This is the News in Brief from the United Nations. 

Israel-Palestine crisis: UN welcomes first medical evacuations from Gaza

The UN health agency (WHO) welcomed Egypt’s decision on Wednesday to accept 81 injured and sick people from the Gaza Strip for treatment. 

The comments came amid reports that the Rafah passenger terminal between Egypt and Gaza was opened on Wednesday morning for the first time since the escalation, to allow the departure from the enclave of some needing critical care, as well as foreigners and dual nationals.

The agency said that it has been working to support the Egyptian authorities in “planning and establishing a comprehensive triage, stabilisation and medical evacuation system”, including training ambulance teams.

WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus warned on social platform X that “attention must not be diverted from the far greater needs of thousands of patients in Gaza” and reiterated calls for the protection of hospitals as well as an “immediate acceleration” in the flow of medical aid into the Strip.

According to WHO those in serious need in the enclave who require sustained access to health care include “thousands of seriously injured civilians (many of them children); more than 1,000 people who need kidney dialysis to stay alive; more than 2,000 patients on cancer therapy; 45,000 people with cardiovascular diseases and more than 60,000 people with diabetes”.

‘Possible starvation’ looms in the Occupied Palestinian Territory and 17 other ‘hunger hotspots’: WFP, FAO

Staying in the Occupied Palestinian Territory: the UN World Food Programme (WFP) and the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) have added Palestine to a list of countries and territories “at greatest risk of a serious deterioration in food security and possible starvation”. 

Burkina Faso, Mali, South Sudan and Sudan are also among the countries of highest concern. 

The UN agencies warned that conflict is a key driver of global hunger and that the trend of increased civilian targeting across different conflicts is expected to continue throughout 2023.

Food insecurity is also being compounded by cuts to food assistance in several hunger hotspots because of a lack of funding, WFP and FAO said. This has been the case in Afghanistan, where “a shocking 10 million people have been cut off from life‑saving assistance due to a massive funding shortfall”. 

If WFP and humanitarian actors do not receive the funding needed to address the crises at hand, “millions of people could be pushed further into hunger and to the brink of starvation”, said WFP’s Director of Emergencies Kyung-nan Park. 

Ms. Park stressed that the cost of inaction is “catastrophic” for the most vulnerable and called for critical investments to boost resilience “so that communities are better prepared for forthcoming climate, conflict, and economic shocks”.

Sport must be inclusive of LGBT and intersex persons: Rights experts

Countries must respect the right of all to participate in sports and enforce equal treatment of all athletes, especially all women and girls, LGBT and intersex persons. 

That’s the message from UN-appointed independent right experts, who said on Wednesday that “deep inequalities” continue to limit the access of these communities and populations to take part in organised sport.

The experts, who include Alexandra Xanthaki, the UN Special Rapporteur in the field of cultural rights, called bans on trans and intersex women in women’s sports a violation of human rights obligations under the principle of non-discrimination and of their right to privacy.

The experts regretted the recent instrumentalisation of this debate, leading to the adoption of restrictive measures in law and public policy by State institutions and sporting bodies. 

According to the experts, States and sports organisations must remain committed to fairness of competition by considering factors “that may impact participation of persons based on categories protected under international human rights law, including sex characteristics, sexual orientation and gender identity”. 

This includes the requirement to adopt human rights-based approaches in the evaluation of bids for countries that seek to hold major sports events, they said. 

Dominika Tomaszewska-Mortimer, UN News.