This is the News in Brief from the United Nations. 

Gaza: start of truce feeds hopes for respite, access to people in need: UN humanitarians

Trucks with relief supplies continued to enter Gaza through the Rafah crossing from Egypt on Friday after the entry into force of a four-day pause in fighting, UN humanitarians said, amid reports of the first release of hostages held by Hamas since its terror attacks in Israel on 7 October.

Here’s UN humanitarian affairs coordination office (OCHA) spokesperson Jens Laerke addressing reporters in Geneva:

“We hope the agreement between Israel and Hamas now in force will bring respite to the people of Gaza and Israel and some relief to the hostages and detainees who will be released, and to their families.”

Mr. Laerke reiterated calls for access to all parts of the war-shattered enclave, including the north “where the damage and humanitarian needs are the greatest”, as the death toll in the Strip inched towards 15,000 and many displaced people were sleeping in the streets.

Thousands of Gazans are estimated to be trapped under the ruins of their houses and Mr. Laerke insisted on the need to get more fuel into the enclave to “operate machinery to get people out of the rubble”.

He also expressed hope that the pause in fighting will be extended into “an actual humanitarian ceasefire in the long run”.

From Antarctica, UN chief calls on leaders to stop ‘climate anarchy’ 

Antarctica has been called the sleeping giant, but it is now being awoken by climate chaos. 

That’s the message from UN chief António Guterres, who has been visiting the icy landmass this week and highlighting the disastrous effects of global warming.

“Fossil fuel pollution is heating our planet, unleashing climate anarchy in Antarctica,” he said, adding that the Southern Ocean has taken the majority of the heat from the rise in global temperatures.

UN weather agency WMO warned in October that Antarctic sea ice had been at record low levels for months, with direct impacts on ecosystems near and far.

Mr. Guterres’s visit came just days before the start next week of the COP28 climate conference in Dubai. He urged leaders who will participate to act now to limit global temperature rise to 1.5 degrees Celsius, protect people from climate chaos, and end the fossil fuel age. 

Eastern DRC: ‘Pattern of abuse’ of civilians amid massive displacement: UNHCR, UNICEF

In eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), those displaced by the fighting between Government forces and non-state armed groups live under the constant threat of violence and sexual assault as they try to survive, UN humanitarians said on Friday. 

The UN Refugee Agency, UNHCR, said that its staff on the ground heard from people who fled to Sake, a town 35 kilometres west of Goma, about the “harrowing choices” they have had to make, with “men risking death to feed starving children and women risking rape to collect firewood”.

Armed clashes have forcibly displaced more than 450,000 people in the last six weeks in North Kivu province, many living in overcrowded sites with limited access to food and clean water. 

UNHCR said that its monitoring in eastern DRC showed over 3,000 reported human rights violations in October, nearly double the figure from the previous month, which include rape and arbitrary killings, kidnappings and extortion.

Together with the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF), the agency sounded the alarm over this “pattern of abuse” of civilians and stressed that the crisis is exacerbated by the limited humanitarian access to those in dire need, primarily due to the obstruction of major routes. 

Some 200,000 internally displaced people have been cut off from essential humanitarian aid and an additional 100,000 could become stranded in the coming days, the UN agencies said.

Dominika Tomaszewska-Mortimer, UN News.