Peace and Security

As the crisis in the Middle East grinds on, we covered the latest updates from the field and at UN Headquarters as Israel Defense Forces (IDF) attacked UN peacekeepers from the UNIFIL mission in Lebanon. At UN Headquarters in New York, events included the Security Council discussing the situation in an emergency session and the UN spokesperson's daily news briefing, which included a UN official who described his recent visit to Gaza, which he said has suffered unparalleled devastation. UN News app users can follow here.

Israel Defense Forces (IDF) fired on UN peacekeepers in Lebanon early Thursday morning, according to UNIFIL, the mission operating along the Security Council-mandated “Blue Line” of separation between the two countries which they patrol.

In Lebanon, health workers and medical facilities have continued to be hit and killed by ongoing Israeli bombardment, a week since Israel sent troops and armoured vehicles into the south of the country and issued evacuation orders, UN humanitarians said on Thursday.

As turmoil roils the Middle East, senior UN officials provided humanitarian updates on the impact of continued fighting in Lebanon and Gaza, while many ambassadors in the Security Council offered strong support for the "indispensable" role of the Palestine refugee agency, UNRWA, which has come under increasing attack in the Israeli parliament. UNRWA chief Philippe Lazzarini said attempts to "dismantle" the agency would compromise humanitarian work and human rights worldwide. Full coverage for app users here.

The prospect of all-out war in Lebanon appeared undiminished on Wednesday as the head of the UN agency for Palestine refugees, UNRWA, said that there was “no end to hell” in northern Gaza, where lifesaving relief has shut down.

The situation in Africa’s Great Lakes Region, in particular the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), has remained “alarming” amid ongoing violence in the restive country’s east, said the UN Special Envoy to the Region in a briefing to the Security Council on Tuesday. 

The UN peacekeeping mission UNIFIL has been operating along the “Blue Line” which separates Lebanon and Israel since the 1970s, and its mandate was just renewed for another year by the UN Security Council. But what is UNIFIL and what is it doing amid the escalating conflict between Hezbollah and Israel Defense Forces (IDF)?

Two bills before the Israeli parliament could put a halt to the lifesaving operations of UN Palestine relief agency, UNRWA, which has been indispensable and irreplaceable “more than ever” over the past year of war in Gaza, Secretary-General António Guterres said on Tuesday. 

UN humanitarians in Lebanon on Tuesday described the massive challenge of trying to reach some 1.2 million people who have fled heavy Israeli bombardment and evacuation orders, driven by the fear that what happened in Gaza may befall them, too.

A Palestinian man living in a refugee camp in northern Gaza has talked of the ‘indescribable’ pain he has experienced over the past year as the conflict in the beleaguered enclave continues.