This is the News in Brief from the United Nations. 

Israel-Palestine: Gaza buckles under fuel shortage, healthcare in crisis

On day 17 of the Gaza-Israel crisis, UN humanitarians pleaded for desperately-needed fuel deliveries and other relief items to prevent the already dire situation in the enclave from worsening further.

Here’s UN health agency (WHO) Emergencies Director for the Eastern Mediterranean Region Dr. Rick Brennan, briefing reporters from Cairo:

“We are on our knees asking for sustained, scaled up, protected humanitarian operations. We appeal to all those in a situation to make a decision or to influence decision makers, to give us the humanitarian space to address this human catastrophe.”

Doctors have been performing surgeries without anaesthesia or other basic surgical supplies, while fuel shortages are having disastrous results.

Without fuel, “trucks can’t move and generators can’t produce electricity for hospitals, bakeries and water desalination plants,” said Tamara Alrifai, spokesperson for the UN agency for Palestine refugees (UNRWA).

To date, fuel has not been included in the three aid convoys allowed into Gaza from Egypt since last Saturday, totalling 54 trucks of humanitarian supplies.

WHO’s Dr. Brennan highlighted the dire consequences of a lack of access to clean water, compounded by overcrowding in shelters. He said that between one and three litres per person per day were available in Gaza; the recommended minimum is 15 litres. Because people have been forced to consume contaminated water, the spread of infectious diseases is “just a matter of time”.

Sudan humanitarian crisis deepens; more than 5.6 million displaced 

Over six months since conflict broke out in Sudan, more than 5.6 million people have fled their homes and 25 million need aid to survive, in what has become “one of the world’s fastest-growing humanitarian crises”.

The UN’s top humanitarian official in the country, Clementine Nkweta-Salami, shared the grim update on Tuesday; she stressed that “the longer this fighting continues, the more devastating its impact”.

More than 4.2 million women and girls are at risk of gender-based violence, Ms. Nkweta-Salami said, and one in every three children has no access to school.

The UN official underscored that since the start of the crisis, the UN and its partners have delivered food to three million people in 17 of Sudan’s 18 states, provided safe drinking water to over two million people and health supplies to three million women and children.

They have also “received and recorded reports of human rights violations and abuses”, she said.

In a call to Sudan’s rival militaries to “stop the fighting”, Ms. Nkweta-Salami urged them to commit to “a durable cessation of hostilities, abide by their obligations under international humanitarian and human rights law to protect civilians, and enable safe humanitarian access to those in need”.

Australia: ‘No’ vote on Indigenous Peoples’ recognition a ‘missed opportunity’: Türk

In Australia, the failure of a referendum to enshrine recognition of Indigenous Peoples in the constitution is a “missed opportunity”, UN rights chief Volker Türk said on Tuesday.

 Mr. Türk was speaking after Australians decided in a 14 October referendum not to officially recognize Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples in the country’s Constitution.

Over 60 per cent of Australian voters and a majority in all six states voted ‘No’ to the proposals.

While he deplored the “scaremongering, misinformation and disinformation” in the campaign against the vote, the UN rights chief stressed the importance of the debate within the country on the “exclusion and disadvantage suffered by Indigenous Peoples”.

“Realizing rights to equality, to self-determination and to participation of Indigenous Peoples in decisions that affect them, including through their self-governing bodies, remains central to Australia’s future – and is reinforced by Australia’s international human rights obligations,” Mr. Türk said.

He called on the country’s political leaders to “work to unite rather than divide” the population on this issue and intensify efforts to address the continued exclusion and disadvantage of the First Peoples of Australia. 

Dominika Tomaszewska-Mortimer, UN News.