace with nature is the defining task of the 21st century.”

With each day that passes, the deadly cycle of violence in Lebanon expands, leaving ever more devastation and suffering in its wake.

Lebanon is now facing a humanitarian crisis of catastrophic proportions, with mounting civilian casualties, mass displacement and extensive destruction of civilian infrastructure across the country.

Around 890 children have been injured in the past year in Lebanon, according to the country’s Ministry of Public Health, with 75 per cent of those injuries occurring in the last month. As the conflict escalates, the number of child casualties has risen rapidly.

Monsieur le President, Excellencies, Friends of Lebanon,

I welcome this initiative by President Macron and underscore our commitment to realizing the aims of this conference and supporting the people of Lebanon.

We do so in the context of a region that is reeling, and Lebanon in utter turmoil.

President Macron, Prime Minister Mikati, Excellencies, distinguished guests and colleagues,

Thank you, President Macron, for bringing us together at this crucial moment. France has always been a steadfast advocate for Lebanon, as today once again shows.

Thank you, Prime Minister Mikati, for your leadership at a time of unprecedented crisis.

Over the past days, we have witnessed increasingly severe impact on civilian infrastructure and civilians across Lebanon due to Israeli airstrikes.

Health care facilities, mosques, historical markets, residential complexes, and now government buildings are being reduced to rubble. Displaced families continue to feel at risk, even after fleeing to safe areas.

With no let-up to the ongoing Israel-Lebanon conflict, the UN human rights office on Tuesday called for an independent probe into an Israeli airstrike that hit an apartment block in northern Lebanon a day earlier that left a reported 22 dead.

“What we’re hearing is that amongst the 22 people who were killed were 12 women and two children,” said Jeremy Laurence, spokesperson for the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR).

In response to the escalating crisis in Lebanon the ILO Employment Intensive Infrastructure Programme (EIIP), funded by Germany through the KfW Development Bank and by internal ILO funding is expanding its activities to address the urgent needs of displaced families and individuals affected by the crisis while also creating much-needed job opportunities for local residents.

The head of UN Peace Operations on Monday said ambassadors in the Security Council had given a “unanimous expression of support” to peacekeepers in Lebanon remaining in position along the Blue Line that separates south Lebanon from Israel, despite coming 

Jean Pierre Lacroix was speaking to the media at UN Headquarters in New York after emerging from a closed door meeting on peacekeeping mission UNIFIL, amidst Israeli calls for the force to vacate the area and move further north.