This is the News in Brief from the United Nations. 

Gaza: Vital aid reaches shattered north as halt to fighting enters fourth day

Desperate Gazans in the north of the enclave had their first sip of clean water in weeks on Monday as a continuing pause in fighting enabled broadening aid access to the Strip.

“This aid barely registers against the huge needs of 1.7 million displaced people,” a statement from the UN Secretary-General's office said, highlighting his call for a full humanitarian ceasefire. “The humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza is getting worse by the day.”

The UN emergency relief coordination office, OCHA, reported that people in the south were queuing for kilometres to obtain cooking gas and resorting to burning window frames and doors so they could cook.

Meanwhile, the four-day humanitarian pause agreed upon by Israel and Hamas has been “largely maintained”, according to OCHA.

Under the agreement, Hamas released 17 more hostages taken during the armed group’s terror attacks in southern Israel on 7 October, bringing the total number of hostages released to 58. Some 117 Palestinians held in Israeli prisons have also been released since Friday.

WHO chief calls on leaders to deliver on global health at COP28 in Dubai 

Climate action is health action and the legacy of the COP 28 climate conference opening later this week in Dubai should be a commitment to a healthier planet.

That’s the message from UN health agency WHO, which said on Monday that negotiators at the upcoming meeting must recognize their responsibility “for the health of populations worldwide”.

“Leaders must deliver in Dubai, providing the strong health outcomes their peoples expect and their economies urgently need,” said WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus. 

According to the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), some 3.5 billion people – nearly half of humanity – live in areas highly vulnerable to climate change, and curbing greenhouse gas emissions is urgent to mitigate the disastrous health effects of global warming. 

WHO said that rising temperatures have caused a 70 per cent increase in heat-related deaths among people aged 65 and over in the last two decades, while infectious diseases like dengue and cholera have surged. 

At the same time, flooding and drought have wrought havoc on food production.

Transitioning to clean energy sources is also urgent to help prevent the seven million premature air pollution deaths every year, WHO insisted.

Sudan: UN hails humanitarian milestone in Darfur, calls for broader access

The conflict in Sudan has entered its eighth month, and while aid access remains extremely challenging, UN humanitarians are doing their utmost to reach people in need.

On Monday, the UN’s top humanitarian official in Sudan, Clementine Nkweta-Salami, welcomed the arrival of the first cross-border humanitarian shipment from Chad to Al Fasher in North Darfur state.

Facilitated by UN aid coordination office OCHA, the relief includes medical and nutritional supplies.

The development follows another milestone last week when humanitarians delivered medical supplies to Central Darfur for the first time since conflict broke out in April.

Humanitarians continue to call for sustained aid access across Sudan, where almost half the population face severe levels of hunger, according to the UN World Food Programme (WFP). 

Last week, UN emergency relief chief Martin Griffiths deplored the fact that the Sudanese capital Khartoum remains inaccessible to humanitarian relief and highlighted the “distressing” toll of the conflict on civilians in Darfur. 

Dominika Tomaszewska-Mortimer, UN News.