This is the News in Brief from the United Nations.

 UN chief, humanitarians concerned over Israeli military operation in Jenin

UN Secretary-General António Guterres has expressed deep concern about the developments in Jenin in the occupied West Bank, where Israeli airstrikes have hit a densely populated refugee camp. 

In a statement from his spokesperson on Monday, Mr. Guterres affirmed that all military operations must be conducted with full respect for international humanitarian law. 

The UN’s humanitarian affairs coordination office (OCHA) said on Tuesday that due to air and ground operations taking place in the West Bank town, 10 Palestinians including three children have been killed, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health.

OCHA warned that most of the Jenin camp has lost access to drinking water and electricity.

Meanwhile, the World Health Organization (WHO) said on Tuesday that the extent of people’s injuries was placing strain on the “fragile and underfunded” health system and that it was working with partners to deliver more life-saving medical supplies to Jenin Hospital.

WHO said ambulances with medical teams have been prevented from entering parts of the refugee camp and reaching those critically injured.

At least two hospitals have also been affected by attacks involving use of ammunition and gas canisters.

WHO called for “respect and protection of healthcare”, including safe passage to health services in Jenin and across Palestine.

El Niño onset likely to bring surging record temperatures

The El Niño weather pattern has developed in the Pacific Ocean for the first time in seven years, increasing the likelihood of more heat and new temperature records, the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) said on Tuesday.

WMO Secretary-General Professor Petteri Taalas said that Governments should step up efforts to limit the impacts of El Niño on human health, ecosystems and the economy

And he added that early warnings and anticipatory action of extreme weather events were “vital to save lives and livelihoods”.

Global temperatures are likely to surge as El Niño will add to man-made, greenhouse gas-induced atmosphere warming. According to WMO, there is a “high probability” that one of the next five years will be among the warmest on record.

The health impacts of El Niño are cause for concern for WHO, which said on Tuesday that increases in food insecurity and malnutrition among the most vulnerable, as well as outbreaks of waterborne diseases such as cholera and mosquito-borne diseases including malaria were to be expected.

WHO also warned against possible disruptions of national health services due to lack of water supply in drought situations or damage to health infrastructure by floods and cyclones.

Tajikistan: rights experts’ concern over sentencing, torture of human rights defenders

In Tajikistan, criminalizing the “legitimate” work of human rights defenders goes against international law, a group of UN-appointed independent human rights experts said on Tuesday.

The experts, including Mary Lawlor, the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights defenders, had raised with the Tajik Government the cases of eight journalists, bloggers, lawyers and civil society representatives allegedly sentenced to prison terms of up to 29 years in 2022.

They were all involved in defending human rights in the Gorno-Badakhshan Autonomous region and had been accused of extremism and terrorism-related offences.

The rights experts expressed “grave concern” about the apparent use of anti-terrorism legislation to silence criticism and said that fair trial standards had been violated. Several of the human rights defenders had been subjected to enforced disappearance and torture in detention, the experts said.

 They reported that they had contacted the Government of Tajikistan about the alleged violations.

Dominika Tomaszewska-Mortimer, UN News.