This is the News in Brief from the United Nations. 

Gaza: UN’s Türk urges political path out of ‘horror’ 

UN human rights chief Volker Türk on Thursday welcomed the Security Council call for pauses in the fighting in Gaza where “doctors operate on screaming children without anaesthetic, using mobile phones for light”.

The UN rights chief also appealed directly to the warring sides to lay down their weapons.

Here he is, speaking to journalists in Geneva: 

“There must also be a ceasefire based on humanitarian and human rights grounds. There needs to be an end to the fighting, not only to deliver the urgently needed basic necessities of life, electricity, water, fuel and so forth, but also to create the political space for a path out of this horror.”

The Security Council passed a resolution Wednesday urging the immediate release of all hostages held by Hamas and for extended humanitarian pauses and corridors throughout the enclave.

Mr. Türk stressed that attacks directed at “hospitals, schools, markets and bakeries” as well as collective punishment “in the case of Israel’s blockade and siege imposed on Gaza” are prohibited under international humanitarian law.

So too is “aiming indiscriminate projectiles into southern Israel” by Palestinian armed groups, hostage-taking and the “use of civilians to shield locations from military operations”. 

“I am on the side of every civilian, Palestinian or Israeli, who is harmed, or who lives in fear,” he said.

Ethiopia: Food distributions resume with new safeguards in place: WFP

In drought and conflict-affected Ethiopia, the UN World Food Programme (WFP) said on Thursday that it was restarting food assistance after a thorough review of its operations following reports of large-scale aid diversion earlier this year.

WFP food aid in the country, which was suspended in June, will aim to reach 3.2 million people after the relaunch.

WFP chief Cindy McCain said that the agency’s teams and partners “have been working around the clock to get to this point.” 

The UN agency’s new approach will rely on reinforced tracking to follow food movements from warehouses to beneficiaries and a system of community feedback to help report misuse.

WFP said that it had successfully tested the new systems in Ethiopia’s Tigray province and will now roll them out in Afar, Amhara and Somali regions. 

Last month, WFP resumed food assistance to nearly 900,000 refugees in camps across Ethiopia, including some 35,000 people who have fled the conflict in Sudan in recent months.

Climate action holds key to peace, says young Sudanese activist at the UN

Young people in the Arab world should keep up the fight for climate action - especially in the face of wars and violence raging in the region.

That’s the message from Nisreen Elsaim, a climate activist from Sudan who took the floor at the UN in Geneva on Thursday, having seen first-hand how climate change drives hunger, displacement and conflict. 

She told UN News about her advocacy for increased investment in renewable energy as a strategy for sustainability and peace, at a time of increased competition for natural resources.

She also highlighted the key role of youth in climate adaptation and preparedness and stressed that more scientific education is needed to help young people understand the issues and get involved.

Despite only being in her twenties, Nisreen has already gained experience in international advocacy as the Chair of the UN Secretary-General’s Youth Advisory Group on Climate Change.

She shared the stage at the UN in Geneva on Thursday as part of the “Young Activists Summit” with four other outstanding campaigners, from Burkina Faso, Colombia, India and Myanmar, working to build peace in the Sahel, protect the environment, end child marriage and realize the rights of the Rohingya people.

Dominika Tomaszewska-Mortimer, UN News.