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UN human rights chief Volker Türk on Thursday welcomed the Security Council call for pauses in the fighting in Gaza where “doctors operate on screaming children without anaesthetic, using mobile phones for light”, before appealing directly to the warring sides to lay down their weapons.

Speaking in Geneva, the High Commissioner for Human Rights urged the parties to the conflict to "create the political space for a path out of this horror”. 

The UN’s top emergency relief official unveiled a 10-point plan “to rein in the carnage” in Gaza on Wednesday which focuses on a major expansion of aid into into the wartorn enclave, along with a new call for humanitarian ceasefires and the release of hostages taken during Hamas’s 7 October terror attacks on Israel.

The Security Council passed a resolution Wednesday calling for the immediate release of all hostages held by Hamas and for urgent and extended humanitarian corridors throughout the enclave to save and protect civilian lives. The affirmative vote came after four unsuccessful efforts to take action last month.

Senior UN officials said on Saturday there could be no justification for any “acts of war” in or around any healthcare facilities, amidst reports that Gaza’s largest hospital has come under attack by Israeli forces as they battle Palestinian militants.

In a statement, the Israeli military denied that it had targeted Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City, which they claim is above a Hamas command post, but have acknowledged that fighting is happening “around” the facility.

UN agencies issued an urgent call for international action on Sunday to end the ongoing attacks on hospitals, as Israeli forces battle Palestinian militants in the heart of the Gaza Strip.

The International Labour Organization has launched a funding appeal for its programme to respond to the effects of the current conflict in Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territory (OPT) on the Palestinian labour market.

The appeal identifies a financial requirement of US$20 million to fund the ILO’s three-phase response programme, set to provide both immediate relief and longer-term assistance to mitigate the effects of the crisis on hundreds of thousands of affected Palestinian workers and employers.

The UN’s top relief official Martin Griffiths travelled to the Paris humanitarian conference on Gaza on Thursday to issue an appeal for a significant break in the fighting there, urging greater protection for displaced civilians.

Echoing his remarks with French President Emmanuel Macron looking on, the head of the UN agency for Palestine refugees (UNRWA), Philippe Lazzarini, stressed the “heart-breaking” plight of children in the territory, whom he saw last week “pleading for a piece of bread and a sip of water”.

Any plans for short-term pauses in the fighting in Gaza must be carried out in coordination with the UN and following agreement by all sides, the Spokesperson for the Secretary-General said on Thursday during his regular press briefing from New York. 

Stéphane Dujarric was responding to a journalist’s question following the White House’s announcement that Israel has agreed to halt military operations in northern Gaza to allow daily four-hour humanitarian pauses.

The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights reiterated the call for an urgent ceasefire between Israel and Hamas during a visit to the Rafah crossing and El Arish Hospital in Egypt on Wednesday. 

Volker Türk highlighted the dichotomy at the border crossing, describing it as a “lifeline” for the 2.3 million residents of Gaza over the past month, although “unjustly, outrageously thin.”

As the conflict intensifies in Gaza, with risk of spillover to the wider region, UN Secretary-General António Guterres on Monday underlined the need to support a $1.2 billion humanitarian appeal to help nearly three million people across the Occupied Palestinian Territory.