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Children as young as four are being forced to go to work in Lebanon amid a “massive collapse” in humanitarian funding and escalating hostilities on the country’s southern border with Israel that threaten to spiral into a “full-scale war”, UN child experts said on Tuesday.

The head of UN peacekeeping and demining reiterated calls on Monday for a ceasefire in Gaza as a first step to returning the war-ravaged enclave to some normality, while mine clearance experts warned that the Strip is now at its “most dangerous period”.

The international community has a duty and responsibility to work towards early recovery in Gaza, but “we cannot ask citizens to wait”, the UN official tasked with coordinating aid delivery into the besieged enclave has said. 

Sigrid Kaag, Senior Humanitarian and Reconstruction Coordinator for Gaza, said the immense suffering caused by months of bombardment must also be addressed. 

“I think it’s very hard for us, in the safety of the outside world, to even start to comprehend what people have been going through,” she told UN News. 

Following reports of alleged Israeli strikes inside Iran near a nuclear power station early Friday, the UN Secretary-General António Guterres issued a new appeal to all parties to “stop the dangerous cycle of retaliation in the Middle East”.

“The Secretary-General condemns any act of retaliation and appeals to the international community to work together to prevent any further development that could lead to devastating consequences for the entire region and beyond,” he said in a statement issued by his Office.

Recent escalations in the Middle East make it even more important to support efforts towards lasting peace between Israel and a fully independent, viable and sovereign Palestinian state, UN Secretary-General António Guterres told the Security Council on Thursday. 

The Security Council rejected Palestine’s request for UN membership on Thursday, with the United States casting a veto.

In a vote of 12 in favour to one against, with two abstentions, the Council did not adopt a draft resolution that would have recommended the General Assembly to hold a vote with the broader UN membership to allow Palestine to join as a full UN Member State.

With the ‘promise of a better world’ in mind the UN Youth Office has launched an new advocacy campaign – “World Leaders: It’s Time to Let #YouthLead” – calling for greater youth representation in decision-making roles in both the public and private sector, civil society, academia, and the UN. 

Strongly condemning the “large-scale attack” launched on Israel by Iran, UN Secretary-General António Guterres has urged maximum restraint by all parties and warned that “neither the region nor the world can afford another war.”

The President of the UN General Assembly appealed on Monday for “all those with leverage” to use their power to bring an end to the six-month-long war in Gaza. 

Dennis Francis convened the UN’s most representative body, comprising all 193 Member States, following the Security Council’s failure to adopt a resolution put forward by the United States last month.  

The Security Council on Monday referred the application of the observer State of Palestine for full UN membership to the specialized committee set up to vet new members.

The proposal for the referral, made by Ambassador Vanessa Frazier of Malta, Security Council President for April, received no objections from the body’s 15 members.