This is the News in Brief from the United Nations. 

Israel-Palestine crisis: UN humanitarians plead for ‘access, access, access’

A full month since the Gaza-Israel crisis erupted, UN humanitarians on Tuesday issued a heartfelt appeal for aid access to the enclave.

It’s been 31 days since Hamas militants killed 1,400 people in Israel and took over 240 hostage. In response, Israeli airstrikes have reportedly led to thousands of civilian deaths, while its full-scale offensive continues in Gaza.

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

“Access, access, access is necessary. The whole UN has the supplies outside of Gaza in the south, at the Rafah crossing. What we need now is the political will to at least grant a humanitarian pause and access to alleviate the suffering of the civilian population as well as the hostages in Gaza.”

In the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip which remains under near-complete blockade, the level of death and suffering is “hard to fathom”, Mr. Lindmeier said.

On average, 160 children are killed every day and the total death toll has passed 10,000, according to the Ministry of Health in Gaza, amid intensifying Israeli bombardments.

The UN agency for Palestine refugees (UNRWA) said that over two in three Gazans have been displaced in one month and face “inhumane living conditions”, struggling to find bread and water under the airstrikes.

In Israel, people are “frightened, traumatized and anguished for their loved ones”, according to the UN health agency, which repeated its call for Hamas to release the hostages, many of whom need urgent medical attention.

Sudan: World ‘scandalously silent’ on dire humanitarian crisis

In Sudan, a war which has transformed “peaceful homes into cemeteries” shows no sign of abating while the world turns a blind eye to the mass displacement, horrific suffering and growing humanitarian needs, the UN refugee agency (UNHCR) said on Tuesday. 

In White Nile state, UNHCR’s Dominique Hyde reported seeing hundreds of mounds of earth outside a displacement camp; these were shallow graves for children.

“Fighting is growing in scope and brutality, it’s affecting the people, and the world has remained scandalously silent, though what we’re seeing are violations of international humanitarian law which persist with impunity. It is shameful the atrocities committed 20 years ago in Darfur can still be happening again today with such little attention”.

Almost six million people have been forced from their homes, of whom more than a million have fled to desperately poor and fragile neighbouring countries like Chad and South Sudan. 

The UNHCR official called on donors not to forget Sudan and said that a $1 billion response plan to meet the humanitarian needs in all the neighbouring countries receiving Sudanese refugees remains only 39 per cent funded, while a separate appeal for the humanitarian needs inside Sudan has only received a third of the required funds.

More efforts needed to end TB: WHO

The head of the UN health agency WHO has called for scaled-up global efforts to curb tuberculosis, or TB, which remained the world’s second leading infectious killer in 2022, behind COVID-19.

“For millennia, our ancestors suffered and died with tuberculosis, without knowing what it was, what caused it, or how to stop it,” said WHO Director-General, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus on Tuesday.

He stressed that today’s medical tools and political commitment gave the world “the opportunity to write the final chapter in the story of TB”.

Some 7.5 million people were diagnosed with TB last year, the highest figure recorded since WHO began global monitoring almost three decades ago. 

The UN agency pointed to a significant worldwide recovery in TB diagnosis and treatment services in 2022 following COVID-19 disruptions. 

WHO stressed however that even more efforts are needed. While TB-related deaths fell by 19 per cent between 2015 and 2022, this remains far short of the global target of a 75 per cent reduction by 2025. TB also continues to be the leading killer among people with HIV.

Barely half of the 30 million people targeted for TB preventive treatment are able to access it, while one in every two undergoing treatment face “catastrophic” costs, including medical fees and income losses. 

Twice as much funding also needs to be mobilized for TB service delivery and research, WHO said.

World’s poorest nations need climate and development finance now: UNCTAD

The world risks failing the 880 million people from the Least Developed Countries if soaring debt and a chronic lack of international funds prevent them from getting ahead.

That’s the message from the UN’s trade and development body UNCTAD, which called on Tuesday for urgent reforms of the international financial system to support the world’s 46 Least Developed Countries.

In line with the Sustainable Development Goals, or SDGs, these most vulnerable economies urgently require foreign investment to add value to their economic output, avoid debt distress and finance a low-carbon transition.

UNCTAD Secretary-General Rebeca Grynspan stressed that the success of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development is “inextricably linked to the progress of these nations”. 

The UN agency says that achieving better social protection and decent jobs will require a cash injection equivalent to 45 per cent of each Least Developed Country’s total economic output. 

But multiple global crises have hampered growth and left the world’s most vulnerable countries with a debt burden which soared to $27 billion in 2021.

To help, UNCTAD economists called for urgent debt relief and a “substantial” increase in accessible development and climate finance for LDCs, including grants and low-cost loans.

Dominika Tomaszewska-Mortimer, UN News.