Middle East

UNHCR/I. Prickett

UN launches appeal for life-saving aid to millions of Syrians, support to host communities

18 December 2014
As Syria's war rages on into its fifth year, the needs for food, shelter and medicine are astronomical, several United Nations agencies said today as they launched a major appeal, requesting over $8.4 billion to help nearly 18 million people in Syria and throughout the region.
OCHA

UN strongly condemns deadly Yemen bomb attacks

17 December 2014
Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and the United Nations Security Council have strongly condemned the bomb attacks in Radaa in Yemen’s Al Bayda province yesterday, which killed more than 25 people, including at least 15 schoolchildren.
OCHA

Security Council renews cross-border aid delivery to Syria for a year

17 December 2014
The United Nations Security Council has today renewed for 12 months the use of routes across conflict lines and several border crossings in Syria so that humanitarian assistance can reach communities in need, as it expressed outrage at the escalating violence that has killed nearly 200,000 people.
UNHCR/P. Rubio Larrauri

‘A dark day in a bleak year for children’: UNICEF condemns attack on schoolchildren in Yemen

16 December 2014
The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) has deplored the killing of at least 15 school girls in a car bombing in Yemen adding to the grim toll of what it described as “a dark day in the closing weeks of a bleak year” for children around the world.
WFP/Sandy Maroun

Syria: UN food agency's operations secure after funding drive; must raise more in 2015

16 December 2014
Having raised $88 million in a 10-day global fundraising effort, the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) today said its funding for December 2014 was secure and the agency could resume providing food assistance through electronic vouchers to 1.7 million refugees in Lebanon, Jordan, Egypt and Turkey.
WFP (file)

‘Even in war there are rules’ – UN official urges Security Council to enforce protections of Syrian civilians

15 December 2014
Despite the United Nations Security Council’s best efforts to limit violence against non-combatants caught up in the ongoing Syrian conflict, civilians in the Middle Eastern country are being subjected to escalating levels of brutality as the war creeps into its fourth year, the top UN humanitarian official said today.
UNESCO/Danica Bijeljac

UNESCO chief condemns murder of Syrian television journalists

15 December 2014
The Director-General of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), Irina Bokova, today deplored the killing of three Syrian journalists, who were killed while reporting on fighting in the southern Syrian province of Deraa last week.
WFP/Sandy Maroun

Lebanon: UN deputy chief pledges to ‘help as much as possible’ with refugee impact

15 December 2014
With soaring numbers of refugees seeking asylum in Lebanon, United Nations Deputy Secretary-General Jan Eliasson today pledged to “help as much as possible” to ensure that the tragic conflict in Syria will not spread into Lebanese society.
Alaa Ghosheh/UNRWA Archives

Future of Israeli-Palestinian peace ‘more uncertain than ever,’ warns senior UN official

15 December 2014
The quest for peace between Israel and the Palestinians has reached a “dramatic” crossroads, United Nations Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process, Robert Serry, told the Security Council today in his briefing on the situation, warning that the region’s future remains “more uncertain than ever.”
UN Photo/Jean-Marc Ferré

Israel must curb ‘continuous stream’ of protest fatalities in Occupied Palestinian Territory – UN

12 December 2014
Reports of excessive use of force by Israeli security forces in the Occupied Palestinian Territory have risen sharply, said the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights as he urged Israel to take steps to halt this “continuous stream of fatal incidents” and to launch a quick and “utterly transparent” investigation into the matter.