Gaza: WHO chief calls for end to latest hospital siege
“Medical staff inside the hospital reported an attack on 20 May, with snipers aiming at the building and an artillery rocket hitting the fifth floor,” Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said on X. Some 148 staff and 22 patients and their companions…
Ukraine: humanitarian, health needs soar as Kharkiv hostilities intensify
“Relentless aerial attacks continue, prolonging and exacerbating an already dire situation,” said UN refugee agency (UNHCR), spokesperson Shabia Mantoo. “More than two years since Russia’s full-scale invasion, regular shelling and attacks continue to claim lives and destroy homes and critical…
Climate crisis fuels deadly floods, worsening hunger in Afghanistan
The UN World Food Programme (WFP) said that as erratic weather on the back of the worsening climate crisis “becomes the norm”, things will only get worse. This month’s unusually high rainfall followed a dry winter, rendering the ground too…
With Gaza on the brink, hostage talks must resume, Security Council hears
Tor Wennesland, UN Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process, underscored the need for continuing the vital discussions, which have been supported by Egypt, Qatar and the United States. “If talks do not resume, I fear for the worst…
UN chief saddened at death of Iranian President in helicopter crash
The crash, which occurred in a mountainous region of northwestern Iran, also claimed the lives of Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian and six other passengers. “The Secretary-General expresses his sincere condolences to the families of the deceased and to the Government…
Rafah exodus passes 810,000, says UNRWA
“Every time families are displaced their lives are at serious risk. People are forced to leave everything behind looking for safety. But, there’s no safe zone,” the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA, said in a post on X. Accompanying…
ICC seeking arrest warrants for Hamas leaders and Israel’s Netanyahu
In a statement, ICC Prosecutor Karim Khan said that there were reasonable grounds to believe that Hamas’s Yahya Sinwar, Mohammed Diab Ibrahim Al-Masri (Deif) and Ismail Haniyeh “bear criminal responsibility” for murder, extermination and taking hostages – among numerous other…
Syria: WHO Regional Director calls for greater investment in health sector
Lives are at risk, and “the cost of inaction is simply too high”, Dr. Hanan Balkhy, WHO Regional Director for the Eastern Mediterranean, said in a statement on Saturday after concluding a five-day visit to Syria. She expressed grave concern…
Gaza: Nearly 800,000 now displaced from Rafah
“Once again, nearly half of the population of Rafah or 800,000 people are on the road,” Commissioner-General Philippe Lazzarini wrote in post on the social media platform X. formerly Twitter. He said that following evacuation orders demanding people to flee…
Israel refutes South Africa’s accusations at UN world court
Linked to South Africa’s ongoing case accusing Israel of violating its obligations under the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide (the Genocide Convention), the new request, filed on 10 May, asked the ICJ to order…