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Against the backdrop of last week’s ‘dangerous escalation’ in Gaza and Israel, the top United Nations political official told the Security Council today that this latest upsurge serves as yet another reminder that the international community must work together to resolve the Arab-Israeli conflict and restore prospects for a durable peace throughout the Middle East.

As the Syrian war enters a fourth year, the harrowing violence shows no signs of subsiding – the fighting has driven some nine million civilians from their homes and has reduced many of those who remain to scavenging – said the head of a United Nations-appointed human rights panel, denouncing the international community’s inaction in the pursuit of peace and accountability.

As the Security Council prepares to discuss the situation in South Sudan today in New York, the United Nations mission on the ground is reporting fighting between Government and opposition forces in the town of Malakal in Upper Nile state.

With about half of the health facilities in strife-torn Central African Republic (CAR) having been looted, the United Nations today appealed for immediate additional resources to scale up efforts to meet the country’s significant health needs.

United Nations officials have welcomed the recent announcement the United States plans to transition key oversight of domain names and other aspects of the Internet’s architecture to the global community, as a major step towards the multilateral Internet governance that the UN has been advocating for many years.

The United Nations agricultural agency today launched a new database which gathers under one roof previously scattered information about land cover – how much land is covered by croplands, trees, forests, or bare soils – crucial to establishing a good global understanding of the physical characteristics of the Earth’s surface.

Detailing a raft of “unspeakable atrocities” committed in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) “without parallel in the modern world,” the head of a United Nations-mandated probe into the human rights situation there called today on the international community to hold the country to account, including through referral to the International Criminal Court (ICC).

The United Nations Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS) says it is in the process of relocating civilians displaced amid the recent conflict to better shelter ahead of coming rains.

Leading the United Nations push for parties in Ukraine to resolve the country’s ongoing political crisis through peaceful dialogue, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon today said he is “deeply concerned and disappointed” that this weekend’s Crimea secession referendum will only exacerbate an “already complex and tense situation.”

In a personal appeal to the Afghan people less than three weeks before national elections, a senior United Nations envoy today urged all citizens of the nascent democracy to exercise their right to vote and not allow spoilers to deter the holding of peaceful and credible polls.