What's New

After intense negotiations all week behind closed doors at the 15-member Security Council, ambassadors continued consultations into Thursday evening over the latest version of a draft resolution penned by the United Arab Emirates which reportedly calls for urgent steps to allow safe and unhindered delivery of aid to stricken civilians in the Gaza Strip. The United States said it would support the latest draft if the text remained the same, with a vote now anticipated on Friday. 

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Gaza is by far the most dangerous place in the world to be a child and deaths of youngsters from disease will likely surpass those from bombardment in the absence of a ceasefire, the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) warned on Tuesday.

A lack of food, water, shelter and sanitation continues to put children’s lives at risk as they suffer under relentless airstrikes with no safe place to go, said UNICEF spokesperson James Elder, who recently returned from the enclave.

Developed with extensive technical support from the International Labour Organization (ILO), this milestone marks one of the most significant socioeconomic reforms witnessed by Lebanon in recent years of compounded crises.

While some of the world’s poorest countries are welcoming refugees “with great hospitality”, the international community must match that generosity with far greater solidarity, UN chief António Guterres said on Friday.

Speaking at the closing of the Global Refugee Forum, the Secretary-General said that protection and help for these most vulnerable of people, was “an obligation shared by all of humanity”. 

Nations at COP28 in Dubai approved earlier on Wednesday a roadmap for “transitioning away from fossil fuels” – a first for a UN climate conference – but the deal still stopped short of a long-demanded call for a “phaseout” of oil, coal and gas.

The UN General Assembly met on Tuesday afternoon in Emergency Special Session on the decades long Israel-Palestine conflict and as the ongoing crisis in Gaza shows no signs of abating.  

Member States adopted a resolution, demanding an “immediate humanitarian ceasefire”, the immediate and unconditional release of all hostages and well as “ensuring humanitarian access”.

UN-Habitat, FAO, the Embassy of Japan in Lebanon and the Municipality of Tripoli join community members to mark this achievement.

Invoking a rarely used article of the UN Charter, Secretary-General António Guterres on Wednesday called on the Security Council to “press to avert a humanitarian catastrophe” in Gaza and unite in a call for a full humanitarian ceasefire between Israel and Palestinian militants.