This is the News in Brief from the United Nations.

Gaza latest: nearly 600 healthcare attacks since start of war, says WHO

Hospitals in Gaza and other vital medical infrastructure have been attacked nearly 600 times since war erupted in the enclave in response to the Hamas-led massacres in southern Israel, the UN health agency said on Friday.

Some 613 people have died in health attacks since 7 October last year and more than 770 have been injured, according to latest data on healthcare attacks from the World Health Organization (WHO).

Condemning the attacks, the WHO said that they were “pushing the people of Gaza to breaking point”.

The UN health agency’s online platform covering attacks on healthcare indicated that more than 550 medical facilities and vehicles had been impacted in the almost 100 days since the relentless Israeli airstrikes began in Gaza.

The attacks have affected 94 healthcare sites including 26 hospitals damaged out of a total of 36 in the enclave.

Meanwhile, the UN agency providing help to Palestinians, UNRWA, said that the total number of staff killed since the beginning of hostilities stands at 142.

UN migration agency launches $69 million appeal for Gaza relief

In a related story, UN migration agency IOM launched an urgent appeal for $69 million on Friday to support its response to rising and critical humanitarian needs in the Occupied Palestinian Territories.

The International Organization for Migration appeal also covers neighbouring countries affected by the ongoing hostilities in Gaza.

In a statement, IOM said that hundreds of thousands of civilians need aid desperately. But getting help to them continues to be hampered by “long clearance procedures for humanitarian aid trucks at the border (and) the intense ground operation and fighting”.

“Frequent disruption” to communication networks has also prevented humanitarian aid coordination, the UN agency said “along with insecurity, blocked roads and scarcity of fuel”.

Outside Gaza, IOM noted that the deteriorating security situation along the border areas between Israel and Lebanon has forced some 76,000 people from their homes in southern Lebanon.

COVID-19 infections rise 52 per cent in a month, warns UN health agency

COVID news now and the UN health agency WHO confirmed on Friday that coronavirus numbers are spiking globally and that we “should expect more cases” in the coming winter months in the northern hemisphere.

Latest data from the World Health Organization covering the four weeks to 17 December indicated a 52 per cent increase in infections compared with the previous 28 days.

That amounts to 850,000 new COVID-19 cases reported, but the true figure is likely much higher, according to WHO spokesperson Christian Lindmeier:

“You know that all throughout the world…the reporting has dropped, the surveillance centers have dropped, the vaccination centers have dropped, have been dismantled as well or shut down…so this, of course, leads to an incomplete picture and we should expect unfortunately more cases than we have officially reported.”

Most infections have been caused by a new COVID strain called JN.1 which is now under close scrutiny by the UN health agency as a “variant of interest”. JN.1 was reportedly first detected in the United States before spreading across dozens of countries.

It evolved from the Omicron variant which was linked to a peak in COVID infections in 2022.

Daniel Johnson, UN News.