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UN Photo / Emmanuel Hungrecker

UNRWA staff member recounts agency’s 'impossible mission' in Gaza

Negotiations continued on Thursday towards the implementation of the Israel-Hamas truce in Gaza, where staff from the UN agency that assists Palestine refugees, UNRWA, remain “on the ground doing an impossible mission”.

That’s according to Maha Hijazi, UNRWA Warehousing and Distribution Officer, who was responsible for securing food for hundreds of thousands of people in the enclave, which continues to face dire shortages of food, water fuel and medicines. 

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7'21"
Ziad Taleb

In Gaza, ‘things are getting worse’: Palestine refugees agency

In northern Gaza, nearly 200 people were killed and injured following attacks this weekend on the UN-run Al-Fakoura school, according to Adnan Abu Hasna, a spokesperson for the UN agency for Palestine refugees (UNRWA).

As the Israel-Palestine crisis continues, he told UN News’s Reem Abaza that “things are getting worse.”

Speaking to us from Gaza, Mr. Hasna gave an update on the developing situation and what’s to come as the intensifying humanitarian crisis continues amidst fighting between Israeli forces and Palestinian militants.

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7'42"
UN News

Hopes rising of historic treaty to curb plastic pollution

The world needs a “strong, ambitious and just” treaty to cut down on the mass-produced plastics which are helping fuel the climate crisis, said the head of the UN-backed secretariat steering international negotiations towards a binding agreement to end the scourge, in an interview this week with UN News.

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7'16"
UN News/Abdelmonem Makki

Entire Gaza population now in need of food assistance: WFP

Food systems in Gaza are collapsing and the food aid entering the enclave is barely 10 per cent of the amount needed for the 2.2 million people there.

The warning comes from the World Food Programme (WFP) which says Gazans are not getting enough to eat, making them more susceptible to diseases that can be easily spread.

UN News’s Abdelmonem Makki asked Alia Zaki, WFP Palestine Head of Communications, how the agency is responding now to the immense needs. 

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4'53"
UN News/Nancy Sarkis

Gaza-Israel crisis: Hospitals should not be a war zone, says UN’s emergency relief chief

Five weeks into the Gaza-Israel crisis, the UN’s top emergency relief official on Wednesday reiterated growing international calls for the warring parties to de-escalate, while expressing solidarity with hundreds of thousands of Gazans displaced by bombardment and an order from the Israeli military to leave the north of the enclave.

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5'40"
UN News/Pauline Batista

US suffering ‘selective amnesia’ on issues of racism and xenophobia: Human rights expert

The UN-appointed independent human rights expert on racism and xenophobia said on Tuesday that the United States is suffering a form of “selective amnesia” when it comes to “enduring systemic racism”.

Special Rapporteur Ashwini K.P. has just finished a 14-day fact finding mission across the US where she had conversations with marginalized groups from Black, Brown, and Latino communities and lawmakers, among others. 

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9'25"
© UNHCR/Selim Meddeb Hamrouni

Sudan conflict: First victims are children, says senior UNHCR worker

The heavy fighting that erupted in Sudan on 15 April has forced more than six million people from their homes and created a humanitarian catastrophe that the world must not continue to ignore.

That’s the urgent message from the UN refugee agency (UNHCR’s) Dominique Hyde, who’s just back from White Nile state, where she witnessed the deadly impact of months of conflict on the country’s most vulnerable people, who are now sheltering in hundreds of displacement camps.

Here she is now, speaking to UN News’s Daniel Johnson.

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8'19"
United Nations

UN’s top court, a source of ‘authoritative’ advice

Thursday saw five new judges elected to the International Court of Justice (ICJ) at UN Headquarters in New York, a reminder of its central role as the principal judicial organ for the world body. In addition to disputes brought before the “world court”, intergovernmental bodies can also submit petitions seeking advice on key issues.
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UN News/Khaled Mohamed

Delivering aid to pregnant women in Gaza an ‘impossible equation’

Some 50,000 pregnant women are among the 2.2 million people in besieged Gaza, and 5,500 are due to give birth in the coming weeks, the UN Population Fund (UNFPA) has reported.

As the conflict between Israel and Hamas enters a second month, UNFPA is working round the clock to provide support to pregnant women and hospitals, which face a lack of electricity, water, medicines, supplies and personnel.

Laila Baker, UNFPA Regional Director for the Arab States, said a humanitarian ceasefire is needed now to allow aid in and to protect both civilians and aid workers.

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