This is the News in Brief from the United Nations. 

Israel-Palestine crisis: ‘It’s the innocent civilians who are losing’

More funding is urgently needed for lifesaving aid in Gaza while concern is deepening over the high number of civilians killed since the beginning of the crisis.

Here’s UN health agency (WHO) spokesperson Christian Lindmeier speaking to reporters in Geneva on Friday: 

“In Israel, 1,405 deaths so far. 70 per cent are women and children, In Gaza, 9,061 deaths, 70 per cent are women and children. These are the victims. It’s the innocent civilians that are losing here. Let’s think about the victims.”

“The situation has grown increasingly desperate” and the UN and partners will release an updated flash appeal for the Occupied Palestinian Territory on Monday, UN humanitarian affairs coordination office (OCHA) spokesperson Jens Laerke said.

An initial flash appeal for $294 million to support nearly 1.3 million people, launched on 12 October, will not be enough. Now, 2.7 million people – the entire population of Gaza and 500,000 people in the occupied West Bank – require assistance with food, water, healthcare, shelter, hygiene and the cost of meeting their needs is estimated to be $1.2 billion.

To be able to deliver the aid, Mr. Laerke reiterated the need for humanitarian pauses. He also highlighted the dire fuel shortage and the need for border crossings between Israel and Gaza, such as the Kerem Shalom crossing, to reopen.

No fuel has been allowed into Gaza since the start of the crisis and so far, aid has only been let in through the Rafah crossing with Egypt.

Sudan: women and girls abducted, held ‘in slave-like conditions’ in Darfur: OHCHR 

The UN human rights office (OHCHR) expressed alarm on Friday over reports that in Sudan, women and girls are being abducted, chained and held in “inhuman, degrading slave-like conditions” in areas controlled by the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) in Darfur.

The women and girls are allegedly being forcibly married and held for ransom. OHCHR quoted information from credible sources that more than 20 women and girls have been taken but said the number could well be higher.

The shocking reports come amid a rise in sexual violence in Sudan since fighting broke out between the Sudanese army and RSF on 15 April.

OHCHR said that its office in the country received reports of more than 50 incidents of sexual violence linked to the hostilities, including rape and gang rape, impacting at least 105 victims among whom 18 were children. 

More than two in three incidents “are attributed to men in RSF uniforms”, OHCHR said.

The UN rights office called for urgent release of the abducted women and girls and for perpetrators to be held accountable, while restating High Commissioner Volker Türk’s calls on military commanders on both sides and affiliated armed groups to enforce a policy of zero tolerance of sexual violence in their ranks. 

‘Our best bet for preventing the next pandemic’: New ‘One Health’ approach launched

UN health agency WHO called on world leaders on Friday to invest in a holistic approach to tackle major health threats including zoonotic diseases, focusing on the connections between the health of humans, animals, plants and the environment.

The “One Health” approach, as it’s known, “makes public health sense, economic sense and common sense”, said WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.

“It’s obvious that we can only protect and promote the health of humans by protecting and promoting the health of animals, and the planet on which all life depends,” he insisted. 

In support of the call, UN Environment Programme head Inger Andersen wrote on social platform X on Friday that “a unified One Health approach is our best bet for preventing the next pandemic and building a more resilient future for all”.

She highlighted that human activities and stressed ecosystems make it easier for diseases to emerge and spread.

WHO estimates that air pollution leads to seven million deaths and $3 trillion losses every year, while antimicrobial resistance leads to five million deaths every year, with losses of up to $100 trillion by 2050. 

WHO said that according to the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and the World Bank, One Health efforts “could bring at least $37 billion per year back to the global community” while investing in One Health requires less than 10 per cent of this amount.

Dominika Tomaszewska-Mortimer, UN News.