WHO: Israel agrees to daily pauses in Gaza for polio vaccinations
United Nations — A senior World Health Organization official said Thursday that Israel has agreed to a series of daily nine-hour humanitarian pauses for the duration of a massive polio vaccination campaign in the Gaza Strip, where the first case…
Security Council debates Gaza as WHO announces polio pauses for lifesaving vaccination campaign
The UN Security Council met in emergency session in New York on the continuing crisis in Gaza and the occupied West Bank on Thursday. Earlier, the World Health Organization (WHO) announced agreement had been reached with Israel to allow a…
West Bank crisis: UN chief calls for immediate halt to Israeli strikes
Mr. Guterres’s intervention late Wednesday comes amid one of the biggest Israeli Security Forces (ISF) operations in the West Bank in years – the ISF insists against terrorists – with raids, airstrikes including drones that by Thursday had killed 17…
Security Council: A sustainable future for Syria depends on ending the war
Displacement remains staggeringly high, with over six million Syrians languishing as refugees or asylum-seekers outside the country’s borders and more than seven million displaced internally. Across the country, nearly 17 million people – more than 70 percent of the population…
West Bank strikes: UN rights office condemns Israeli military escalation
The development follows “at least four” airstrikes by the Israeli Security Forces (ISF) in the Nur Shams Refugee Camp in Tulkarem on Monday night that left five dead – three Palestinian men and two boys aged 13 and 15. “Three…
UN food agency suspends staff movements in Gaza following attack
“This is totally unacceptable and the latest in a series of unnecessary security incidents that have endangered the lives of WFP’s team in Gaza,” said the UN agency’s Executive Director Cindy McCain, calling on the Israeli authorities and all parties…
Iran’s Khamenei urges government to impose cyberspace controls
Tehran, Iran — Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on Tuesday urged the new government to impose controls over the Islamic republic’s cyberspace, which has already been under heavy restrictions in recent years. “What matters is for the rule of…
UN upholds safety and efficacy of Gaza polio vaccine
Dire conditions brought on by the war have caused the disease to resurface after more than two decades. Last week, a case was confirmed in a 10-month-old. Countering vaccine misinformation During his daily media briefing from New York on Tuesday,…
In Gaza, evacuation orders threaten to uproot UN’s aid hub once again
In an update, OCHA spokesperson Jens Laerke rejected any suggestion of stopping the lifesaving aid operation, despite the multiple challenges linked to the war and ongoing fighting, sparked by Hamas-led terror attacks in Israel on 7 October. “There’s been no…
Internally displaced families in Yemen need increased aid: UNHCR
The update highlights information from the first half of 2024 and reveals that 4.5 million people are displaced and 18.2 million overall require humanitarian aid. The refugee agency based its update on 47,000 families who have already “endured years of…