Middle East

Nickolay Mladenov, UN Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process and Personal Representative of the Secretary-General to the Palestine Liberation Organization and the Palestinian Authority, briefs the Security Council.
UN Photo/Amanda Voisard

Inaction has ‘cost measured in human lives,’ Security Council told in Middle East debate

23 November 2016
Briefing the Security Council on the Middle East peace process, two senior United Nations officials – the UN relief chief and the UN coordinator for the Middle East peace process – called for action to prevent further deterioration of the region plagued by humanitarian crises and to save lives and alleviate human suffering.
An Israeli Security Forces vehicle lights a gate in the security fence that separates farmers in the Biddu enclave from their land in the Seam Zone, which is the land between the 1949 Armistices Line and the West Bank Barrier.
Alaa Ghosheh/UNRWA Archives

If passed, Israeli legislation would be ‘another nail in the coffin’ for two-state solution – UN expert

21 November 2016
A new piece of Israeli legislation would enable the confiscation of privately owned Palestinian land and if passed, would deal yet another severe blow to hopes of lasting peace in the region, according to a United Nations human rights expert.
Two girls walk home from school in eastern Aleppo in the Syrian Arab Republic.
UNICEF/Rami Zayat

‘Shame on us all’ for failing to stop annihilation of eastern Aleppo, UN aid chief tells Security Council

21 November 2016
Emphasizing that month after month he returns to the Security Council with new reports of ever-worsening human suffering in Syria, the top United Nations humanitarian official today urged the 15-member body to act now and end the protracted conflict.
A primary school in Hujjaira, Rural Damascus, Syria, damaged due to continuous violence in the area.
UNICEF/M. Abdulaziz

UN chief denounces attacks on civilians and civilian infrastructure in Syria's Aleppo

20 November 2016
United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon as well as senior humanitarian officials have condemned attacks that have killed and maimed scores of civilians in Syria, including children, and called on all parties to cease such attacks as well as to ensure unhindered humanitarian access to the people in need.
Dar Sa’ad District, Aden, Yemen.
WFP/Ammar Bamatraf

Yemen: UN envoy announces resumption of cessation of hostilities

19 November 2016
Announcing the resumption of a comprehensive of hostilities in the war-torn Gulf nation, the United Nations Special Envoy for Yemen, Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed, has called on all parties to ensure that it leads to a permanent and lasting end to the conflict.
A man hauls a wooden cart with his family’s belongings to an Iraqi Special Forces outpost in the Gogjali neighbourhood, on the eastern fringes of Mosul, after they fled their home earlier that morning.
UNHCR/Ivor Prickett

Iraq: Sustained funding ‘crucial’ as Mosul displacement grows, says UN refugee agency

18 November 2016
The United Nations refugee agency today stressed the crucial need for sustained funding to support humanitarian operations for the displaced from Mosul, a major Iraqi city where, for the past month, Government forces have been fighting to expel violent extremists.
UNICEF representative in Syria Hanaa Singer visits the Aleppo University Hospital.
UNICEF/Khuder Al-Issa

UN health agency denounces attacks on health facilities in Syria

17 November 2016
The United Nations World Health Organization (WHO) today condemned attacks on five Syrian hospitals – including two trauma centres and an emergency obstetric centre – as well as a mobile medical clinic, and demanded that all parties to the five-year conflict respect the neutrality of health workers, health facilities and medical supplies.
In Gogjali, on the eastern fringes of Mosul, a young girl stands by her family's belongings after fleeing the city earlier that morning. They are waiting for the Iraqi military to take them to a camp for internally displaced persons.
UNHCR/Ivor Prickett

One month into Mosul battle, UN and partners ‘profoundly concerned’ for civilian safety

17 November 2016
At the one-month mark of Iraqi military operations to oust terrorists from Mosul, the United Nations and its partners today said tens of thousands of families in newly retaken areas urgently requiring life-saving assistance and warned that the humanitarian community in Iraq faces a “massive scope” of need.
On 25 August 2016 UNRWA laid the cornerstone of what will become its largest logistics base in the Gaza Strip. A ceremony was held to mark the occasion at the construction site in Rafah, southern Gaza.
UNRWA

Ban welcomes Canada’s announcement of donation to UN Palestine refugee agency

16 November 2016
United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon today welcomed Canada’s announcement that it was resuming support to the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) by donating CDN $25 million for the agency’s essential health, education, relief and social services and humanitarian programmes that benefit 5.3 million Palestine refugees.
A young girl displaced due to on-going hostilities in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul.
UNICEF/Delil Soulaiman

UN relief agencies deploy emergency humanitarian aid and resources to conflict-torn Mosul

15 November 2016
A UNICEF-led multi-agency humanitarian convoy with emergency supplies for 15,000 children was the first to enter the Iraqi city of Mosul, while the International Organization for Migration (IOM) continues tracking displaced population movement and constructing emergency sites.